College basketball doesn’t come with a rewind button, and North Carolina A&T is learning that the hard way. The Irvin Era set expectations, recruiting habits, and a belief system that said A&T basketball should be in the conversation every year. Irvin’s run matters here because it clarifies something people forget when they only talk about “the MEAC days.” North Carolina A&T didn’t stumble into being good. The MEAC breakaway, Division I ambition — and why North Carolina A&T stood alone for a whileWhen the MEAC formed in 1970, it wasn’t just about geography. North Carolina A&T was effectively North Carolina’s lone Division I HBCU for a long stretch.