Norfolk State’s Robert Jones to coach HBCU team at New York’s Rucker Park in The Basketball Tournament in July
The next time you might see Norfolk State coach Robert Jones directing a team, it will be outdoors.
The night game will be in New York at one of the most legendary basketball venues in the country. His team could feature plenty of players familiar to Hampton Roads fans, as will the opponents.
Jones is set to coach HBCUnited on July 16 in the Rucker Park regional of The Basketball Tournament, an annual summer 64-team national pro event with a winner-take-all prize of $1 million to the championship team. Players with NBA contracts aren’t eligible, and good performances can help players gain pro jobs around the world next season.
TBT games will be shown on the ESPN family online, with many of them on cable TV.
Rosters were released Wednesday for the ninth annual TBT, though they occasionally are tweaked between now and the eight July regionals, each of which is composed of eight teams. Most TBT players competed in college, and according to thetournament.com, 29 teams are alumni-based.
The regional winners will advance to the University of Dayton Arena in Ohio for the quarterfinals July 28. The title game is scheduled there on Aug. 2.
Few current college coaches guide a TBT team, but Jones will do so. He has led Norfolk State to the last two NCAA Tournaments by virtue of Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tourney titles at Scope.
HBCUnited primarily consists of players from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Its roster includes former Spartans Devante Carter, Derrik Jamerson and Steven Whitley and a pair of former Hampton University players: Norcom High alum Malique Trent and Amir Smith, whose father, Joe, starred for Maury High, Maryland and NBA teams. Brandon Tabb, a Kecoughtan High graduate and All-MEAC player for Bethune-Cookman, also is on the roster.
HBCUnited is the fourth seed in the Rucker Park region, which will feature free admission on a renovated outdoor court in Harlem where greats such as Wilt Chamberlain and Julius Erving played.
Another guy who grew up playing at Rucker Park, Rafer Alston, is the coach and namesake of HBCUnited’s first-round foe, No. 5 seed Skip To My Lou.
Alston’s roster for the 8 p.m. game includes former Peninsula District stars James Daniel from Phoebus High and Richard Washington from Menchville and Walsingham Academy. Daniel led the nation in scoring for Howard as a junior five years ago before transferring to Tennessee, and Washington was a San Jose State standout after transferring from Wake Forest.
Skip To My Lou also includes former William & Mary standouts Greg Malinowski and Terry Tarpey, plus former Richmond Spiders player De’Monte Buckingham.
The region set for Charleston Coliseum in West Virginia, starting July 24, also has plenty of familiar faces to fans in Virginia.
Seventh-seeded Fully Loaded’s players include Aaron Carver from Old Dominion, Du’Vaughn Maxwell from Hampton University, Reggie Williams from VMI — a former Golden State Warrior — and Mike’L Simms from VCU. That team will face the second-seeded Bucketneers, an East Tennessee State alumni squad.
The fifth seeds in Charleston are the Founding Fathers, a James Madison alumni team. Devon Moore and Andre Nation, two standouts on the Dukes’ 2013 Colonial Athletic Association championship team, are among the players. Some of their inspiration comes from teammate AJ Davis, the MVP in that tourney nine years ago, who needed both legs amputated after a horrifying May 2021 highway crash.
Also on their team is Kamiah Smalls, a former WNBA player and JMU star who is a rare woman on a TBT roster.
Former Wofford and Virginia Tech starting guard Storm Murphy is set to play for No. 3 seed WoCo Showtime, a Wofford alumni team.
The lowest seed in Charleston is the No. 8 Virginia Dream, coached by former VCU player Bo Jones. That roster includes ex-Hampton player Jervon Pressley and former Radford Highlanders Devin Cooper, Ed Polite and Reginald Jeffries. They’ll face the likely crowd favorite, No. 1 Best Virginia, a West Virginia alumni team.
The Omaha Regional, set for Creighton University on July 16, includes No. 6 Team Overtime. Marcus Thornton, a former Boston Celtics draft pick who’s one of William & Mary’s all-time greats, and former Norfolk State student Deven Dorsett are on that team.
