North Carolina A&T (19-16, 8-8 MEAC)
RPI: 219
Coach: Jerry Eaves, 10th season, 1st NCAA appearance
Last NCAA Tournament appearance: Lost in first round to Wake Forest (1995)
Notable wins: Eastern Kentucky
The Aggies primarily run their offense through guard Lamont Middleton and forward Adrian Powell, and it was Powell, a senior, who carried the team through to the MEAC tournament championship for the team to earn its first NCAA bid since 1995. With six 20-point games this season, including a pivotal 23-point, nine-rebound outing in the MEAC tourney semifinals, Powell leads the team in scoring and is top-three in rebounds, assists and steals.
The Aggies are not a strong rebounding team—grabbing just 66.9 percent of the available defensive rebounds—so forward Austin Witter, the team’s leading rebounder at 7.1 per game, will need to nix any extra possessions for the Flames. For an undersized team, the 6-foot-8 Witter will need to play a big role.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Aggies have a strong chance to win their first tournament appearance in two decades after drawing Liberty, another underwhelming 16-seed who got in by way of its conference tournament title. Liberty finished the season just 15-20 (No. 287 in RPI) despite playing nearly as soft of a schedule as North Carolina A&T—a program which is 0-9 all-time in the Big Dance. The Flames finished the season on a high note, but on paper this looks to be an offensively-challenged game.
... The leading scorer for the last opponent the Aggies faced in the NCAA Tournament? It was Randolph Childress of Wake Forest, the former high-scoring guard who went on to play two seasons in the NBA after averaging 20.1 points per game that season. Of course, that was no small feat for Childress … his All-American teammate, a guy named Tim Duncan, went on to become an all-time great NBA player.
