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‘Sometimes a wake-up call is necessary’: Coach Robert Jones looks for NSU to rebound after rare loss to UMES

michael sauls, the virginian-pilot
·4 min read

For the first time in eight years, the Norfolk State men’s basketball team (15-9, 5-2 MEAC) lost to Maryland Eastern Shore. The Spartans took a 10-game winning streak against the Hawks to Princess Anne, Maryland, on Monday but came back with a 69-60 loss that snapped their five-game overall winning streak.

“It was a bad loss, there’s no way to sugarcoat it or anything like that,” head coach Robert Jones said Tuesday. “It was a game that we just didn’t come with the right focus, for whatever reason, and we just lost the game. So it was a bad loss.”

The Spartans were down major contributors in Christian Ings and Chris Fields. Senior Daryl Anderson was also out, missing his fourth game in a row.

Ings went down hard at the end of Norfolk State’s game Saturday against Delaware State and was helped off the court while holding his lower back. Jones said missing Ings against UMES played a big role in how the game played out. Jamarii Thomas had 16 points and four turnovers in 37 minutes — all team highs.

“I think in conference (play), he’s almost a double-digit scorer,” Jones said. “(He’s) one of our primary ball-handlers, took a lot of pressure off Jamarii. Jamarii has been playing off the ball a lot recently since Philly (Ings’ nickname) has been back. So Jamarii pretty much had to play — I don’t know how many minutes he played — but all the minutes he played, he played on the ball, and there was constant ball pressure and things like that. So Philly will definitely relieve some of that pressure.”

Jones said the team is planning to work with its secondary ball-handlers and third-string point guard Gilbert Brown to “get them up to speed” in case NSU would have to move forward with one primary ball-handler.

“Injuries you can’t control, anything can happen,” Jones said. “So we have to be prepared for all instances because the games aren’t gonna stop and no one in the league is going to feel sorry for us. So we need to understand that.”

Fields missed the game with a “random concussion,” according to Jones. The freshman has seen his playing time increase. In the first 12 games of the season, he was averaging just 8.25 minutes per game. In the seven games since the start of 2024, he’s averaging 17.2 minutes.

“Let’s not forget about him, he’s turned into a big piece of the puzzle,” Jones said. “We probably missed him the most, to be honest with you. It was a physical game and he plays through physicality, even as a freshman.”

Regardless of who missed the game, though, Jones doesn’t want injuries to be an excuse for the loss.

“With all that being said, like I told the guys, no matter who’s there — and no slight to Philly, Chris Fields and Daryl — we still shouldn’t have lost that game,” Jones said. “I think we still had enough to win that game. Would it have been a tighter game? Yeah, probably. But I think we still would’ve had enough to win that game if we came out with the right focus.”

There’s certainly no need to hit the panic button. Norfolk State still has plenty of time to get back on track before its next game on Feb. 17 against South Carolina State. The Spartans still have the best overall record in the league and are tied with North Carolina Central — who was also upset Monday — atop the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

Would Jones like to have beaten UMES to put the Spartans alone atop the conference standings? Absolutely.

But with seven regular-season games remaining, four of which are at home and all of which KenPom.com projects Norfolk State to win, the Spartans still have control of their destiny in the MEAC.

“It’s a wake-up call, and sometimes a wake-up call is necessary in this whole journey upon a championship,” Jones said. “I always say that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success. So we failed (Monday) night. But will that be part of our success going forward? Hopefully, it will be.”

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Michael Sauls, (757) 803-5774, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com