NORFOLK — When Norfolk State women’s basketball coach Jermaine Woods walked out of Friday night’s 57–55 loss to rival Hampton, he didn’t have a message for his team. He didn’t even try.

Instead, in a moment he later called “eye-opening,” Woods slipped into his office, closed the door and tried to process a start to the season that looks nothing like the one NSU envisioned.

The Spartans are 2–5 under their first-year head coach — already matching the total number of losses from last season’s 30–5 MEAC championship and NCAA Tournament run. The goal was to push for a fourth straight conference title, but the transition to a new regime has been rocky, punctuated by a rivalry loss that snapped the nation’s longest home winning streak.

Woods said the issues go deeper than one night.

“We just

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