The college basketball offseason is here, and we decided to have some fun over the next few months, ranking ALL 364 teams in D1. Number 168 is Norfolk State basketball.
Before you say we’re crazy – or that all of this is up for debate, let’s go over the very intricate process of how we came to this conclusion. We took a very statistical approach – with the help of Chat GPT – taking into consideration everything from March Madness wins and finishes, to AP Poll appearances, to conference players of the year. And then, a good friend of ours, Scott Blanchard, took our approach to the MAX.
Click here to visit the FIRST article, which explains how the formula works!
Here’s the breakdown of Norfolk State basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 2
- Bids: 4
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 16.1
- Bids per season: 0.14
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 4
- Conference Players of the Year: 8
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 6
- Conference tournament titles: 4
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 1
Overall scoop on Norfolk State basketball
Norfolk State has put together a great showing in 29 seasons in DI, but you have to start with the 2011-12 campaign. The 15-seeded Spartans took down 2-seed Missouri in a March Madness upset for the history books. Future NBA vet Kyle O’Quinn was on that team as they truly shocked the college basketball world.
For context, against other Power Conference teams, Norfolk State had lost to Marquette by 31 (also later by just two points in an MTE), Virginia Tech by 13, and later to Florida by 34 in the round of 32. It was a very unexpected upset – even more than the usual.
But that isn’t the only thing Norfolk State hoops has accomplished. In 29 seasons, they’ve had just one season with fewer than 10 wins and have NEVER gone under .500 in MEAC play. That is an insane fact for any program, especially an HBCU in a conference where teams traditionally just aren’t as talented. Norfolk State is an outlier.
The program still wasn’t great to start, but when Anthony Evans showed up in 2007, things changed for the positive. He was the coach when they famously took down Mizzou, but also put together a 99-94 record with the program before leaving for FIU.
Since Evans, it has been Robert Jones all along. And lately, he’s turned them into a perennial March Madness team. Norfolk State has played in the big dance in 2021, 2022, and 2025 – all first round exits, but all tournamnet basketball nonetheless. In 2024, they missed out on the tourney, but won the CIT.
And while fans may resonate with O’Quinn more than other players, they did have a future Hall of Famer in Bob Dandridge. In 13 NBA seasons, he made four All-Star teams and scored over 15,000 points. This was just before the program went DI.
We’ve got a string of HBCUs going in our rankings, and it is cool to highlight them, because they often get forgotten about. But Norfolk State finds a way to stay consistent.