Bryant walks on to North Carolina A&T

Rha'Kwon Bryant, a two year letterwinner and graduate of the Class of 2014 announced on Tuesday morning that he has walked on to play basketball at Division I North Carolina A&T. During his senior year at Millbrook, Bryant received an athletic scholarship to play at Division II Lenior Rhyne where he ended up redshirting for his Freshman season.

Rha'Kwon's basketball journey over the last six years has been a roller coaster ride. During his sophomore year on the Junior Varsity team, Bryant posted a triple double, and was able to suit up for the Varsity team on December 20th at Heritage all before dislocating his shoulder which caused him to sit out the remainder of the season. Rha'Kwon played sparingly during his junior campaign on varsity as he earned his first letter. The 6'5 forward averaged 0.8 points per game and was a part of a team that won the 2012-13 Cap-8 Conference Championship.

He found a similar role for the Wildcats during the first half of his senior year. Through the first twelve games of the season, Bryant averaged 1.8 points per game and his career high 11 points vs. Laney on December 26th was the only contest in that span in which he registered more than 2 points. Over the course of the next five games, he would double that scoring output along with providing Millbrook wih much needed size on the court as he saw improved rebounding numbers. That improved play earned him his first career varsity start, on February 5th vs. Wake Forest, Bryant started at center for the Wildcats and had his coming out party. He capped off the first quarter with his first career dunk as he slammed home an alley oop from Josh Peacock. Bryant would then knock down a three pointer, down a free throw, and close out his night by cleaning the glass with a putback dunk on a Jordan Sterrett missed layup attempt in the fourth quarter. From there, Bryant would get the starting nod for the remainder of the regular season. He averaged 5 points and 5 rebounds in that span and helped the Wildcats close out the season with their third straight Cap-8 Conference Championship. Rha'Kwon would help lead the team to the final four in the playoffs before heading off to Lenoir Rhyne.

Bryant played in the Bears' season opening exhibition vs. Tennessee and registered two points vs. the Volunteers. He then redshirted his freshman season, but hit a crossroads between trying to earn a full scholarship or transfer to North Carolina A&T to focus on his education and try out for the team as a walk on.

Rha'Kwon chose the to move to Greensboro with hopes of lacing up for the Aggies, he said that reaching out to players and coaches on the team was the first thing that he did upon being accepted to the university, "I found out about tryouts for walk ons by reaching out to Denzel Keyes, a football and basketball player at the school who we played against at Millbrook when he was a Kinston. He helped point me in the right direction and from there it was just constantly reaching out to the coaches through email". Rha'Kwon then attended as many team functions as possible to watch workouts and practices before going and practicing them on his own. He then had the opportunity to participate in closed gym pick up sessions where he showed the coaches what he had. As the Aggies ventured into the fall and began their preparation for the 2015-16 season, Cy Alexander and his coaching staff offered Bryant a walk on spot to the team making Rha'Kwon the fourth active alum of the Millbrook Basketball program to play at the Division I level this season. Bryant says that even though many people have doubted him along his journey, he always knew that his hard work would pay off one day, "I went from not getting a start until the last month of my high school career to picking up a scholarship offer, I didn't even get to play my freshman year before choosing to transfer and at that time many people doubted that I would ever get a chance to play but my hardwork and all of the offseason training paid off. I am very fortunate that A&T liked my ability to rebound from the wing and I can't wait to continue my career as an Aggie."

North Carolina A&T is a member of the MEAC Conference and the Aggies are beginning their fourth season under Head Coach, Cy Alexander. Following a 9-22 year last season, A&T will play a very tough non-conference schedule before venturing into MEAC play. The Aggies will hit the road this fall to play Purdue, Florida, Buffalo, Virginia Tech, North Dakota State, Toledo, and East Carolina. For more information on NC A&T, follow them on Twitter at @ncatbasketball you can also stay up to date with Millbrook Basketball by following us on Twitter at @MillbrookMBB.