MEAC Basketball: Cleo Hill Jr. looks to bring his winning pedigree to UMES

There aren't many names in the lexicon of HBCU Hoops that carry more weight than Cleo Hill. Cleo Hill Sr. was a basketball trailblazer; A legendary figure in both the historic and venerable Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association and the NBA. The father became a legendary player at Winston-Salem State University and ended up being the first player ever from an HBCU selected in the NBA draft in 1961, getting selected #8 in the first round by the then St. Louis Hawks.

His son, Cleo Hill Jr., has blazed his own path as a college basketball coach within the HBCU basketball landscape at his father’s Alma Mater Winston-Salem, at Cheney University, and at fellow HBCU and Division II/CIAA member school Shaw University, where he compiled a 116-67 overall record from 2008 to 2015.

Coach Hill’s accomplishments during that time included multiple CIAA conference championships and a number of Division II tourney appearances, with the most successful run coming in 2011-12. The Shaw Bears went undefeated in CIAA play that season and made a Sweet 16 run in the Division II NCAA Tourney. The success nabbed the program’s first-ever top 5 finish in the National Polls that season at #5, and garnered Coach Hill multiple individual awards, including CIAA Coach of the Year. The prior season saw Hill win the Clarence C.E. “Big House” Gaines NSAA/NCAA Division II Coach of the Year. Hill has also had assistant coaching stints at the Power 5 level (Nebraska) prior to his return to HBCU hoops.

What can we expect from Day One of Hill’s tenure at UMES?

Cleo Hill Jr’s predecessor, Jason Crafton, left a positive impression in his short tenure on Maryland’s eastern shore. During his time there the Hawks transformed into quite the defensive league powerhouse. Coach Hill’s Winston-Salem squads had a propensity for producing talented lead guards and cohesive offensive play in addition to being solid on the defensive end of the floor. He’ll look to re-imagine that identity into a program that, at times, was inconsistent when it mattered on the offensive end of the floor. If he can infuse that kind of balance into this year’s UMES squad, they’ll put an extremely competitive product on display for MEAC play.

What’s the ceiling for UMES Basketball this upcoming season?

As with most low-major programs at the D1 level, player attrition and the ability to compensate for it will go a long way to determining program successes in this day and age of college basketball. UMES’ season zero under Cleo Hill Jr. will be a testament to his ability to bring in talent and acclimate to the gauntlet that is life on the road in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

We’ll have a clearer picture of how that process will play out the closer we get to the beginning of the 2024-25 College Basketball season. Early returns from recruiting and the transfer portal point to a good deal of offensive talent coming into Princess Anne. How that talent translates to the complete basketball product for this season will be the ultimate measure of success for the UMES fan base.

In a low mid-major conference that’s made a name for itself with a corps of talented coaches and extremely tough and competitive conference play, new UMES Head Coach Cleo Hill Jr. brings a quality name and resume to add to that talented coaching fraternity. It’s gonna be extremely entertaining watching the new-look UMES Eagles navigate that ecosystem under Coach Hill’s watch.