Morgan State Basketball: Coach Broadus quietly putting together a contender

Howard U’s recruiting run may have grabbed the headlines, but Morgan State Basketball’s Kevin Broadus and staff have quietly put together one of the most talented rosters in the MEAC via the transfer market.

Morgan State Basketball head coach Kevin Broadus came to Charm City with the goal of creating a contender for MEAC supremacy. Recruiting was his forte during his stint with the University Of Maryland on Mark Turgeon’s staff and it looks like he’s brought that golden touch with him this offseason.

Junior College players and transfers from other Mid-Major and some High Major programs have long been the mechanism by which most HBCU basketball squads have built their rosters. North Carolina Central, the current kings of the MEAC, have used this to great effect during their current run of form in the conference. Kevin Broadus has taken that strategy to heart with the additions made to the Bears roster in recent months.

Ironically, the first dominos to fall wasn’t transfers or JuCo players. 4-star PG Naseem Khalid and 3-star SG Will Thomas were the first to sign on the dotted line with the Morgan during the early recruiting window. Landing Khalid, in particular, was considered a coup, given the going premium on talented point guard play in the conference. That wasn’t the end of Morgan’s work on the trail, though:

Broadus and his staff harvested a bumper crop of power five talent on the transfer market, starting with Wake Forest transfer and former ACC starter in PG Sharone Wright Jr. Wright spent 21 games running the Demon Deacons attack during his freshman year in Winston Salem.

At 6-5 with a wingspan to match, he adds a level of athleticism to Morgan State’s guard rotation that will be hard to match within the boundaries of the conference. His addition definitely makes an already solid backcourt rotation even stronger.

Cincinnati’s Trevor Moore and former UNLV/Florida-Gulf Coast forward Troy Baxter Jr. also join this incoming class, again infusing an increased level of versatility and toughness to the Bear’s frontcourt. Former St. Joe’s guard and USF graduate transfer Troy Holston rounds out the class. The totality of the class coming in has an air of mental toughness about them, which bodes well for Broadus in terms of building an effective defensive squad.

The buzz around Morgan’s recruiting efforts is well deserved. The returning roster, however, has a LOT of bite to it with the likes of David Syfax Jr., Malik Miller, Victor Okafor, Lagio Graantsaan, Sherwin Devonish-Prince Jr., and a host of other upperclassmen returning for their Sophmore and Junior seasons. Last year’s squad went 15-16, but had a conference record of 9-7 and finished the regular season with a great deal of momentum going into the MEAC tournament.

This recruiting haul has made one thing an almost near certainty; The Bears will be extremely deep and extremely experienced, which could mean the difference between simply being competitive and challenging for the MEAC crown and an NCAA tournament bid.

With Howard, Norfolk State, and North Carolina Central all upgrading the overall talent level on their respective rosters, MSU needed to keep pace to contend. It looks like Kevin Broadus and staff have done that and then some.

One thing is for sure; The newer, slimmer MEAC is going to be one of the more entertaining and competitive conferences in Division 1 this coming season. Morgan State looks to be in the thick of that competitive chaos, pushing for a MEAC conference championship.