North Carolina A&T visits Iowa this Friday in a non-conference matchup from Iowa City. The Aggies defeated Edward Waters 100-61 in their season opener. The Hawkeyes defeated Bethune-Cookman 89-58 at home on Monday. NC A&T was 12-20 in 2021-22, including 3-13 in road games. Iowa was 26-10 overall and 15-3 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The game total is 150 points, and the spread favors the home team by 25.5 points.
North Carolina A&T is playing its first season in the Colonial Athletic Association after departing the Big South Conference. The Aggies, led by first-year head coach Phillip Shumpert, were picked 11th in the conference preseason poll.
“In the last three years, we have done nothing but move up each year when it comes to the level of play,” said Shumpert. “We have guys here who were recruited to play a particular style in the MEAC, and then guys who were recruited to play in the Big South and now the Colonial. The Colonial is a big step up for our guys. The good thing about it is we got a chance to play in the Big South to get a feel for the type of basketball we need to play. But even with that, the Colonial is a step up from the Big South. But at least we got a feel for the style of play.”
NC A&T returns its top-two scorers in junior Marcus Watson, who led the Aggies in points (12. 6) and rebounds (6.0), and senior guard Demetric Horton, who poured in 19 points in the season-opening win. Sophomore guard Kam Woods, a transfer from Troy, led the Aggies in scoring (22) against Edward Waters, shooting 8-for-14 from the field and 4-for-8 from three. Freshman Tyrese Elliot scored 11 points, and sophomore Love Bettis scored 10 for NC A&T. UC Irvine transfer Austin Johnson averaged 2.44 blocks per game last season, 23rd nationally. NC A&T averaged 67.7 points per game with a 42.4 field goal percentage in 2021-22 but allowed its opponents to score 70.3 points per contest.
The @ncatmbb conference opponents for their inaugural season in the @CAABasketball are here ??
Dates and times TBD. pic.twitter.com/z1y1ejeRXu
— N.C. A&T Athletics (@NCATAGGIES) July 22, 2022