Some Norfolk State players get an unsettling feeling when they drive or walk past Scope. Bitterness, anger, overwhelming disappointment – it all comes flooding back.
Their coach doesn’t have that problem. He won’t go near the place.
Since the Spartans ended a promising season with a stunning 70-68 loss to Bethune-Cookman in the quarterfinals of the MEAC tournament in March, first-year coach Robert Jones has gone out of his way to avoid the site of the disaster.
No hockey game, concert or stand-up act will change his mind.
“That’s one of the things I don’t do,” said Jones, who recently skipped former NSU women’s coach James Sweat’s induction into the Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame because it was held at the venue. “I’ll go around the Scope before I’ll drive past the Scope – unless I absolutely have to – because of last year.”
And it’s because of last year that the Spartans enter this season with such grand expectations. Picked to win the MEAC in a recent poll of the league’s coaches, NSU returns 11 letter-winners from a team that underachieved only at the conference tournament.
The Spartans were 21-10 overall and 16-0 in the MEAC before blowing a 13-point second-half lead against Bethune-Cookman.
“I’ve kind of got, like, a bitter taste in my mouth about that place,” junior guard Jamel Fuentes said. “When I see it, it kind of makes me angry a little bit.” read more…
