Saniyah King, the Mid-Jap Athletic Convention Rookie of the Yr, didn’t land at Mississippi State for the following chapter of her basketball profession as a result of a scarcity of success or a profitable pedigree. The ex-HBCU level guard averaged 11.5 factors, 3.1 rebounds, and a MEAC and Bison-best 4.5 assists per sport whereas beginning in 31 of 32 video games for Howard College final season. She additionally dished the second-most assists (145) amongst freshmen within the nation behind Florida Gators guard Liv McGill.
King desires to proceed her basketball evolution with goals of enjoying within the WNBA after faculty. With the departure of MSU’s guards Jerkaila Jordan and Eniya Russell to commencement, and Denim DeShields taking her abilities to Mississippi (Ole Miss). The Bulldogs wanted one other assortment of elite level guards. King is what Purcell wants whereas additionally believing the Bulldogs’ coach and his employees will assist her fulfill her hoops dream.
“My important aim [for entering the transfer portal] was improvement,” King advised HBCU Gameday. “I do know [Mississippi State] goes to assist me turn out to be one of the best model of myself.”
Issues will look extraordinarily completely different for King this fall. She spent her total life within the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area along with her mom, Stacey Pettiford. Nevertheless, Pettiford — an HBCU alum from Howard College — tried to get the 5’7” level guard to go away the DMV to discover her basketball goals elsewhere. “I needed her to go away,” Pettiford mentioned. “It’s a giant world on the market, and she or he’d skilled the DMV all of her life.” King wasn’t able to take her abilities from the large metropolis to a brand new hoops terrain. However now, as she transitions to Starkville, Mississippi, the sophomore flooring normal is able to embrace her subsequent chapter. One that can embrace some “peace and quiet.”
“I needed to sluggish my life down,” King mentioned. “I don’t know what life is like with out listening to trains, ambulances, and automobiles continuously passing by; I needed new surroundings. That helps me really feel at peace now.”
King’s alternative and dedication to ditch familiarity for the Magnolia State wouldn’t be attainable with out confidence in her dream, religion in God, and the teachings discovered at “The Mecca” of HBCU tradition.
How King’s work ethic steered her hoop dream
King, who at 10 years outdated didn’t have expertise hooping with an elite membership staff, strolled right into a DMV health club for a tryout with the Girl Prime AAU basketball staff, coached by then-Washington D.C. avenue hoops legend Lonnie Harrell. Tons of budding, younger feminine basketball gamers graced the court docket.
After a few drills and a few intense 5-on-5 motion, Harrell walked over to Pettiford and didn’t waste any time in his need for King to hitch the staff. “I keep in mind [her tryout] prefer it was yesterday,” Pettiford mentioned. “Harrell was like, ‘we’d like her’ and requested ‘how lengthy had she [Saniyah] been enjoying?’”
King’s genesis in basketball started with enjoying with boys on the park throughout recess in elementary college and working just a few homes down the road in her Bowie, Maryland, neighborhood to play pickup video games in the course of the week. “I didn’t suppose I used to be good,” King mentioned with fun. Her expertise reached new heights when she joined Girl Prime. That season, King and her teammates didn’t lose a sport.
As her expertise grew with Girl Prime, it later opened the door for achievement at Bishop Ireton. A personal Catholic highschool in Alexandria, Virginia. In addition to on the AAU circuit enjoying for Workforce Durant EYBL, named after 15-time NBA All-Star and DMV native Kevin Durant. Nevertheless, a “turning level” in her private improvement got here in the course of the peak of the coronavirus pandemic when she accomplished exercise periods thrice per day with Joshua Morgan-Inexperienced. The founding father of the Triple Risk coaching routine is predicated in Annapolis Junction, Maryland.
“I used to be most likely there from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” King mentioned. “Once I was youthful, I used to be at all times stronger and just a little sooner than my friends. That summer time, I actually obtained expert. My ball dealing with went to a distinct stage, I perfected my shot, and discovered easy methods to work. He [Green] modified my life.”
How HBCU ready King for the ‘actual world’
King, who entered Washington, D.C.-based HBCU Howard College after excelling within the classroom as an AP scholar and turning into one of many high 15 level guards in Virginia for assists per sport, holds an extended lineage of HBCU pleasure in her household. Pettiford, one among King’s 11 members of the family to attend Howard College, performed a key half in her daughter’s curiosity in attending Howard after a few years of taking King to basketball video games and occasions on the HBCU campus.
King, who had spent all of 18 years of her life residing along with her mother previous to attending HU, noticed Pettiford depart the DMV to maneuver to Atlanta throughout her freshman 12 months. “Once I was at residence along with her [Pettiford] on daily basis, I might spend most of my time in my room,” King mentioned with fun. “Seeing her depart helped me mature emotionally.”
With a 10-hour trek separating the 2, she started to understand the teachings Pettiford shared along with her about life, time administration, and avoiding worldly distractions in pursuit of her goals, each on and off the court docket.
Nevertheless, when she entered the gates of the famend Important Quadrangle, walked throughout The Yard or stepped inside Frederick Douglas Memorial Corridor and Burr Gymnasium for the primary time, she shortly came upon that Howard was the epitome of “Black excellence” but additionally a spot the place she needed to develop up and stability a myriad of priorities as a scholar athlete. “I underestimated faculty,” King mentioned. “Howard helped me come to that realization very quick. It wasn’t the traditional faculty expertise. … Howard actually prepares you for the actual world.”
Whereas pursuing a level in psychology, King navigated her approach as the one freshman on a veteran HBCU ladies’s basketball program — coached by Ty Grace — that featured a mixed dozen seniors and grad switch gamers, together with her buddy and teammate, Future Howell, the Bison’s main scorer in 2024.
“Saniyah is simply the participant you take pleasure in and need to play with,” Howell beforehand advised Howard Athletics guide Rob Knox in December. “The very first thing I observed about her is that she is just not scared of labor, she doesn’t duck no smoke. …She is an effective individual, making it simpler to be a great teammate.”
King shared related sentiments about Howell and in addition credited her management. “Future [Howell] at all times sat and watched sport movie with me and supplied encouraging phrases,” King mentioned. “She would inform me that I’m “HER” and to stroll prefer it.”
However with Pettiford away and a surplus of day by day faculty life distractions round her, it pressured King to search out herself whereas remaining targeted on her targets within the classroom in addition to turning into one of the best level guard on the hardwood. King leaned into her religion in God to navigate her challenges. Every day, she logged into Instagram, swiped to her bio part, and visited one among her highlights, named Each day Phrases of Encouragement (DWOE), which listed her favourite Bible verses and quotes. Certainly one of her go-to scriptures comes from Matthew 19:26, which reads, “Jesus checked out them and mentioned, ‘With man that is unimaginable, however with God all issues are attainable.’”
As her freshman season progressed, when she wasn’t at school, at apply, or lifting weights along with her teammates, she watched sermons and browse the Bible, drawing nearer to God when she was unable to attend Sunday companies at Kingdom Fellowship AME Church in Silver Springs, Maryland.
“I used to be in a spot the place I needed to discover and put God on the forefront of my life,” King mentioned. “His presence in my life strengthened my mindset and my imaginative and prescient to overcome my targets.”
As King embraced her stroll with God, she matured within the face of adversity.
King’s grit examined on the hardwood with premature harm
King, who turned a power for Howard in HBCU ladies’s basketball, captured Rookie of the Week honors 11 occasions. With three video games remaining in opposition to North Carolina Central, South Carolina State, and the defending MEAC champions Norfolk State, Howard sat in second place (17-9) within the MEAC standings.
The Bison entered their conflict with NCCU, winners of seven consecutive contests and 10 of their final 11 video games since league play started on Jan. 4. And for King, her focus remained on ending the season sturdy and getting one other likelihood to face the Spartans. Nevertheless, issues took a twist for the Bison level guard. King injured her left foot in Howard’s 74-51 victory in opposition to the Eagles, sidelining her for the ultimate video games of the common season.
She wasn’t a stranger to foot accidents. King struggled with bone bruises over time because of the absence of an arch in her ft. However with the MEAC match across the nook, her shot at serving to Howard dethrone the Spartans and securing an computerized bid within the ladies’s NCAA match remained in movement.
Nevertheless, with an harm comes a wave of feelings and bodily challenges. When she returned to the court docket for the league tourney — particularly in Howard’s matchup in opposition to Maryland Jap Shore within the MEAC semifinals — King didn’t really feel like herself on the court docket.
“I performed just a little scared,” King mentioned. “I wasn’t making an attempt to land a sure approach [on my foot] and I stored occupied with that. That’s not my normal mindset.”
HU’s win arrange the MEAC title in opposition to the Spartans and future 2025 WNBA signee Diamond Johnson, a participant whom King revered, studied, and watched from afar all through her faculty profession within the Huge Ten and HBCU hoops. However like the primary two contests, NSU defeated Howard 68-56, ending the Bison’s NCAA tourney hopes.
“This was imagined to be the time that I shined [on the court],” King mentioned. “It was nearly like they [Spartans] had each single play we tried to run rehearsed.”
Nonetheless, the Bison obtained an computerized qualifying bid to the Ladies’s Nationwide Invitational Event (WNIT), defeating Siena at residence within the first spherical earlier than shedding to Charleston within the second spherical. Regardless of the loss, King felt like she took a step ahead in her development after the harm. “My shot was falling, it was like I had woken again up,” she mentioned.
King invests in her future, household throughout offseason
As King transitions to Starkville, she’s embracing the development of her sport. Her day by day 7 a.m. exercises embrace weight lifting, watching movie, listening to basketball podcasts, in addition to bettering her method and really feel for studying ball screens, capturing offside steps, and elevating her capturing share from past the arc.
“I hate waking up early,” King mentioned. “However for the reason that season ended, I continued that behavior. … Dropping within the [MEAC] match and heading to a brand new college has impressed me to work even tougher this summer time. I need to enhance my imaginative and prescient to open up the ground extra for my teammates.”
King may have the chance to improve these expertise and extra as one of many Bulldogs’ flooring generals, along with pursuing a enterprise diploma at MSU. As she navigates her course of, King is catching up on household time along with her grandfather — who by no means missed her residence video games — and spending time along with her 4 little brothers all underneath the age of 12. She’s additionally happening nail appointments, together with brunch and dinner dates with Pettiford. And when the 2 aren’t tasting new meals at a restaurant, King is whipping up pleasant meals within the kitchen, that includes entries like entire fish, alfredo, roasted Branzino, together with an occasional candy potato casserole.
“She’s actually an entire chef,” Pettiford mentioned with fun. “Cooking within the kitchen and on the court docket.”
For King, Howard College and her time in HBCU basketball symbolized household on a number of fronts. Whereas she gained’t stroll throughout The Yard on daily basis this fall, she is going to take the reminiscences of her teammates and a stronger relationship with Pettiford to Mississippi for a brand new starting. “God gave me the older sisters I at all times needed however I by no means had when he introduced me to Howard,” King mentioned. I really like and can miss all of them.
