The Promise

This Aggie basketball season is over and it put me in the mind of a song by jazz great John Coltrane: “The Promise”.

In that piece ‘Trane and his band mates play the "head" (or theme), and then ‘Trane lays back and lets the piano player (McCoy Tyner) take over for the first five plus minutes of the song. Eventually, he comes back in with power, heart and soul. He is playing the soprano sax now instead of his normal tenor sax.

The Aggie men started off the season with a big win at Norfolk State and the Aggie faithful were excited. But it seemed as the season wore on their shooting percentage suffered and the other teams were able to exploit A&T’s pressure defense and score.

The league appeared to like playing at a faster pace against A&T. Quicker shots, open looks, contested looks - it was all there for anyone who wanted some.

And at times it was an “outside in” approach instead of an “inside out” approach. High percentage shots rule down the stretch. It’s funny, but this Aggie team had talent and concerned every league foe that they faced.

They just could not complete or close out many of the games.

The good news is that they did show flashes of playing a complete game and some of the freshmen started or played all year. The bad news is that this should have been the year to make a deep run for a title. The balance was there … on paper. “The Promise”.

The Aggie women, like ‘Trane, laid back and exploded on teams in the post season.

Laid back is unfair because they got after it every night during league play. The faithful got spoiled after the women knocked down each challenge. Besides, they had Auburn in Corbett and played them tough. I don’t know if or when Tweet Cook and Lamona Smalley will make the Hall of Fame, but I do know that they gave us their all.

Now back to the spoiled vibe and explosion.

Everyone felt that the Lady Aggies would win the MEAC tournament title. They lost. The Aggie nation was hurt. Everybody wanted one more chance.

It showed everyone that they could be gotten!

Everybody else it seemed, was having fun while his or her teams still played in the tourney. Blue Death Valley regrouped, the Aggie Nation regrouped. The team regrouped, and went on a run that reminded me of that solo by ‘Trane in “The Promise”.

They all came back against Wake Forest and UNC- Charlotte, with power, heart, soul, and focus.

The Aggie Nation took over the gym. They did not come to watch, they came to push the team. I saw fans that normally just checked out the action, open up and get loud. And it became infectious.

The players that hit their first shots and the show was rolling. And just as the ‘Trane solo finally stops, the Lady Aggies could not beat the eventual WNIT finalist Miami. “The Promise.”

So, where are we?

We have an Aggie nation that has turned heads in North Carolina. This is old news to us, but it allows others to market to us or schedule to us and hence, we can wedge our influence.

We have to promise that we will turn it on again, and support it from the hip.

The A&T administration has to support the teams with needed staff and equipment. It must keep the promise with the fans. The work of Ten Web TV and the broadcasting of the men’s and women’s games has been great. Cast down your buckets again and make Corbett an truly unique experience. The Maniacs need to come back. Keep creating. The graduation of the players is a given and is going at a good clip.

The coaches and players must continue to get better. The league has a lot of young talent and is growing. The women are being gained upon and the men have to gain on Morgan. We have good recruiting classes coming in.

So here we are. What a great year to be an Aggie. And with “the promise” of next year looming, I can rest my pen for now.