For Howard, MEAC tournament title hopes rest on the play of standout Zennia Thomas

Two disappointments from the end of Zennia Thomas‘ junior year fueled the Howard star entering the 2025-26 basketball season.

Having ranked top 10 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in scoring and rebounding last year, the 6-foot-2 forward felt being named to the all-conference third team minimized her impact on the court. Then, in the MEAC women’s tournament championship game, the Bison lost to Norfolk State.

Thomas spent the offseason working on her technique in the post and becoming a more vocal leader for her team. That dedication has turned the Lyndhurst, Ohio, native into the MEAC’s top scorer and rebounder, powering the Bison (23-7, 13-1 MEAC) to a regular season conference title. On Tuesday night, Thomas was named the MEAC Player of the Year.

Howard, which hasn’t won a MEAC tournament championship since 2022, will lean on Thomas as the Bison begin their quest for a return to the NCAA tournament on Wednesday as the No. 1 seed in this year’s MEAC tournament.

“This is our lick back. We need to get that MEAC championship,” Thomas said. “I feel like every returner has shared the same feeling, and then we kind of pass it on to those who came in. … Everybody’s going to come for us and want to knock us off the top.”

She is grateful for how her senior season has turned out, particularly because she wasn’t sure not too long ago if she would ever play basketball again.

Thomas transferred from Kentucky to Howard in the summer of 2024, seeking a fresh start and the opportunity to play.

For Bison head coach Ty Grace and her staff, securing Thomas’ commitment was a recruiting coup long in the making. They had heavily pursued Thomas out of high school, and once she entered the transfer portal, they leveraged that existing relationship to bring her to the historically Black university.

“She stood out amongst the people that she was playing against, and she had versatility,” Grace said. “She could score inside and out. I mean, I saw the type of player that I like. If you watch us play, we have players that can do multiple things. … So obviously, that was just a no-brainer.”

However, a routine physical immediately derailed their plans.

Thomas’ first few weeks with Howard’s program were spent undergoing several medical tests before finally being diagnosed with a regurgitation of the right heart valve, a condition in which the valve does not close properly, causing blood to sometimes flow backward and put additional strain on the heart.

After undergoing a medical procedure to correct the issue, Thomas spent her early months at Howard recovering, hoping to return to full strength and play. Thomas leaned on her faith and her mother, Sheena Douglas, during her recovery.

“Being told I’m not going to be able to play, and then, like, going through all that, I feel like that was just a transitional period. I just found the best way to get through something is actually to go through it,” Thomas said. “I definitely dealt with my emotions. I gave myself time to cry and feel everything. I can feel this for a certain amount of time, and then I tell myself, like, ‘OK, you did that. Now you have to move on to the next step.’”

While recovering from the heart procedure, Thomas was eager to play with her new teammates, but due to physical limitations, she instead spent practices helping them from the sidelines.

“The bright side of me not being able to play was the fact that I could just focus on my relationships with them off the court. … Once I started playing again, I think we just built off what we had already had in the summer,” Thomas said.

When she was cleared to play in November 2024, just in time for Howard’s season opener, Thomas hadn’t played a game in more than a year; during her sophomore campaign at Kentucky, she appeared in only the season’s first seven games.

“I was just excited to be back, like, ready to prove myself, to showcase my talent,” Thomas said. “I didn’t really have that starting role at the beginning, which I wasn’t upset [about] because I’m playing. I was grateful for any minutes that I could get at that time. So [I was] coming in and proving that I deserve to be here with everybody else.”

Grace said Thomas is hard on herself.

“She doesn’t like to mess up, right?” Grace said. “She’s a little bit of a perfectionist, and she wants to do well, but she was just trying to learn and grow watching the game from behind the scenes. So she was really anxious to get to the court, and she just embraced that. When it was time, she was ready, and she was excited to get back on the court.”

Thomas started all but two games for Howard in her junior season, averaging 12.0 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. She scored a career-high 27 points to lead the Bison to last year’s MEAC tournament championship game, and she was the team’s leading scorer in the first WNIT victory in program history.

After teammates Destiny Howell and Saniyah King transferred to other programs ahead of the 2025-26 season, Grace told Thomas she would need to become one of the team’s primary scorers. Grace and the coaching staff implemented an offense to maximize Thomas’ skill set.

“My confidence definitely has gone up just because my coaches have been pouring into me, putting more trust into me [and] putting the ball in my hands,” Thomas said. “Just seeing, like, how much of an impact I have on the court — even if I don’t touch the ball, I’m still able to impact the game.”

Grace also wanted Thomas to become a vocal leader for the young roster, which boasts five freshmen.

That would require a new level of maturity from Thomas, whom coaches and teammates affectionately called the “Crashout Baby” because of her passionate outbursts and hatred of losing anything in a competitive setting. Grace challenged Thomas to be tougher mentally.

“If I fall apart, like, everybody else is going to fall apart, too,” Thomas said. “This year is so different, because I don’t be crashing out about certain stuff. I try to keep myself together because I know my team needs me, and I don’t want to put myself in a position to have to sit out or be kicked out of a game.”

Grace is seeing Thomas’ growth on the court in her second season with the Bison. She was instrumental in a Power 4 victory over Cincinnati in December, and in addition to being the conference’s most prolific scorer, she has also been its most efficient, shooting 44.9% from the field en route to 15.1 points per game. Her 7.9 rebounds per game also leads the league.

“She’s more patient. I think she rushed a lot last year because she was just anxious to get the ball and wanted to make an impact,” Grace said. “But I think this year she’s feeling the game, letting the game come to her. She’s reading mismatches and just understanding she’s the best forward on the floor — and sometimes the best player.”

Thomas has taken freshmen Dylan Watson and Penelope Swarn under her wing to help them adjust to the college game. According to associate head coach Brian Davis, Thomas doesn’t have to say much on the court; she leads by example.

“She’s always competing consistently in practice,” Davis said. “When the game comes along, she’s ready to go. So that makes all the players get ready to go. … She doesn’t want to look bad, so I think that kind of motivates her.”

Howard has finished in the top three in the MEAC standings and reached the conference tournament title game in each of the past five seasons, but the Bison have cut down the nets at Norfolk Scope Arena in Virginia just once during that stretch.

However, the coaching staff believes this year’s team could return to the NCAA tournament after falling a game short in three consecutive seasons.

“This group is different because they’re fresh,” Davis said. “None of them have won a championship. So you can kind of feel the hunger now. They’re kind of getting antsy. I think with that in mind, this is one of the most talented teams that we’ve had since we’ve been here.”

The Bison ended their regular season on an 11-game win streak, including two victories over three-time defending MEAC champion Norfolk State, bringing strong momentum with them to this week’s conference tournament.

“What’s really carrying us over is just the mentality of proving ourselves and not, like, letting anyone come in and think that it’s going to be an easy night or that they can play with Howard,” Thomas said. “We’re a different team. Our mindset is just a lot tougher. We want [a championship] back.”

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