Carlton “C.J.” Clemons Jr. embarks on his 11th season as an assistant coach on the Norfolk State men’s basketball staff in 2025-26. The Spartans are coming off regular season and postseason conference titles, continuing a dominant stretch atop the MEAC.
Norfolk State clinched a share of the MEAC regular season title in 2024-25, going 24-11 overall and 11-3 in conference play. The Spartans won the MEAC Tournament in thrilling fashion, defeating South Carolina State 66-65 to clinch a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Brian Moore Jr. was named MEAC Newcomer of the Year for the 2024-25 season, averaging 18.1 points per game while shooting 54.5 percent from the field and 39.4 percent from behind the arc. He became just the second player in program history to earn the College Insider Lou Henson Award, presented to the top mid-major player in college basketball.
Norfolk State notched its third consecutive 20-win season in 2023-24, amassing a 24-11 overall record. The Spartans clinched the MEAC regular season title with an 11-3 mark in conference play, before earning the program’s first-ever Division I nonconference postseason championship, erasing an 18-point deficit to take down Purdue Fort Wayne 75-67 in the CollegeInsider Tournament (CIT) championship game.
The MEAC Player of the Year award went to a Norfolk State student-athlete for the third consecutive year, given to NSU guard Jamarii Thomas. The junior also received the MEAC Newcomer of the Year accolade, while his backcourt teammate Allen Betrand took MEAC Sixth Player of the Year honors.
The Spartans posted a 22-11 overall record in 2022-23, earning the team’s fourth consecutive appearance in the conference championship game. Joe Bryant Jr. was named the MEAC Player of the Year for the second straight campaign, receiving First Team All-MEAC honors alongside teammate Kris Bankston. Both players were also selected to the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament (PIT) after the season’s conclusion.
NSU also averaged 75.8 points per game in 2022-23, the program’s most since 1999-2000. The Spartans led the conference in scoring average, field goal percentage, defensive field goal percentage, free throw percentage, rebounds per game, and assist/turnover ratio.
NSU repeated as MEAC champion in 2021-22, the first time in program history the Spartans won the league’s title and NCAA berth in consecutive years. Led by MEAC Player of the Year Bryant and a total of three All-MEAC selections (Bryant, second-teamer Bankston and third-teamer Jalen Hawkins), the Spartans posted the best-ever start to a season for a MEAC team in the league’s Division I era, at 9-1.
NSU logged a 12-2 MEAC mark in 2021-22, winning the outright MEAC regular-season title. The Spartans clinched the regular-season championship in dominant fashion, defeating North Carolina Central 75-46 at Echols Hall.
In 2020-21, NSU won its second-ever MEAC title, advancing to the 2021 NCAA Tournament where the Spartans beat Appalachian State in the First Four. It marked the program’s second tournament win ever, the only current school in the league that can make that claim.
In addition to winning the tournament title, NSU also won a share of the MEAC Northern Division regular season title at 8-4, in the process becoming the first Spartan team to win both a regular season and tournament title in the same year. The Spartans were named the HBCU Large School National Champion by the Black College Sports Network (BCSN) at the end of the year.
The program has gone 112-36 (75.7 percent) in the MEAC and 197-130 overall during Clemons’ time on the bench, including a .500 or better overall record in nine of his 10 seasons. The Spartans have finished no worse than tied for fourth in the league standings during that time.
They captured their second-ever MEAC regular season championship after finishing 14-2 in the league in 2018-19. They went 22-14 overall for their second-most wins since moving to Division I. The program capped off Clemons’ fourth year as an assistant by knocking off No. 1 seed Alabama in the NIT first round.
The following season, the Spartans tied for second in the MEAC standings at 12-4. The 2019-20 campaign was cut short before NSU’s first game in the MEAC Tournament due to COVID-19.
Norfolk State has made seven postseason appearances in Clemons’ nine years with the program that postseason has been played. It finished 12-4 and in second place in the MEAC regular season standings in each of his first two years in 2015-16 and 2016-17. The Spartans advanced to the MEAC Championship title game in 2017 and then again in 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
NSU finished 17-17 overall each of Clemons’ first two years, running its streak of consecutive seasons at .500 or better to six. The Spartans competed in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament in both 2016 and ‘17. The 2017-18 team went 11-5 in the league, finishing one game out of first place.
The 2016-17 squad ran off a 10-game win streak during conference play, the second-longest streak in the program’s Division I history. A pair of players earned all-conference honors, including Jonathan Wade (first team) and Zaynah Robinson (second team). Jeff Short (first team) and Alex Long (all-rookie team) garnered conference awards during Clemons’ first season in 2015-16.
NSU had its most-ever All-MEAC players in 2018-19 with five: Nic Thomas and Derrik Jamerson Jr. (second team), Steven Whitley and Jordan Butler (third team) and C.J. Kelly (all-rookie team). Jermaine Bishop (first team), Whitley (third team) and Tyrese Jenkins (all-rookie team) gave NSU three all-conference honorees in 2019-20, and Devante Carter (second team) and Joe Bryant Jr. (third team) gave NSU two more in 2020-21.
NSU set the school record for 3-pointers in his first season and then again in 2017-18 and 2018-19. They have set the program’s D-I record for 3-point field goal percentage three times.
In addition to his coaching responsibilities, Clemons’ other duties include serving as the liaison for the athletics compliance department, running the program’s summer camps, fundraising, and serving as the liaison for local recruiting.
A local native and Norfolk State graduate, Clemons joined NSU after spending two seasons as the head coach at Bryant & Stratton during its first two years as a program. He led the Bobcats, a Division II member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), to a two-year record of 38-16 from 2013-15.
Bryant & Stratton advanced to the NJCAA Region 10 semifinals in 2015 on the way to finishing No. 13 in the nation in the D-II NJCAA rankings. Clemons earned the Region 10 Coach of the Year award, and the Bobcats had three players earn all-conference honors. The Bobcats scored slightly more than 78 points per game in 2014-15.
Before joining Bryant & Stratton, Clemons spent five seasons as the junior varsity head coach and assistant varsity coach at Booker T. Washington HS in Norfolk from 2008-13.
Prior to his start with NSU, he coached with the Boo Williams 17 and under AAU team from 2009-15, including the final three years as the head coach. He led the squad to a sixth-place finish at the 2013 AAU Division I National Championship.
Clemons also coached with the S.M.A.R.T. Athletes Basketball Camp, run by former Spartan Kyle O’Quinn, from 2012-15.
Clemons graduated from NSU in the spring of 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies. He attended Salem High School in Virginia Beach.
