The two-time defending MEAC champion Norfolk State Spartans got a taste of big-time women’s college basketball thanks to their NCAA tournament first-round game against South Carolina this past March.
They have now added a big-time player to make them an even tougher team.
Diamond Johnson, who led ACC member North Carolina State in scoring and assists in 2022-23, announced that she has transferred to NSU, a major move for HBCU women’s basketball.
Johnson, a 5-foot-5 junior guard from Philadelphia, Pennyslvania, has been among the country’s leading playmakers since her freshman year at Rutgers University when she averaged 17.6 points per game and achieved the rare 50/40/90 shooting splits – that’s 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from three-point range and 90 percent from the free throw line.
Johnson led the Wolfpack in scoring (12.5 points per game) and assists (3.5 per game) last season in just 22 games after suffering an ankle injury that kept her out of N.C. State’s NCAA tournament appearance.
Johnson shared her reasoning for transferring to Norfolk State in a social media video with women’s basketball culture leader Lauren Dreher.
“A lot of people think you always have to go to Power Five schools to get to your dream of going to the WNBA,” she said. “But I don’t think it always has to be like that. You can go to HBCUs and mid-majors. I think you can develop there and still chase your dreams.”
