Norfolk State had its best season in school history under coach Larry Vickers after winning 27 games and the MEAC regular season and tournament championships.
The group also earned a post-game locker room visit from South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley during the NCAA tournament.
Pre-season pollsters picked the Spartans to top the league again this year by a single point over 2022 MEAC champ Howard. Morgan State was picked third, and Maryland Eastern-Shore rounds out the top four. Five through eight are Coppin State, North Carolina Central, Delaware State, and South Carolina State.
“I feel like we did it the right way,” Vickers said of NSU’s first women’s championship since 2002 at Thursday’s MEAC Media Day. “We progressed every year; we got better, added more depth, more star power, and it led to 27 wins.”
That star power includes four returnees named to the all-conference team – first-teamer Kierra Wheeler, second-teamer Niya Fields, and third-team players Makoye Diawara and Da’naijah Williams – along with North Carolina State transfer Diamond Johnson.
“Diamond is a basketball player’s basketball player,” Vickers said. “She watches games for actions and sets and wants to know what we’re running. She’s asked me questions that no other recruit has asked me.”
Vickers believes that HBCU culture plays a huge part in developing a program, and he does not shy away from it.
“Basketball players want to play at an HBCU now; they see the band in the stands, the cheerleaders, the atmosphere is different,” he says. “I never want to go away from doubleheaders because, by the third quarter, we’re playing in front of 1,500, 2,000 people. A lot of mid-majors can’t say that.”
The Bison fell short to the Spartans 69-65 in the MEAC championship game, and for head coach Ty Grace, that will motivate her and her players to reclaim the crown they won the season before.
“Losing the championship game, the team took it hard, obviously, but we’re going to keep fighting,” Grace said. “That’s the expectation of where they see themselves, as champions.”
Howard returns Destiny Howell, last season’s conference player of the year and this season’s preseason player of the year, as well as Kaniya Harris and Iyanna Warren, who were named to the preseason second team.
“We’re trying to figure out who we are and create our identity for this season and keep building on that,” Grace says. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work and grit. We’ve got to get through every other team in the league before we win the championship, but that is our goal.”
2023-24 MEAC women’s basketball pre-season poll (first-place votes in parenthesis)
- Norfolk State (12)
- Howard (2)
- Morgan State (1)
- Maryland-Eastern Shore (1)
- Coppin State
- North Carolina Central
- Delaware State
- South Carolina
First Team
| Name | Pos. | Yr. | Ht. | School | Hometown |
| Destiny Howell | G | Sr. | 6’0″ | Howard | Queens, N.Y. |
| Kierra Wheeler | F | Jr. | 6’1″ | Norfolk State | Minneapolis, Minn. |
| Mossi Staples | G | R-Sr. | 5’7″ | Coppin State | Fort Washington, Md. |
| Zamara Haynes | G | Sr. | 5’7″ | Maryland E. Shore | Philadelphia, Pa. |
| Kimeira Burks | G | R-Sr. | 5’8″ | N.C. Central | Chicago, Ill. |
Second Team
| Name | Pos. | Yr. | Ht. | School | Hometown |
| Kaniyah Harris | G | Sr. | 5’10” | Howard | Capital Heights, Md. |
| Niya Fields | G | Jr. | 5’8″ | Norfolk State | Peekskill, N.Y. |
| Savannah Brooks | G/F | So. | 5’9″ | Delaware State | Taneytown, Md. |
| Iyanna Warren | G | Sr. | 5’3″ | Howard | Accokeek, Md. |
| Gabrielle Johnson | G | So. | 5’8″ | Morgan State | Baltimore, Md. |
Third Team
| Name | Pos. | Yr. | Ht. | School | Hometown |
| Aniya Finger | F | R-Jr. | 6’1″ | N.C. Central | Charlotte, N.C. |
| Faith Blackstone | G | R-Jr. | 6’0″ | Coppin State | Harrisburg, Pa. |
| Makoye Diawara | F | Jr. | 6’0″ | Norfolk State | Bayonne, N.J. |
| Morgan Callahan | F | R-Jr. | 6’1″ | N.C. Central | Beach Park, Ill. |
| Da’naijah Williams | G | Jr. | 5’9″ | Norfolk State | Brooklyn, N.Y. |
