When you think of the NCAA tournament’s most consistent programs as the event became popular in the ’80s North Carolina A&T should come to mind.
After an upset loss in the 1981 MEAC title game, the Aggies went on a streak that may never be matched or topped by anyone in any conference; seven consecutive conference tournament titles on their way to seven NCAA tournament appearances.
The story of the Aggies’ run of success starts with a coach who already had a successful career prior to settling in Greensboro.
Don Corbett comes to town
Don Corbett was no stranger to winning basketball when A&T hired him in 1979. Coaching at his Alma mater Lincoln (Mo)., Corbett led the Blue Tigers to three Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association championships and five NCAA Division II tournament appearances, including an Elite Eight appearance in 1978.
After going 8-19 in the 1979-80 season, the Aggies were prepared to make history the next year. Led by guard James “Doc” Anderson and young forwards Joe Binion, who went on to play in the NBA with the Portland Trailblazers, and James Horace, the Aggies won the MEAC regular season title with a 7-3 conference mark (and 21-8 overall).
A&T held off Bethune-Cookman 54-51 in the semifinals, then faced defending champion Howard, led by future Los Angeles Laker and NBA champion Larry Spriggs, James Ratiff and Bernard Perry.
The Bison’s championship experience was too much for the young Aggies to overcome as the frontcourt duo of Spriggs and Ratiff combined for 31 points and clutch free throws from Perry and backcourt mate Rodney Wright lifted Howard to a 66-63 win.
North Carolina A&T’s consolation prize was a trip to the NIT, where they played Duke tough in a 79-69 loss.
The Aggies begin their run
The 1981-82 season started off slow for the Aggies as a road trip through the SWAC and Tennessee State left them with a 1-4 record heading into a rematch with Howard to start MEAC play at Burr Gymnasium.
With the game tied at 36 midway through the second half, A&T pushed ahead for good with an 11-2 run to take a 53-48 victory from the Bison, setting the tone for what would be a special season.
North Carolina A&T won their second consecutive MEAC regular season title with a 10-2 mark and finished a perfect 9-0 at Corbett Sports Center.
The MEAC tournament, held at the old Winston-Salem War Memorial Coliseum, was A&T’s time to shine, although the lights were almost shut off by Florida A&M.
The Rattlers held A&T 23 points below their season average and trailed 45-43 with possession in the MEAC semifinals.
The Aggies defense forced a traveling violation and freshman Eric Boyd was fouled in the final seconds.
“Nervous,” was Boyd’s description heading to the free throw line in the Greensboro News & Record. Boyd swished the first free throw and “I knew we had it after that.” He made the second and A&T survived FAMU 47-45 for a rematch with Howard in the MEAC title game.
Boyd continued his hot play against the Bison with 16 points and six assists before fouling out with three minutes left; he would be named the tournament’s most outstanding player.
A&T built a 17-point lead and it was good enough to last as they earned their first trip to the NCAA tournament with a 79-67 win.
The Aggies’ first appearance in the Big Dance took place on the campus of Utah State University in the Spectrum. Their opponent was West Virginia, Eastern Athletic Association champions and the 9th-ranked team in the country.
The Mountaineers won convincingly 102-72, showing A&T what guard Doc Anderson called “the other side. We found what we’ve got to do to play teams like this outside of our conference.”
“They didn’t lose much off the bench,” Corbett said. “They just kept bringing people in and wore us down.”
Still, A&T’s first of seven straight MEAC titles was in the books. Their second would be among the hardest.
A&T repeats the hard way
After being rolled by eventual national champion North Carolina State to start the 1982-83 season, the Aggies won three of their next four games, including a 73-60 win over Howard at Corbett to start MEAC play, but they were stunned 68-67 by Delaware State, snapping their home win streak.
The Aggies (9-3) fell short of their third straight regular season title as Howard won the MEAC crown with an 11-1 mark.
And with an extra round to play in the MEAC tournament, A&T’s dynasty was already being challenged.
They survived two early challenges, defeating Bethune-Cookman 80-73 and Maryland Eastern Shore 81-74 in the quarters and semifinals before facing Howard once again in the championship game.
Joe Binion played to his 6-foot-8 height, scoring 22 points and grabbing 14 rebounds on his way to tournament MVP and conference player of the year honors.
The Aggies also weathered a nine-minute field goal drought to defeat the Bison 71-64 for their second trip to the NCAA tournament.
The tournament expanded to 52 teams and included a preliminary round, which North Carolina A&T found themselves in against Princeton.
The Ivy League champion Tigers were led that year by a 6-foot-6 forward from the Chicago area named Craig Robinson, better known today as Michelle Obama’s brother and President Barack Obama’s brother-in-law.
Playing at the historic Palestra in Philadelphia, A&T played a solid defensive game, but failed to bring their offense to the City of Brotherly Love.
“We just couldn’t put the ball in the basket,” Corbett said after the Aggies shot a woeful 19-of-70 from the field in falling to Princeton 53-41.
Even though NCAA tournament success was hard to come by, the MEAC was North Carolina A&T’s playground for much of the 80s. Every year between 1982 and 1988, they found a way to win the MEAC title, with the 1988 team likely being the best in school history.
Syracuse sweats it out
That Aggie team won 26 games and became the first MEAC men’s basketball team to run the table, going 16-0 in the regular season and defeating Howard and Florida A&M for their seventh straight MEAC tournament title.
The last NCAA tournament game of the Corbett era would take place an hour east at the Dean Smith Center on the campus of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Syracuse, NCAA runners’ up the previous year, featured future NBA standouts Derrick Coleman, Rony Seikaly and Sherman Douglas.
The heavily favored Orange didn’t know much about A&T, but they were about to find out about this group, led by the senior trio of Claude Williams, 5-foot-8 guard Thomas Griffis, and center Kenny Cox.
Griffis, even shorter than the 6-foot Douglas, drained a three-pointer with 6:29 left in the second half to tie the game at 50 and Syracuse was forced to take a timeout.
The Orange regrouped with a 15-0 run to take a 69-55 win, but as legendary coach Jim Boeheim said afterwards, “The game belonged to either team.”
Don Corbett would coach for another five years, winning one final MEAC regular season title in 1992 before retiring the following season.
His record at A&T reads as 254 wins, 145 losses, six MEAC regular season titles, seven tournament championships and NCAA appearances, and countless players and men he shepherded into adulthood.
As North Carolina A&T continues forward as one of the premier HBCUs in the country, Don Corbett and the Aggie men’s basketball team deserve a good portion of credit for that success.
For almost every March in the 80s, you could turn on the NCAA tournament and see A&T giving a higher-ranked, nationally-recognized team a battle and proving that HBCUs, at one time, could compete at a national level.
