Women's Basketball | 11/22/2022 11:38:00 PM
Box Score ORANGEBURG, S.C. – 11/22/22 will forever hold significance to Tarrell Robinson, his immediate family, his staff, his players, and his North Carolina A&T Aggies family.
In very familiar territory to any A&T Aggie, the Aggies women's basketball team defeated South Carolina State 68-49 Tuesday night at S-H-M Memorial Center.
The win marks Robinson's 192nd win as the head women's basketball coach at A&T. With that number, Robinson became the program's all-time winningest coach Tuesday night. He passed Tim Abney (1986-99) for the mark. Abney won three regular-season Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and a MEAC tournament title during his 13 seasons in Aggieland.
Robinson now stands alone as the standard for the A&T women's basketball program. No one in program history has won more games, more regular-season championships (4), made more postseason appearances (6), won more conference tournament championships (3) and had more 20-win seasons (5) as the head women's basketball coach at A&T than Robinson.
"I'm just ecstatic about the work that has gone on the last 10 years and the different coaches, players and administrators who have played a role," said Robinson. "Chancellor (Harold L. Martin) and (A&T Director of Athletics) Earl Hilton made the decision to make me the coach here, and now I feel like, hey, job well done."
But trace Robinson's footsteps, and it is easy to his journey, mostly an Aggie journey has been a little longer than 10 years. It is to see that the Divine Aggie Gods positioned him to stand among the Blue and Gold greats because when there is a great Aggie moment happening, Robinson is often present.
For starters, he is a North Carolina A&T Aggie, earning a psychology degree from the East Greensboro institution in 2001. He is a former men's basketball player whose 584 career rebounds rank him among the top-15 of all time in program history. He attended women's basketball games during the Abney era.
When the men's program earned its first and only Power Five win in history in 1999, Robinson was on the team. During the women's basketball program's resurgence under head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs, he worked as an assistant and later an associate head coach under Bibbs from 2005-09.
During that time, the Aggies won three regular-season championships, made two postseason appearances, including the NCAA tournament in 2009, and earned the 2009 MEAC tournament title. He left his alma mater for three seasons to become an assistant coach and later an associate head coach at VCU.
He returned to Aggieland in 2012 for his third stint with the program after serving as an assistant coach under Saudia Roundtree in the early 2000s. But this time, he returned as the head man to begin his historic journey.
When you look at who has impacted during his three stints with the program, it is a who's who in A&T women's basketball greatness. There is Shareka Glover, Amber Bland (A&T Sports Hall of Famer), Brittany Taylor-James (2008-09 MEAC player of the year), Ta'Wuana "Tweet" Cook (program's all-time assist leader), Jaleesa Sams, Eboni Ross (2012-13 MEAC rookie of the year), Deja Winters, Chanin Scott, Kala Green, Christina Carter, CC Foy, Aprill McRae (2016 MEAC tournament most outstanding player), Tracy King, and so many others.
That list makes it understandable why the Divine Aggie Gods created this moment for him. And yes, this moment deservedly belongs to him. But Robinson did not get this far on nostalgia.
"I'm not done," Robinson said. "I want to continue to win. I want to continue to win championships. I want to continue to pour into these young women who decided to be a part of this illustrious university and our women's basketball program."
Moving forward, it is about preparing his current group of Aggies for a grueling Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) schedule during the November-December non-conference slate. His 192nd victory means the Aggies improved to 3-1 on the season by winning their third straight before embarking on a Thanksgiving tournament at the University of Miami.
Give credit to the S.C. State Bulldogs, the Aggies long-time MEAC rival before A&T switched conferences in 2020. They did not make 192 a given.
SCSU led 17-13 after the first quarter, and when the teams entered the fourth quarter, the Aggies held on to a 49-42 lead. A big fourth-quarter run cruised Robinson into the history books. ESPN had junior Maleia Bracone leading the Aggies with 18 points on 7-for-14 shooting. Graduate center Jazmin Harris finished with 17 points and seven rebounds. Chaniya Clark came off the bench to score a career-high 11.
