Alcorn State Braves

The Alcorn State Braves play out of the Davey L. Whitney Complex in tiny Lorman, Mississippi, but their basketball résumé punches well above their small-town size. Alcorn State holds the most SWAC regular-season titles of any program in conference history, a legacy built during a dominant early-1980s run many consider the greatest stretch in HBCU basketball history. The Braves' name is inseparable from that golden era of SWAC hoops. For a small rural campus, Alcorn State's basketball shadow is enormous.

Founded in 1871 as the first Black land-grant college in the United States, Alcorn State built a basketball dynasty under coach Davey Whitney, winning seven straight years of SWAC regular-season or tournament titles from 1979 to 1985, headlined by a perfect 27-0 season in 1979. The Braves lead the SWAC with 18 regular-season championships and have added six tournament titles along the way, including their most recent in 2002. That 1980s stretch of NCAA Tournament success remains a defining chapter in HBCU basketball history. Alcorn State's Whitney-era teams set the standard every SWAC program since has chased.