Kenny Blakeney (born November 29, 1971)
Current position: Head men’s basketball coach
Current team: Howard Bison
Current conference: Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC)
Howard record: 42-59 (.416)
Overall record: 42-59 (.416)
Career Accomplishments:
- NCAA National Championships: 0
- NCAA Tournament Appearances: 1 (2023)
- NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen: 0
- NIT Championships: 0
- NIT Appearances: 0
- MEAC Regular Season Champion: 1 (2023)
- MEAC Tournament Champion: 1 (2023)
Awards:
- John McLendon Award: 1 (2023)
- MEAC Coach of the Year: 1 (2023)
Coaching Career (head coach, unless noted):
2019-present | Howard |
2018-2019 | Columbia (asst) |
2008-2012 | Harvard (asst) |
2007-2008 | Marshall (asst) |
2002-2006 | Delaware (asst) |
2001-2002 | St. Bonaventure (asst) |
1997-2000 | Delaware (asst) |
1996-1997 | La Salle (asst) |
1995-1996 | James Madison (asst) |
Kenny Blakeney Facts
- Kenneth L. Blakeney
- Born November 29, 1971
- Hometown: Washington, DC
- Alma Mater: Duke University (BA, 1995)
- The DC-native played at Dematha Catholic HS for Hall of Fame head coach Morgan Wootten
- Went on to play at Duke under another Hall of Fame coach, Mike Krzyzewski
- Was a part of the Blue Devils teams that won the back-to-back NCAA titles (1991-92) and finished runner-up in 1993
- Started his coaching career in 1996, spending one year on Lefty Driesell‘s staff at James Madison
- Moved on to La Salle, where he assisted Speedy Morris, then to Delaware, spending three seasons under head coach Mike Brey
- Spent one season on Jan van Breda Kolff‘s staff at St. Bonaventure before returning to Delaware to assist new head coach David Henderson; named the lead assistant for the 2005-06 season
- Was out of coaching for a year and then spent one season at Marshall under head coach Donnie Jones
- Joined the staff of fellow Duke alum Tommy Amaker at Harvard in 2008, coaching the Crimson for four seasons
- Was a part of the 2010-11 squad that won the first Ivy League title in program history
- Also part of the 2011-12 team that reached the NCAA Tournament, the program’s second ever and first since 1946
- Stepped away from coaching to move to NYC and start a family, staying away from the game until 2018
- Co-founded World One Sports Academy, a player development organization
- Spent some of that time working in marketing for Under Armour and was reacquainted with the basketball world
- Joined Jim Engles‘ staff at Columbia in 2018, originally as a volunteer but was moved up to paid assistant before the season
- Hired in May 2019 to be the head coach at Howard in his hometown of Washington DC; went just 4-29 in his first season
- Landed Top 20 recruit Makur Maker, the first five-star basketball recruit to ever commit to an HBCU
- Unfortunately, Maker’s season (and tenure at Howard) lasted just two games due to injury
- His 2022-23 Bison team won an outright MEAC regular season title and he was named MEAC COY; the Bison went on to win the MEAC Tournament and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1992
- Was given the John McLendon Award in 2023 recognizing him as the top coach across all levels of men’s college basketball
- Along with his wife, has one daughter
Kenny Blakeney Coaching Tree
- coming soon