NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- Robert Jones doesn't know each and every milestone that's approaching when it comes to his career, but he was aware of this one.
Jones picked up career victory No. 250 with Norfolk State's 90-71 win over South Carolina State on Saturday. The triumph improved the Spartans to 14-14, 7-4 in the MEAC, just one game out of first place in the conference. It also marked their fourth straight win.
"I knew it was only 14 games," Jones said. "What I said was 'we'd better win 14 games this year or, damn, I didn't do a good job,' so I knew about the 250."
Jones is in his 13th season leading the green and gold. He's six wins shy of guiding Norfolk State to its fifth straight campaign of 20 or more wins. The Spartans have reached the NCAA Tournament in three of the last five years and won the CIT in 2024.
"A lot of coaches don't even get a chance to coach 250 games, let alone win 250 games," he noted. "It's not just myself. It's the players, the coaches, the administrators, everybody else that's around the program. I'm just the one that pushes the buttons at the end of the day, but there are a lot of people that go into those wins."
NSU didn't start as well as Jones and the players had hoped. The Spartans opened MEAC play 3-4, leading some to voice their thoughts that it would be a down year for the program. While Jones may not pay attention to every record and milestone, he says he's well aware of the doubters.
"I'm keeping track of the receipts of people who doubted us," he said. "I keep track of the articles, I keep track of the tweets, I keep track of comments, I keep track of the emails, I keep track of the videos of when teams beat us earlier in the year and were celebrating. I have all that in my phone."
With the team heating up, the green and gold now has their eyes on claiming some more championships come March.
"Now a lot of those people that were talking bad about us, laughing at us or saying that 'we finally got them. Norfolk State is finally down,' they're eating those words a little bit," Jones pointed out. "In order for them to fully eat those words, we need to win this regular season championship first and then win the Scope championship next."
Jones and Norfolk State go for the coach's 251st win Saturday when the Spartans visit Coppin State. Tipoff is set for 4:30 p.m.
