Norfolk State University basketball tradition has been reborn
Regular season banners and nice dinners are cool. But with so many banners in Joseph Echols Hall, the ones that read “conference tournament” hit different.
It’s been that way since John Turpin led Norfolk State College, still a two-year school – to four EIAC regular season titles in the 1950s and 60s. It continued with Ernie Fears to two CIAA titles with a high-powered offense that routinely scored 100 points in a game. Bob Smith picked up two titles in a couple of years before Charles Christian took over the program and led it to seven CIAA titles in two stints from 1974 to 1990. Michael Bernard put up one last CIAA banner in 1996 before a 16-year drought in the transition to Division I tempered the Spartan tradition. Anthony Evans and his memorable 2012 squad broke the dry spell.
Two years later Jones was promoted from assistant to head coach. His teams have always been solid to really good in the regular season, but it took him seven seasons to win his first conference title. His teams went back-to-back in 2021 and 2002 and last season he was just a few minutes away from his third-consecutive MEAC crown.
This season makes the program’s third in a row with at least 20 wins, which is back to being the expectation amongst the Green-And-Gold faithful. The crowds at Echols are bold and borderline arrogant. The type of arrogance that comes along with feeling that winning is a basketball birthright.
No matter what the outcome of the tournament is, Jones cemented his place amongst the great coaches in one of HBCU basketball’s greatest traditions and one of the best coaches in the mid-major designation. He will likely be in the running for more high-profile Division I jobs once again this season after losing two-time MEAC Player of The Year Joe Bryant and two-time all-conference big man Kris Bankston.
MEAC Tournament starts a new season
While Jones has been there and done that – his current team is a different animal. This Norfolk State team is full of talented players, but ones that have never been a key part of a championship squad. While he was quick to point out that other MEAC teams like North Carolina Central and Howard were devoid of players with conference tournament experience, nerves will be a part of the equation.
“The first game is the biggest game,” Jones said. “Usually, if you get those nerves out the way the first game, after that, your adrenaline, your motivation is going. And like I told you guys, we had the biggest trap game in the tournament.”
Norfolk State University will head roughly eight minutes down the road to the venerable Scope to look to bring home its third MEAC Tournament title in three seasons this week. That quest will start on Wednesday night when it takes on Coppin State at 6 PM.
Coppin State comes into the game 2-28 overall under first-year coach Larry Stewart.
“We have to be mature enough to understand that don’t matter,” Jones said matter of factly. “Now, everybody’s 0-0 and that same 2-28 team, we only beat by two free throws at their place and ten points here. So it’s not like we blew them out of the water.”
Winning the MEAC Tournament title matters all the more now that being regular season champion no longer means getting an automatic bid to the NIT should NSU get knocked out early. Jones made it clear he is not looking past CSU and he hopes his team won’t either.
“We got to figure out how to get to Friday night. We have to figure out how to get past Coppin State,”Jones reiterated after the game. “And I know people might think it’s crazy when they see this video like what are you talking about coach, but it’s the truth. Everybody is 0-0 in that tournament. You have to figure out how to get past Coppin State to be able to talk about a championship at a later date.”