Robert Jones - Head coach - Norfolk State - 36

TheTastyGreek · March 18, 2016

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Age: 36

Current job: Head coach at Norfolk State

Current contract situation: Base salary of $145,000, under contract through 2016-17.

Experience: 3 years as a D1 head coach, all at Norfolk State. 3 years as a high school head coach at a Catholic school in New York. 6 years as a D1 assistant, all at Norfolk State. 2 years as a D3 assistant coach at two different schools.

Best year as a head coach: 2014-15. 20-14 overall record, 12-4 in conference. Lost in the MEAC conference tournament semifinals. Went to the CBI, lost their first round game against Eastern Kentucky.

Worst year as a head coach: 2015-16. 17-17 overall record, 12-4 in conference. Lost in the MEAC conference tournament semifinals by two points, despite leading with 19 seconds to go, when they missed a jumper on their last possession. Accepted a CIT bid, lost their first game to Columbia. Context: Before the season, their best post player decided to transfer to Xavier, and during the season, their best guard (a 19 ppg guy) hurt his foot riding a hoverboard and had to play half his usual minutes and come off the bench to do it.

What makes him worth considering? 3 years, 3 seasons .500 or better. A 19 and a 20 win season in that mix. May not sound like much... But Norfolk State is a MEAC school. That's a HBCU conference (like the SWAC, but Atlantic coast instead of Gulf coast). In his best year, Jones had 8 non-conference losses, and 4 of them were to Baylor, Georgia, Virginia, and Vanderbilt. So, overall record isn't the best gauge of ability. Against his own conference, Jones has gone 12-4 twice and 11-5 once. And, to give that 3 straight years of .500 or better records some context... Conference mate Maryland-Eastern Shore has been playing D1 basketball for 37 years and only has 3 .500 or better records total. Only one in the past 22 years.

Even though he hasn't made the NCAA tournament as a head coach (yet), he did go in 2012 as a Norfolk State assistant. You may remember that year as the one where 15th seed Norfolk State upset #2 seed Missouri. Jones wasn't just an assistant, he was the lead recruiter that brought in most of those guys (one of them played for him in high school; he scored 11 against Missouri), and he was the assistant responsible for drawing up the game plan that led to the upset.

Whycome would he'd suck real bad? FIU hired Anthony Evans (the Norfolk State coach that Jones worked under and replaced) and he has 3 straight sub-.500 seasons there so far. Worth noting that FIU got Evans for $225,000 per year across 5 years, which is significantly cheaper than what we're paying Benford now, and they got him on that deal a year after his Missouri NCAA upset. And even though Evans has been a game under .500 twice at FIU, those are the two best seasons FIU has had (other than Richard Pitino's one year) since Shakey Rodriguez back in the 90's.

Additional comments: Fordham had him as a finalist for their opening last year (they're an Atlantic 10 school), and he was both flattered and interested. Jones never expected or intended to get into coaching. He works hard and expects to recruit above his league. He wears fancy ties and likes the color green.