Norfolk State Spartans plays Minnesota on Wednesday, November 29 in women’s basketball motion.  The Spartans were picked first within the MEAC preseason poll: “We’re a defensive-oriented league,” Coach Larry Vickers told reporters last month through the MEAC Media Day that the MSR attended. “We see a number of zone defenses—nobody plays us man.”

Vickers is in his ninth overall and eighth full season as Norfolk State’s head women’s basketball coach. He led the Spartans to a 26-7 overall mark and an NCAA first-round tournament appearance, winning each the MEAC regular season (11-3) and tournament titles last season. He was named MEAC Coach of the Yr and HBCU National Coach of the Yr.

“People were surprised at how well we played against South Carolina [in a loss to the number one seed],” the coach recalled.  “Everybody on this league helps prepare us for any tournament motion we’d see.”

Aside from his first season in 2015-16 when Vickers was named interim HC for the ultimate 11 games, Vickers’ Spartans have finished within the conference’s first division each season on the helm—two first-place finishes, two second-place and three fourth-place finishes.

A faculty fixture, Vickers spent eight seasons as an assistant coach for the Norfolk State men’s team and earned his B.A. in electronic technology (2007). He walked onto the NSU men’s team in 2004-05 and quickly earned playing time, becoming the team’s Most Improved Player as a sophomore.

“We wish people to look at us play and say, ‘Hey I like watching you play and respect the best way you play basketball,” said Vickers. “That’s necessary to me and my team.”

When asked to briefly explain what Gopher fans might see from his squad this week, Vickers told the MSR, “They’ll expect two things: One, we are going to work our butts off on the defensive end. Offensively, we probably are rather a lot more structured than teams expect us to be. We’re super organized, we run a number of offense, and we show teams some options.

“I feel that it could be exciting to look at us play,” he predicted.

4 Spartan players were named preseason All-MEAC, including 6-1 junior Kierra Wheeler of Minneapolis. Wheeler helped the varsity win the 2023 MEAC Tournament Championship In her first season at Norfolk State after transferring from Daytona State College and was named its Most Outstanding Player last season. The Robbinsdale Cooper grad was second on the team in scoring (11.1 PPG) and led the Spartans in total rebounds (8.4).

“She had a special summer and lost 25 kilos. She modified her food regimen and [worked] within the gym Monday through Friday,” said Vickers of Wheeler. The junior isn’t big on individual accolades—she just desires to win, he said. He added, “She has a super-high basketball IQ.”

Junior point guard Niya Fields (Peekskill, NY), junior forward Makoye Diawara (Bayonne, NJ) and junior guard Da’naijah Williams (Brooklyn, NY) also joined Wheeler on the preseason all-conference squad.

Finally, last week, Wheeler was named MEAC Defensive Player of the Week: she posted a 13-point, 12-rebound double-double against App State and a career-best 4 steals. She followed that up with 15 points and nine rebounds at Hampton together with a block.

NSU is the fourth visiting opponent Minnesota faced this season that’s led by a Black head coach.

Search for a follow-up story with coach Vickers and Kieran Wheeler in upcoming editions of the MSR.