NCAA Tournament March Madness

#232 Norfolk St

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

Norfolk State’s profile is built around a handful of comfortable conference wins and some encouraging competitive showings away from home, but it is offset by a heavy road loss at Arizona that hurts the overall picture. The Spartans have kept games close in tough environments with narrow defeats at Old Dominion and at Towson and a competitive trip to Wyoming, and their home victory over Hampton shows they can close out games inside their arena. Most of the resume is made up of results against conference opponents such as Coppin State, Morgan State, Howard, NC Central, and Delaware State, which stabilizes the ledger but does not supply a signature victory that a committee can point to. Remaining road opportunities at James Madison, Baylor, UTEP, and Louisiana and neutral tests against Grambling and Jackson State are realistic paths to improve the resume while more home conference dates will be useful for securing league position but will offer limited resume enhancement. Overall the mix of solid conference work, a few respectable road performances, and a damaging blowout loss explains why the team currently sits where it does and why an eye-catching result away from home would materially change the conversation.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/8William & Mary122L81-78
11/11@Old Dominion220L60-57
11/14@Towson130L51-41
11/21Hampton218W62-60
11/23@Wyoming107L75-67
11/29@Arizona9L98-61
12/6@James Madison17730%
12/10@Baylor293%
12/18(N)Grambling28459%
12/19(N)Jackson St31967%
12/21@UTEP23841%
12/28@Louisiana32660%
1/3@NC Central34666%
1/10@Delaware St36277%
1/12MD E Shore33782%
1/17@S Carolina St35372%
1/24Coppin St36493%
1/26Morgan St36190%
1/31@Howard31155%
2/7NC Central34683%
2/14Delaware St36290%
2/16@MD E Shore33764%
2/21S Carolina St35387%
2/28@Coppin St36481%
3/2@Morgan St36176%
3/5Howard31175%