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GREENSBORO — If you were at the Corbett Center late Thursday night, and you didn't have fun at N.C. A&T's first Midnight Madness basketball event, this much is certain:

You weren't paying attention.

College basketball practices can't officially start until 12:01 a.m. Saturday, but a late-arriving crowd helped the A&T men's and women's teams get a head start on the rest of the country with a party for the Aggies players.

They didn't disappoint. Senior Tweet Cook and freshman Amber Calvin shot 3-pointers like free throws for the women's team. Sophomore guard Nic Simpson narrowly edged Cook in the men-versus-women shooting contest, and 6-foot-5 freshman Lawrence Smith won the dunk contest.

"We're just here to get interest stirred up," A&T athletics director Wheeler Brown said. "We would've had it tomorrow like everybody else, but that's the start of our fall break and the students are heading out of here. We wanted them here."

About 500 students and alumni were in the seats for the start of the carnival at 9 p.m., catching the dance contest and performances by the cheerleaders and pep band.

By the time the players were introduced at 9:45, the crowd had swelled to close to 1,000.

"I think this is a tremendous thing," A&T men's coach Jerry Eaves said. "We've always watched the Carolina and Kentucky teams do their midnight things, and we've just never had the opportunity before."

Eaves and women's coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs spoke briefly to the crowd, then left the benches per NCAA rules, clearing the way for their players to show off 3-point shooting, ball-handling skills and dunks.

"Our women are coming off an NCAA tournament appearance, and our men we expect to be very, very good this year," Brown said. "So we want to capitalize on that early interest and get our people involved and lift the profile of Aggie basketball. Let's run with it and see where it goes from here."

Both coaches believe they could go far.

"If this group of ladies handle their business," Cage-Bibbs said, "they will be No. 1 again."

The Lady Aggies have won back-to-back MEAC regular-season championships, and won the conference tournament last season.

And the men? Led by four seniors — including Greensboro natives Robert Johnson (Dudley) and Tavarus Alston (Smith) — Eaves said the Aggies could easily improve on last year's 16-16 record.

Eaves said this year's five-man freshman class is "the best I've ever had, and I've had some good ones," and he expects big things from his 6-9 junior center.

"Thomas Coleman has got the weight of the world on his shoulders," Eaves said. "I expect a lot of him, and he's going to have to deliver. He's a tremendous player with tremendous talent, and he's going to have to push himself every second on the floor."

But as midnight approached Thursday night, the only thing being pushed was fun.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com