Howard University head basketball coach Kevin Nickelberry --
"I am not here to rebuild, I am here to renovate."
One of college basketball's most difficult rebuilding projects this offseason began with the new head coach making wholesale cosmetic changes, a first step toward refurbishing the perception of a program that has endured seven straight 20-loss seasons. "I'll show you all the stuff we just threw out of here," Nickelberry said. "We have someone coming to redo the floor, redo the walls, redo all of it. That's all part of the perception. I could talk, or come in here and do. I have to be the guy who is painting, I have to be the guy who is part of it. People around here need to see me knocking walls down."
Nickelberry's success with other reclamation projects -- most notably as an assistant at Holy Cross and Clemson, as a head coach at Hampton and with the Libya national team -- was a prime reason why the 45-year-old was tapped to return to his native city for what he has called a dream opportunity. But he is fully aware that he confronts his most daunting challenge as a head coach.
In addition to on-court struggles -- the Bison finished 7-25 last season -- Howard has been rendered irrelevant in the D.C. area. Nickelberry said there have also been concerns about the team's performance in the classroom, which he deems unacceptable at a school with an otherwise strong academic reputation.
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