NSU’s Jones seeks 200th career win
Road game vs. Howard will be a rematch of the MEAC title game
Coach Robert Jones and the Norfolk State men’s basketball team are traveling to the nation’s capital to face last year’s MEAC champion — and this year’s predicted winner — in Howard at 4 p.m. Saturday.
The matchup marks the Spartans’ third MEAC game, all of which have come on the road. A victory would give Norfolk State a two-game win streak, something it’s failed to do since it strung three straight wins together over William & Mary, VCU and Illinois State.
While some of the attention surrounding this game likely will be on the matchup between two heavyweights in the conference, a historic mark is also on the line for Jones.
Going for No. 200
Jones holds a 199-145 overall record as a head coach, meaning a win Saturday would give him his 200th career victory.
“Sometimes, I can’t believe I’m actually at this point,” Jones said.
In such a fast-paced environment like college sports, Jones admitted it’s hard to think about various personal milestones like 200 wins. He said he knew entering this season he needed just 12 wins to hit the mark, but that was about the extent to which he thought about it.
“I was thinking, OK, unless we have a horrible season, my record shows I’m probably gonna get 12 (wins) somewhere,” Jones said. “I’ve never gotten less than 14 (wins) or something like that — and that was a horrible season in my eyes, maybe in some other people’s eyes it wasn’t — but I knew we gotta get 12.”
During practice this week, junior forward Jack Doumbia said Jones hadn’t made a big deal out of potentially hitting the 200 mark. Regardless, his players are aware of it and are hoping to help him achieve the milestone.
“I don’t think I’ve heard him mention anything related to that,” Doumbia said. “We all know it and we all hear it, but
he’s not trying to make it about him, which is probably why he hasn’t mentioned anything. … I definitely hope I can help them get that and it will mean something, especially at Howard.”
Jones got his 100th win when the Spartans traveled to Howard and won 80-78 on Feb. 2, 2019.
The matchup
NSU started conference play by splitting two games — a win at South Carolina State and a loss at North Carolina Central.
“Being 1-1 is not the worst thing,” Jones said. “… The casual fan might think of it like how football is. With football, losing one game in conference, it’s like their season is over because they lost one game. For us, whoever wins the championship is probably going to lose two or three, maybe even four games — for the regular-season championship. So being down one game doesn’t hurt too much.”
The Spartans were down three starters against North Carolina Central, Jones said, but they’re expected to all be back in action Saturday. Jaylani Darden, who has been dealing with an injury since the Tennessee game on Jan. 2, and Jamarii Thomas were both out on Monday when NSU beat Virginia University of Lynchburg.
The Bison (8-11 overall, 2-1 MEAC), who beat Norfolk State 65-64 in last season’s conference championship game, are riding a four-game win streak, but it nearly ended against Division II Morehouse on Monday.
KenPom.com has NSU as a slight favorite. Jones said he’s expecting a raucous atmosphere in Burr Gymnasium and that his squad will need to match the energy.
“People still look at us like it’s the team to beat,” Jones said. “So they’re going to come in with super-high energy to beat us. Instead of it being the other way around, you’d think we would want to beat the champs. Those guys, they’re going to be hyped up to play us, they’re going to be ready to play.”
The Bison are a very experienced team, and according to KenPom.com, their most frequently used lineup over the past five games is highlighted by four upperclassmen and one sophomore.
“Howard has pretty good experience,” Doumbia said. “They got good transfers that have played a lot of basketball. So that’s a team that’s not going to beat themselves. … You can’t expect them to make too many mistakes to beat themselves. So you got to go out there, execute and just win the game.”
Four Bison were named to the Preseason All-MEAC teams, including Preseason Player of the Year Shy Odom. The sophomore, however, has not played since Dec. 20. Graduate forward Seth Towns leads Howard with 15.8 points per game, which ranks fourth in the MEAC.
Howard is No. 2 in the MEAC in offensive efficiency and its defense is No. 1 in allowed offensive rebounding percentage in conference play, per KenPom. The Bison offense is No. 2 in the MEAC with 75.9 points a game.
“They got starters and two backups that are all serviceable; a lot of teams don’t have that in our conference,” Jones said. “… I do think our guards fare pretty well and we might have the advantage there, but they might have the advantage with the forwards. So it’s gonna be about which advantage plays out the best on Saturday.”