Robert Jones started his postgame press conference with a deadpan joke about the point spread.
“First thing I’ll say, I told you we wasn’t a 30-point underdog,” Jones said in reference to Norfolk State being 28.5-point underdogs ahead of its NCAA Tournament first-round matchup against No. 1 seed Florida.
“Nobody laughed at that, huh?”
After praising his team for not yielding despite trailing by as many as 32 points in a lopsided 95-69 loss to the Gators on Friday night, Jones remained steadfast that the Spartans shouldn’t have played Florida in the Round of 64 to begin with.
“I’ll say it once again, and maybe it will stick home this time,” Jones began. “Out of all the 15s and 16s (seeds), we were the only ones with a top 100 win. We beat High Point at their place. We were the only loss for them. We beat Alabama State. We beat James Madison, who won their league. There’s a whole bunch of stuff you could run down. We played Tennessee close as hell.”
In terms of NET Rankings, a system that the NCAA Tournament selection committee uses to help determine seeding, Norfolk State’s 183 rating was the best among the six teams that were 16 seeds.
Jones was later asked what it would take for Norfolk State — a program that has won 24 games in three of the last four seasons — to earn a more favorable seed.
“Credit to Florida; they’re a great team, but we shouldn’t have played Florida,” he said, reiterating comments he made on Selection Sunday after learning where Norfolk State was seeded. “We should have played somebody else, and I’ll stand by that to the death. As far as moving the needle to the 15 (seed), it should have been moved already. It seems like every time it moves, the goalpost gets a little further.”
