SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The 2020-21 women's basketball season would be a difficult one for head coach Tarrell Robinson as North Carolina A&T lost six seniors from the 2019-20 team. Nine new players had to fill the void for all of that experience.
The Aggies entered the season with the sixth youngest team in the country with an average of 19.5-years. However, the Aggies are the only team in the top-14 youngest team to make the Women's NCAA tournament, making N.C. A&T the youngest team in the field.
Despite their youth, the Aggies had some talented players include transfers Deja White (Seton Hall), Jayla Jones-Pack (Seton Hall) and Chanin Scott (Georgia Tech).
"The cream always rises to the top, and a lot of times, experience always shows up at the end," said Robinson. "If you think about it, Deja wasn't a starter early. Jayla was a back-and-forth starter. Chanin was one of our most consistent starters.
They've grown. They've become the leaders. They were the ones that got it done for us in the tournament. So, I would say, in terms of growth and owning their season; they've done a great job."
A&T needed veteran leadership to deal with one of the most difficult seasons in NCAA history for all sports as the world deals with a global pandemic. The Aggies women's basketball team had its own battles with COVID. Numerous starts and stops during preseason practice hampered the ladies. Their preseason WNIT appearance got canceled before several of their games in November and December were also axed.
"It was difficult early, but it wasn't difficult when we got rolling," Robinson said. "That first month and half that we missed before UNCG (first game of the season), we probably practiced a week, a week and a half before we played them. We looked at the turnout as scoring 40-some points in that game to 80-some points in Elon in the next game. Every practice, every opportunity to get better, we improved as a team. We're in shape now. That's not a question. Early it was difficult."
Despite a young team and COVID, the Aggies won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) championship and received a bid into the NCAA Tournament as a 16th-seed. N.C. A&T faces the top-seed of the Mercado Region and the No. 3 team in the nation in N.C. State Sunday at 4 p.m. ET in San Marcos, Texas, on the campus of Texas State University.
After losing to UNC Greensboro on Dec. 14 at UNCG, the Aggies won 10 consecutive games that started with an 80-64 win over Elon a week later. A&T did not lose again until a 65-54 defeat at Norfolk State on Feb. 21. A&T finished the regular season with two 25-plus point wins over rival North Carolina Central as they captured the No. 1 seed out of the MEAC south heading into the 2021 MEAC tournament.
The Aggies won their 10th regular-season title in school history and their fourth under Robinson.
The Aggies defeated Morgan State 69-54 in the MEAC tournament semifinals to advance to face Howard, the No. 1 seed out of the MEAC north, in the championship game. In the final seconds of the championship game, Winters hit two clutch 3-pointers in the final minute of the game, including a corner three with three seconds remaining in the game to give the Aggies a 59-57 win.
The Aggies will be making their 11th postseason appearance, their third WNCAA tournament appearance in six years, and their fifth overall WNCAA tournament appearance in school history.
"I really like our seniors," said Robinson about the 2020-21 team. "I like what they bring to the table. Deja obviously a big shot maker and taker. Jayla showed that she could be a dominant presence inside, and Chanin she picks up all the pieces with her hustle."
Robinson's underclassmen have not been bad either. He praises junior Jasmen Walton as his leader on the floor, and she has become one of his primary ball handlers. Freshmen Sean Kelly Darks and D'Mya Tucker were both on the MEAC's All-Rookie team, and Darks earned third-team all-conference honors.
Junior guard Kennedy Boyd gives the Aggies energy off the bench at point guard.
Robinson does not think his team played well in the MEAC title game, so to be at the tournament with such a young team is a blessing to him.
"They had to get that second wind," Robinson said on the first day of practice in San Antonio. "It started kind of slow in a lot of our warm-up drills and full-court drills. As we continued to get through practice, they started to pick it up a little bit. I was impressed, to be honest. They showed some resolve. They showed some focus. They showed an understanding of what we're here for. Day one is good from my standpoint."
NCSU is familiar to the Aggies after an 80-44 loss to the Wolfpack last season's opener in Raleigh, N.C.
"They have a different point guard, but they are both similar in terms of what they do for the program," Robinson about the Pack. "This year, we've gotten games in. We've got a better continuity as a team. I think this year, we should have a better performance."
COVID also makes this game different from last season's. There were times this season where the Aggies only had four players in practice. Therefore, players were able to get extra attention which helped the Aggies grow. It allowed the Aggies to improve their depth.
"This year, to set the tone if people weren't doing what they were supposed to do, I replaced them," said Robinson. "I think that improved our depth and improved our players' confidence and continuity as a team and our togetherness."
Despite all of the Aggies youth and all of the troubles COVID causes, there is still one consistent part of the Aggies women's basketball that will never change under Robinson.
DEFENSE.
The Aggies rank third in the country in field goal percentage defense and ninth in scoring defense. In the 266 games Robinson has coached at A&T, the Aggies have held opponents to under 59 points scoring 172 times. N.C. A&T is the only team in the country and the tournament to rank in the top-10 in all seven defensive categories.
"It's what we proud ourselves in," Robinson. "I told them, we're such a young team, we don't know all of our offensive sets.
You take away one option; you don't know the second option. The easiest way for us to score was to turn people over. Chanin likes to get out in transition. Deja likes to run and spot up. Sean Kelly likes to push the ball and create. So does D'Mya Tucker and Jasmen Walton. Our identity is what it is, we defend and turn people over, and we score off transition."
