The school that produced San Francisco Bay Area sports icon Al Attles pays a visit to the home of one of its all-time greats when North Carolina A&T takes on host Stanford in a nonconference contest Tuesday night.
A native of Newark, N.J., Attles was the first player in North Carolina A&T history to have his number retired after leading the Aggies to two Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association titles in his four-year career from 1957-60.
Attles was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors in the fifth round in 1960 and went on to have a 14-year career during which, he often fondly recalls, he combined with Wilt Chamberlain for 117 points in a win over the New York Knicks in Hershey, Pa., in March of 1962.
Attles contributed 17 to the 117-point, two-man total.
Now 85, Attles went on to coach the Golden State Warriors to the franchise’s first NBA championship on the West Coast 1975 and continues to be an ambassador for the team, which has added three more titles in the past seven years.
The Aggies (1-4) visited Stanford one time previously, resulting in a 76-59 loss in December of 2010. The schools met for a second time last season in North Carolina, with Stanford taking a 78-46 victory.
North Carolina A&T will be playing on the road for the fifth time in six games, having won its only home contest 77-69 over Greensboro College last Thursday. The Aggies have since lost 87-63 at Wake Forest on Saturday in a game in which their six reserves outscored their five starters 48-15.
Milton Matthews, who had totaled just three points in his team’s first four games, contributed 15 to the bench total against Wake Forest.
“I told him today I was going to give him a chance early,” Aggies coach Will Jones said of Matthews. “He can put the ball in the basket. He’s been shooting it well at practice, and we’ve been struggling with some of the starters making some shots, so I said, ‘Hey, let me give the young fella a chance,’ and he delivered.”
Stanford (3-2) had trouble putting the ball in the basket in the second half of its 86-48 loss at Baylor on Saturday. The Cardinal trailed just 34-28 at halftime before getting outscored 52-20 in the second half by the defending champions.
The Cardinal are hoping for a bounce-back performance from prize freshman Harrison Ingram, who was held to four points at Baylor.
“At this point I’d say there’s not enough data points to say there’s a trend that he’s started fast and going slow,” Stanford coach Jerod Haase said of Ingram after the loss. “I think he’s going to have a fantastic freshman year as a whole.”
–Field Level Media
