Subscribe
Follow Us
After jumping around from the MEAC and Big South, North Carolina A&T's men's basketball team kicked off the beginning of its CAA membership with media day. Head coach Monte Ross revealed his expectations for the team in the new conference.
The Aggies are basically completely revamping the men's basketball program. They are starting the season in a new conference, along with a new head coach, and an almost entirely new roster.
Ross, however, is familiar with the CAA, which may give the Aggies an advantage as they sort through the season. Before A&T, he was a coach for 10 years at Delaware. The Delaware Blue Hens enjoyed much success under Ross' tenure.
“[At Delaware] we had the best record in the conference the last five years total,” Ross said. “That's what we're going to try to do here at North Carolina A&T. It's not going to be something that's done overnight, and it's not going to be easy, but its going to be something that we are really headstrong that we get done.”
Adding to the list of new beginnings is the Aggies' roster itself. There are only three returning players to the program after they went 13-19 last season in the Big South. In year's past, a roster turnover that big would have meant heavy recruitment for incoming freshman.
Now, coaches look to the transfer portal. Ross is still getting used to the assembly of new players.
“We started in April, when we got hired… What's today, Oct. 19? I still need a roster in my hand during practice with numbers on it so I can know who these guys are… I don't call them by their names, I call them by numbers. I'll say, ‘Hey 23, you've got to make sure you're getting a box out right there.'”
Ross defined both this new transfer portal era and the Aggies' upcoming season as a “crapshoot.” With so many new faces and factors, it's basically impossible to predict where North Carolina A&T will place in the CAA standings. The coaches poll had them at the bottom, but the men's team could turn heads like the women's team did last season.
Ross, however, was not as optimistic. In fact, he was rather candid in his expectations, or lack thereof, for the team.
“Who knows where we're going to be,” he asked. “I know what we have to do on a daily basis to put ourselves in position to be good. That's the beauty of the experience of being a head coach before. You learn what's important to winning, you learn what's important to success. Does that mean you're going to be able to attain that in the time frame that you want to? No, not always, and for us, probably not right now.”
The Aggies tip off their first game of the season on Nov. 6 against the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh.
