As he heads into his first season as the North Carolina A&T men’s basketball coach, Cy Alexander will have staff that consists of one associate head coach and two assistant coaches.
Jay Joyner will step in as Alexander’s associate head coach. Darren "Mike" Corbett and Odell Witherspoon III will work under Alexander as his assistants.
Joyner spent the past three seasons as the head men’s basketball coach at Columbia State Community College, leading them to two Tennessee Community College Athletic Association regular-season titles and their first national tournament appearance in 34 years in 2012. He also served as an assistant coach at Cumberland University for a season, at Rutgers University for two seasons, as an assistant at Columbia State Community College from 2005-06, and at Tennessee State in 2003. He was a part of the S.C. State championship team under Alexander in 1995-96.
The Corbett name is synonymous with A&T men’s basketball. Corbett’s father is Don Corbett, the legendary men’s basketball coach who led A&T to seven straight NCAA Tournament appearances in the 80’s. Darren Corbett served as an assistant men’s basketball coach at A&T under former head coach Roy Thomas during the 1996-97 season. A&T advanced to the MEAC Tournament Championship game that season-their last trip to the title game. Corbett has been a fixture in the Guilford County high school basketball scene for more than 15 years.
He has taught and coached at Southern Guilford, Page and Grimsley High Schools. He spent the last 10 seasons as the head coach of the varsity boys basketball team at Grimsley, where he compiled a 130-118 record, and led the Whirlies to two regular-season conference championship titles, seven Class 4A playoff appearances and four sectional finals.
Corbett is also a descendant of Ellis F. Corbett, the former A&T public relations and alumni affairs director to whom the home facility of the A&T men’s basketball team (Ellis F. Corbett Sports Center) is named for.
Witherspoon comes to Greensboro after working as an assistant men’s basketball coach atOdell Witherspoon IIIGulf Coast Community College in Florida for three seasons. He helped lead the Commodores to a third-place finish in the Panhandle Conference in 2009-10, and helped send 13 sophomores to four-year institutions, including 11 to Division I programs. He also served as an assistant coach at The Patterson School.
Prior to his coaching career, Witherspoon worked in sports management, gaining critical experience in managing basketball clients while developing his recruiting skills. He worked for the McNeil Sports Group and Momentum Sports Group. Witherspoon will work with the Aggie post players.
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