Tagged: North Carolina A&T University

North Carolina A&T has its first ever NCAA Tournament victory.  The Aggies narrowly defeated Liberty University, 73-72, last night to advance.  A last-second shot by Liberty missed as time expired to preserve the A&T win. 

Before last night, the Aggies had never won in nine trips to the tournament.  Head coach Cy Alexander said his team didn't fold under pressure.

"I thought our young men showed a lot of resilience because Liberty didn't back down and we would go up a little bit and they would keep coming back," Alexander said.

NC A&T will tip it off against Liberty tonight in Dayton, OH as part of the First Four. The Aggies surprised everyone last week when they seized the MEAC championship in a 57-54 win against Morgan state.

Last year Norfolk State represented the MEAC in the NCAA Tournament. As a 15-seed the Spartans defeated 2-seed, Missouri, 86-84. It is one of only six upsets where a 15-seed knocked off a 2-seed. With a victory tonight, North Carolina A&T would meet 1-seed Louisville on Thursday. A 16-seed has never beaten a one-seed.

Five North Carolina teams made the NCAA men's basketball tournament, including the ACC's Big Three in the Triangle. 

Duke is a number 2 seed in the Midwest region and faces Albany Friday afternoon.

"We're excited with the position we're in," forward Ryan Kelly tells GoDuke.com.

"We've got some time to prepare and every team we face from this point on is capable of being us and we're certainly capable of beating them.  That's how we have to approach it.  A loss is the end of your season, so we just have to keep winning."

Four civil rights pioneers will be honored Friday in Greensboro on the 53rd anniversary of their famous sit-in. North Carolina State University A&T Freshman Joe McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain and David Richmond sat down at an all-white Woolworth’s lunch sparking a significant movement in the Jim Crow South. The four men asked to be served and were denied, but sat peacefully until Woolworth’s decided to close.  Within a week hundreds of people were taking part in sit-ins in Greensboro. The movements spread to nearby North Carolina cities and then other states.

Issac-Davy Aronson: LaMonte Armstrong walked out of a Greensboro Courthouse a few weeks ago. The 62-year-old grandfather, graduate of North Carolina A&T and longtime basketball coach was free. Convicted of murder in 1995 and sentenced to life, Armstrong has always maintained his innocence. A local law clinic intervened, evidence raising significant doubts was revealed, and ultimately a judge overturned the conviction.

A two-day conference getting underway at North Carolina A&T State University will weigh how certain events affect the African-American psyche.

Jeff Tiberii: The Dialogue On Progressive Enlightenment Conference, or DOPE, will focus on higher education. The conference began three years ago as an outlet for social concerns within the African-American community. Brian Sims is an Assistant professor of Psychology at North Carolina A&T. He described the conference on the State of Things.