The Florida A&M 2024-2025 basketball season has come to a close for both the men and women in the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament. Not, however, without making history.
The men’s basketball team returned to the postseason for the first time since 2019 and secured their first-ever SWAC Tournament win against Prairie View A&M University, 75-66, in true battle fashion.
The Rattlers shot 80% from the free throw line, 45.5% from field goal range and 34.6% from beyond in the come-from-behind win. It was the first time the program has won a game in the SWAC tournament.
The victory led the team to play the number two-seeded Jackson State University in the quarterfinals, where the Rattlers struggled against a strong defense and ultimately fell 76-91.
The Tigers defense and strong rebounding force was led by none other than Shannon Grant, former FAMU basketball player. The Tigers came to Atlanta motivated to play FAMU, after the Rattlers won both matchups during the regular season.
The Rattlers struggled in the first half, but rallied back in the second. A key part of FAMU’s success this season and the 2025 SWAC Player of the Year, Sterling Young, was out with an injury during the tournament.
Although the Rattlers season ended in the second round, the first year coach, Patrick Crarey III and his team put the SWAC on alert that the men’s basketball program has arrived and is not backing down.
“Nobody believed in us, nobody thought that we would even be decent, nobody expected us to be here,” Crarey said. “I said in SWAC Media Day that we’d be here. People think Florida A&M is sweet, soft.. thats dead, those days are over. We will be back with a vengeance, better than we’ve ever been in the history of this school. That is our goal, that is our mission, and that is what we’ll do.”
The FAMU women’s basketball program battled in an overtime thriller against Mississippi Valley State University in the first round of the tournament but fell 68-67. This is the second consecutive year the Lady Rattlers have earned a spot in the SWAC tournament under second year head coach, Bridgette Gordon.
Graduate guard Cheyenne McEvans says she keeps her head high knowing the growth of the women’s program has transcended past basketball and into sisterhood.
“No matter how our season looked record wise or how it turned out, one thing we stayed consistent with was staying together and staying with each other,” McEvans said. “Successful season with things that are bigger than basketball.”
Throughout the SWAC season, the Rattlers achilles heel was the fourth quarter and finishing out games, with the Rattlers losing four of six close games. The same issue appeared again in the tournament.
Coach Gordon clued spoke on not being able to finish during the post game press conference when asked about her game plan to avoid getting out coached down the stretch.
“The game plan was always good, it’s just something about the fourth quarter that we haven’t had the solution now since Feb. 8th at Texas Southern,” Gordon said. “Started off second in the conference and spun from there.”
Both programs will use the off season to reload their rosters and get an early start on their plan for the season. A few star players from this season will graduate out of the program but here is an update due to the new JUCO/COVID rule from the NCAA:
Milton Matthews- working on another year
Sterling Young- transfer portal
Cheyenne McEvans- another year
Sabou Gueye- another year
Zikeyah Carter- another year