NORFOLK, Va. – After a successful season, the awards keep rolling in for the Norfolk State men's basketball team, as BOXTOROW announced on Wednesday that Joe Bryant Jr. has been named the HBCU Division I Player of the Year and head coach Robert Jones has been named BOXTOROW Co-Coach of the Year.

Bryant, the MEAC Player of the Year, finished the season leading the conference in scoring with 519 points while second in scoring average with 16.7 points per game. For the second year in a row, he broke the program record for free-throw percentage. He set the record last season going 62-68 (.912) but moved the bar up higher going 130-142 (.915) this season. The percentage also ranks as the sixth best in all of Division I. He led the Spartans in the 2022 MEAC Tournament with 17.0 points and 4.7 rebounds in the three games. For his efforts he was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, becoming only the second Norfolk State player to be named the MEAC Player of the Year and Tournament Most Outstanding Player (Kyle O'Quinn, 2012).

He is the first Norfolk State player to win the award since Pendarvis Williams in 2013. Bryant was also named to the BOXTOROW All-American First Team.

Jones led the Spartans one of the most successful seasons in the program's Div. I history. He led the team during the 2021-22 season to its best 22 game start in Division I (17-5), back-to-back MEAC Tournament titles, and an undefeated home record (11-0).

Norfolk State claimed the regular season MEAC title after finishing with a 12-2 record in the conference, securing the top seed in the MEAC Tournament. In the tournament, the Spartans picked up wins over Delaware State (74-66), Morgan State (72-63), and Coppin State (72-57) to claim the MEAC Championship.

This is the second HBCU Coach of the Year honors for Jones, who was recently named the Ben Jobe HBCU Div. I Coach of the Year by HBCU All-Stars, LLC. He has also been named a finalist for the Hugh Durham Award (top mid-major coach), Skip Prosser Award (on/off-court integrity), Jim Phalen Award (top Division I coach), and Ben Jobe (top minority coach) as sponsored by CollegeInsider.com.