Marquise Kately came east to start over a year ago, trading the University of California and college basketball's big time for Morgan State and college basketball's hinterland.
To Kately, it didn't matter that the Bears haven't had a winning season since 1989, haven't won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference since 1977 and have never played in the NCAA Division I tournament.
"I already know all that," he said, brushing aside Morgan's dismal past. "We're trying to make history now."
As much as anything, Kately came east to play for Todd Bozeman, a former Cal coach who was starting over himself in Baltimore in 2006 after recruiting sanctions kept him out of the NCAA for 10 long years.
That's what brought Jerrell Green back to Baltimore from a community college in Kansas and got Boubacar Coly here after two star-crossed seasons at Xavier. All three players arrived in 2006.
"Most kids pick schools based on the coaches, regardless of what people might think," Bozeman said. "It's about whether the coach can help prepare you for the next level, if you have aspirations to go to the next level."
Bozeman's resume dazzles in that regard. Among the players he sent into the NBA are Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray. Cal's landmark upset of Duke in the 1993 NCAA tournament doesn't look bad, either.
Green, a point guard, understood all that when the former Southern High star returned to Baltimore last year from Seward County (Kan.) Community College.
"[Bozeman] called when he was getting the job, and people told me he had coached Jason Kidd, that he's a good coach," Green said. "No matter what else, he gets players around you. So I thought if I go home, I might have a chance to do special things."
Indeed, the Bears are poised to do special things this season. Bozeman's recruiting record as well as his coaching record at Cal (63-35) have given rise to heightened expectations at Morgan.
In his first season in Baltimore, Bozeman delivered culture shock to the Bears. They responded with a 13-18 record, but finished strong - third place in the MEAC's regular season, reaching the conference tournament semifinals.
"The major thing was changing the culture and the mentality," he said. "I think we did a lot of work toward that. We are light-years ahead of where we were last year."
