Norfolk State wants to ‘shock the world’ after learning NCAA tournament seedings
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Chants of “shock the world” echoed through Roger Brown’s Restaurant & Sports Bar, where Norfolk State players, coaches and supporters had gathered Sunday evening to celebrate the men’s and women’s basketball teams’ sweep of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) tournament championships for the first time in the programs’ Division I history.
The anxiety of wondering where each Spartans team would land in the NCAA tournament slowly faded as the seedings for both teams were announced on television. That’s when “shock the world” took on different meanings for women’s head coach Larry Vickers and men’s head coach Robert Jones.
After the women’s team completed a 30-win season – including two wins over SEC teams – and won the MEAC tournament for the third consecutive year, Vickers was hoping for at least a No. 14 seed, but the selection committee had other, better plans.
The Norfolk State women’s team earned a No. 13 seed, its highest NCAA tournament seeding in program history, and will face No. 4 seed Maryland on Saturday at the XFINITY Center in College Park, Maryland.
“We just continue to grow. You got to be happy about that as a coach,” Vickers said. “I was excited that we’re on the East Coast and that our fans could come to our game. I haven’t seen very much of Maryland – I’ve just seen the highlights – so we’re gonna hit the ground running tonight and figure out how to be competitive.”
MEAC Player of the Year Diamond Johnson believes Norfolk State’s high seeding showcases the program’s growth over the last three seasons. In 2023, the Spartans were a No. 16 seed. Last season, they moved up to a No. 15 seed.
“Each year, we just kept gradually getting over that hump,” Johnson said. “Maryland is a good team. The bracket is good. It’s one and done. We got to play our hardest. But going dancing again for the third straight year in a row is a blessing.”
The Norfolk State women’s team will have the highest seeding among teams from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) in this year’s NCAA tournament. Southwestern Athletic Conference women’s tournament champion Southern University received a No. 16 seed and will play in the First Four against UC San Diego on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
The Spartans’ No. 13 seed is the highest seed earned by an HBCU team, men’s or women’s, in the last decade and ties with Hampton (2011) for the second-highest seed earned by an HBCU since the women’s tournament expansion in 1994. The highest seed earned by an HBCU since the expansion is the No. 12 seed earned by Hampton University (2014), Grambling State (1999) and Tennessee State (1995).
“It resonates throughout the country, throughout the [HBCU] community. We just try and represent the whole community well, night in and night out, with the way we play,” Vickers said. “This probably shouldn’t have been [the highest seeding] in 10 years, but unfortunately it is the way it is.”
Graduate student Niya Fields, who has been a part of all three conference championships for the Spartans, believes the lessons learned in their previous NCAA tournament games serve as motivation heading into their upcoming matchup. In Norfolk State’s tournament appearance last year, the Spartans played a close first quarter against No. 2 seed Stanford before the Cardinals pulled away in the second half and won 70-59.
“The takeaway is to not give up regardless of the score or the position that we’re put in, or the refs or the crowd,” Fields said. “As a team together, all of us plus the coaches, we’re together, stay together and just finish till the buzzer goes off. So whoever they put us up against, we’re coming with it.”
For the Norfolk State men’s basketball program, head coach Jones believes the selection committee’s decision wasn’t as favorable.
Moments after Jones told the crowd of supporters that the team deserved a No. 15 seed, citing the competitive play within the conference and a victory over High Point University, which was given a No. 13 seed, as his reasoning, the selection committee disagreed. The No. 16 seed Spartans will travel to Raleigh, North Carolina, to play No. 1 seed Florida, the SEC champion, on Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
“Twenty-four wins should matter,” Jones said. “We played who they wanted us to play. We beat who we were supposed to beat. We beat them by the metric we were supposed to beat them by, and we still got a 16.”
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The Spartans weren’t the only HBCU men’s team given a No. 16 seed. SWAC tournament champion Alabama State was, too, and will play in the First Four against St. Francis University in Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday.
The men’s team is now shifting its focus to its NCAA tournament opponent. The Spartans want to follow in the footsteps of the No. 15 seed Norfolk State team that upset No. 2 seed Missouri in 2012.
“We don’t care – it doesn’t matter who we play,” Norfolk State sophomore Chris Fields Jr. said. “We’ll be ready to play.”
Brian Moore Jr., who transferred to the Spartans this season and won the MEAC tournament’s most outstanding player award, is excited for his first March Madness appearance and said the team has a winning mindset headed into the tournament.
“Just go out there and try and shock the world. It [would] mean the world to go get a W, not just for us but for the whole HBCU community,” Moore said. “I feel like the HBCU community doesn’t get the respect it deserves. It’s a lot of good players in this league and in the SWAC. It’s time to go show why we’re personally the best HBCU in the country.”