Heinicke, a former Old Dominion University record-setter, is backing up Kirk Cousins, who was acquired in free agency, and Michael Penix Jr., the eighth overall pick in the draft. Cousins was medically cleared from his Achilles surgery, and Penix has flashed his big arm and accuracy early in training camp.

“Yeah, I kind of see the writing on the wall,” Heinicke said when asked about his role on the team after open practice Saturday night in Buford, Georgia, at Seckinger High, about 10 miles away from where he attended high school at Collins Hill. “It’s nothing that I haven’t been through before, so I accept my role in any case. My role, for me, and what I think is to help Kirk any way that I can. If he has any questions. Same thing with Mike. Sometimes the game is fast. Sometimes everything is fast for rookies.”

The Falcons also have rookie John Paddock on the roster. They don’t plan to play Cousins in the exhibition season, so Penix, Heinicke and Paddock have availability for the three games.

“I’m going to make sure that I’m on top of my stuff so that when (Cousins) does have that question, I can give him the right answer to kind of help him through it,” Heinicke said.

Heinicke, who was lightly recruited out of high school, went on to break most of ODU’s passing records. He came up the hard side of the NFL mountain as an undrafted free agent but has carved out a nice career with Minnesota, New England, Houston, Carolina and Washington.

He’s played in 38 games and made 29 starts in the regular season. He also started a playoff game for Washington after the 2020 season.

Heinicke signed with the Falcons on March 14, 2023. He served as Desmond Ridder’s backup and was eventually installed as a starter. Heinicke played in five games and went 1-3 as a starter.

“I went through this in Minnesota,” said Heinicke, who has 45 transactions listed on his profootballreference.com profile. “I went through this in Carolina. It’s one of the things where I can’t control it. Only thing I can control is how I am as a teammate and as person.”

The Falcons are likely to keep two quarterbacks and have another on the practice squad. Heinicke can count to three and is being realistic about his plight.

“So when I come in the building, I’m going to be a great teammate,” Heinicke said. “I’m going to do everything I can to be on this team and help them in every way that I can. That’s my role. I gladly accept that. I’m trying to be the best at that.”

Heinicke enjoys working with Cousins.

“I’ve learned so much from Kirk, from offseason until now,” Heinicke said. “Just the way he goes about his business, the way he approaches every meeting, every practice, it’s really cool to see.

“I wish I’d met him earlier in my career. That’s not a knock on anyone else that I’ve worked with, it’s just that I correlate with him and how he approaches things. Again, it’s a new offense for him a little bit. There are couple of nuances from last year. Motions, shifts and things like that.”

The offense is looking drastically different from how the Falcons attacked teams with a powerful running game under former coach Arthur Smith.

“You’ll see it on Sundays, it’s a totally different offense,” Heinicke said. “I think last year, we had a great offensive line and we liked to pound the rock. We had (running backs) Cordarrelle (Patterson), Tyler (Allgeier) and Bijan (Robinson). This year, a little bit more spread out. Lots of motions. You’ll see a lot of people get the ball. So it’s a really fun offense to be a part of. I think we’re all excited to see what happens on Sundays.”

An All-American in college at the University of Florida, she enjoyed a 17-year career in the WNBA after college, where she played in 499 games — a record at the time of her retirement — and earned two All-Star selections while being part of the Los Angeles Sparks’ back-to-back championships in 2001 and 2002.

While those awards are impressive, Milton-Jones holds her Olympic gold medals as the best achievements in her career.

“It’s the top, it’s the crème de la crème,” Milton-Jones said. “It’s the top because of everything that it represents. You were the best in the world. You can be a world champion in the WNBA, but you’re still on domestic soil. But to take your talents and to go anywhere in this world and play against whatever country’s best, and you can crown yourself the winner, yeah, it’s always gonna be (at the top).”

Milton-Jones has two Olympic gold medals, one from the 2000 Games in Sydney and another from 2008 in Beijing. She remembers the call telling her she was selected for the national team in 2000 like it was yesterday, saying she felt “a plethora of emotions.

“When you know that you’ve been selected, it’s like Fourth of July fireworks, the coldest chills you could get with the biggest goosebumps,” Milton-Jones said. “It’s a plethora of emotions that you go through knowing that you accomplished something.”

The U.S. women’s national team went 8-0 in the 2000 Games, sweeping its way to a gold medal in dominant fashion. Milton-Jones averaged 4.5 points per game and 2.4 rebounds and shot 51.5% from the field.

Milton-Jones said she and her USA teammates embraced the pressure of competing in the Olympics.

“The pressure was a pleasure,” Milton-Jones said. “No. 1, you knew that you were doing it for your country. Then No. 2, you knew that because you’re doing it for your country, you’re going to have an entire country behind you. And then you look at what our country represents, we are forced within the world of sports. So just in the world, period. So there’s a level of respect that comes with having USA across your chest. Other players from other countries were begging us, and trying to pay us, or exchange Cuban cigars, for our shoes, our jerseys or our clothes. So we knew that we were doing something pretty spectacular.”

Her second appearance at the Olympics didn’t come until 2008 after an injury sidelined her from the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. Milton-Jones had already made the team in 2004, but tore her ACL a month out from Olympic competition. Her return for the 2008 Olympics made the gold medal in Beijing that much sweeter.

“That was probably one of the gloomiest moments in my life,” Milton-Jones said of her injury. “You dedicate all those years of service to making the team, you make it, and now you see the team leave without you and you can’t play. So yeah, huge gap. But within that time frame, there was a huge level of commitment to redeeming myself. And it took a lot of work and it took a lot of fight and grit. And I was able to accomplish that by making the team in 2008. So while 2000 is special because it was the first, 2008 was even more special because of the comeback tour.”

The United States was just as dominant in 2008. Led by legend Lisa Leslie, the Americans went 8-0 en route to beating Australia in the gold medal game for the third consecutive Games in a row. Milton-Jones averaged 2.1 points, 1.3 rebounds and shot 55% from the field in Beijing.

Milton-Jones’ history with the U.S. national team runs deeper than those two Olympic games, though. She was a member of 18 different USA basketball teams from 1994 to 2008 whose combined record was 125-10 and has six gold medals and five international tournament titles to her name.

Representing her country on the world stage numerous times meant “everything” to Milton-Jones.

“I said this a long time ago to some reporters, and I hope I’m not sounding disrespectful to our armed men and women who have served our country, but I felt like I was a soldier,” Milton-Jones said. “But my weapon was a basketball and my skillset. So I had that type of mentality when I went on the court. Instead of me having an AK, I had a clean jump shot or some mean elbows or whatever it was I was able to throw to get the job done. So that was the mentality and it was pride behind that. I wanted to make sure that I kept the honor attached to what we were doing and I kept the respect level that we wanted people to have, or even a healthy dose of fear we wanted the world to have when they saw anything USA coming at them.”

Milton-Jones began coaching with USA Basketball in 2019 and has two gold medals as an assistant coach with the U18 team in the 2022 FIBA Americas Women’s Championship and with the U19 team last year in the FIBA Women’s World Cup. Milton-Jones is still climbing the coaching ranks in the USA Basketball organization and has hopes of being named head coach of the national team in the future.

“Where (a play) could be a one-carat diamond on a high school team, it’s going to be a black diamond on the USA team — it’s going to become something priceless,” Milton-Jones said. “As complex as the game can be, they can simplify things because of their talent level and a high level of thinking that they have and it can open up your playbook as a coach.”

Along with her coaching duties for USA Basketball, she is also a member of the USA National Team Committee in charge of selecting athletes and coaches for USA teams competing in the Olympics, World Cup and other competitions. The selection committee made news recently when WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark was left off the team.

“It was hard and it wasn’t something that was fly-by-night and we just did it in one meeting,” Milton-Jones said. “I can’t even — I need to really count how many Zooms we’ve had over the course of four years. It’s been a lot of work. Flying to Colorado and watching the team, going to the Final Four, watching them in their minicamps. Tuning in to collegiate games and watching Caitlin, watching Angel (Reese) and watching everyone. Having meetings about it, talking to coaches, talking to opponents. Just gathering as much data as we could.”

At the end of the day, Milton-Jones is confident in the team she helped put together and believes they’ll bring home the United States’ eighth straight gold medal.

Michael Sauls, (757) 803-5774, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com

If the fifth-year Old Dominion coach were an avatar in a college football video game today, as he once was, his own current player would take him out.

Monarchs All-American linebacker Jason Henderson is a prominent figure in EA Sports’ new and wildly popular College Football 25, ranking 50th among all FBS players in overall ability.

Rahne, a quarterback at Cornell in the early 2000s whose likeness could once be found in an earlier iteration of the game, would not want the virtual Henderson pursuing him.

“I was a bad athlete who could throw the ball,” Rahne said Tuesday in New Orleans as part of Sun Belt Media Days. “Jason’s a tremendous athlete. I definitely would’ve got sacked. Also, I think I finished my career with negative rushing yards, so I’m gonna say that, yeah, he probably would’ve brought me down.”

The 6-foot-1, 227-pound Henderson, who is recovering from a knee injury in real life, has an overall ranking of 91 out of 100 in the video game. The Sun Belt Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, he is the league’s lone player to crack the top 100.

But it’s not something over which the senior from Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania, obsesses.

“It’s really cool,” Henderson said. “I don’t play the game personally a lot. I’ve never had a console. But obviously, I’ve been on the game since it came out. I think it’s awesome. I think it’s great for all the players.”

Rahne was no slouch at Cornell, where he was a three-year starter who graduated with school records for completions, passing yards and touchdown passes.

Henderson, though, is a different animal. He led the nation with 14.2 tackles per game last season, and he might well have broken the single-season record for tackles had he not been injured late in the 2022 season.

The Monarchs, on the heels of a 6-7 season that included an overtime loss to Western Kentucky in the Famous Toastery Bowl, were picked to finish sixth in the Sun Belt’s East Division in a preseason poll. But Henderson remains an undeniable bright spot.

Having him be a part of something that’s bringing people together, Rahne said, is icing on the cake.

Rahne described a scene in which 20 or so of his players were enjoying the game in one room.

“We live in a pretty divisive country where everything we did is right and wrong and this sort of thing,” Rahne said. “This video game is the only thing that I’ve heard about where everybody loves it. This might be the most uniting thing that we’ve ever been around.”

Henderson, a former high school wrestling star with enough focus for an entire corps of linebackers, said he’s “feeling really good” with his progress since the injury, which he suffered late last season.

The video game, he said, only fuels him.

“I think it’s really cool that you get to hop on, whether it’s with your teammates, your buddies, anything, and just kind of sit there and talk a little trash to each other and play a video game,” Henderson said. “And then you get to wake up the next morning, and the reason you’re in that video game you get to pursue the whole entire next day. And to me, I think that’s just awesome.”

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.

Monarchs defensive lineman Denzel Lowry was named to the second team, as selected by the league’s head coaches and media members.

Henderson led the nation for the second straight season in tackles per game, averaging 14.2, and finished third in the country with 1.6 tackles for loss per game.

Henderson finished second in the country with 170 tackles, one behind Jay Higgins of Iowa, who played two more games than Henderson.

Henderson is college football’s active leader in career tackles, with 436. He’s 142 tackles away from breaking the FBS career record held by Troy’s Carlton Martial.

Lowry started all 13 games last season and led ODU defensive linemen with 46 tackles and four sacks. He also had 5 1/2 tackles for loss.

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com

ODU predicted sixth in division

Old Dominion was picked sixth in the seven-team East Division, which Appalachian State was predicted to win. Texas State was named the West Division favorite.

James Madison, which finished atop the Sun Belt East in its first two seasons in the league, was chosen second in the division. The Dukes received two first-place votes and tallied 79 total points. App State claimed 12 first-place votes and 96 points.

App State’s Joey Aguilar was named the Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. He shared first-team preseason honors at quarterback with Texas State’s Jordan McCloud, who was the Sun Belt Player of the Year last season for JMU.

The Dukes’ first-team preseason honorees included offensive lineman Cole Potts and punter Ryan Hanson. JMU’s second-teamers were offensive lineman Tyshawn Wyatt, defensive lineman Eric O’Neill and defensive back Chauncey Logan.

East Division

(First-place votes), points

1. Appalachian State (12) 96

2. James Madison (2) 79

3. Coastal Carolina 67

4. Georgia Southern 50

5. Marshall 49

6. Old Dominion 32

7. Georgia State 19

West Division

(First-place votes), points

1. Texas State (9) 92

2. Troy (4) 68

3. Louisiana (1) 66

4. Arkansas State 65

5. South Alabama 54

6. Southern Mississippi 31

7. Louisiana Monroe 16

Staff reports

Old Dominion’s star linebacker has a rating of 91 in the highly anticipated EA Sports College Football 25, which is scheduled for release on July 19.

EA Sports has slowly teased information about the game in the past few weeks, and on Wednesday it released its Top 100 rated players.

Henderson, a senior, is at No. 50 on the Top 100 list.

Henderson is the only player from the Sun Belt Conference to be ranked in the Top 100. The All-American is also the sixth-highest rated linebacker in the game and the second-highest rated right outside linebacker.

Henderson is coming off a junior campaign in which he put up career numbers. He led the country in tackles per game with 14.2 and was third in tackles for loss per game with 1.6. He finished just one tackle shy of the most in the country with 170 in 12 games. He was also tied for fourth in the country with 19.5 tackles for loss.

Henderson was named to the All-Sun Belt first team for the second time in his career. He has amassed a total of 436 tackles in three seasons.

Michael Sauls, (757) 803-5774, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com

Then a senior guard, Jones committed a turnover that led him to hang his head.

Mario Mullen would have none of it.

Moments later, during a timeout, Mullen and teammate E.J. Sherod urged Jones to get his chin off his chest and told Jones he was going to make a key play.

When Jones then drew a momentum-swinging charge, Mullen and Sherod were there to help him up.

The Monarchs went on to upset third-seeded Villanova in triple overtime, advancing in the 1995 NCAA Tournament. It’s not likely it would have happened without Mullen’s 16 points, 10 rebounds and timely words of encouragement.

Jones, now the first-year head coach at his alma mater, is one of many among the ODU community in mourning. Mullen, who starred at Bayside High in Virginia Beach and ODU before becoming a high school teacher and coach, died Friday at age 50 after a brief illness.

A 6-foot-6 forward during his playing career, Mullen is remembered as a Swiss Army knife on the court with the ability to shoot, slash, pass, rebound and defend against more sizeable opponents.

“He was such a cerebral player,” Jones said Tuesday. “For someone to be as talented as he was that would be willing to do the dirty work, he was a phenomenal teammate. It was all about winning. I would coach 13 Mario Mullens if I could.”

Mullen taught special education and coached basketball at Ocean Lakes High. That came years after he averaged double figures as a highly touted freshman at ODU, earning All-Colonial Athletic Association freshman honors.

Odell Hodge, now an assistant to Jones, was Mullen’s roommate in college. The two remained close friends, even throughout Hodge’s lengthy stints playing and coaching in Europe.

Jones and Hodge visited Mullen in the ICU last week. Both thought he’d pull through, the way he did after a serious car accident briefly derailed Mullen’s playing career.

Instead, they were left in disbelief.

“It shook me to my core,” Hodge said. “I’m not going to see my mate again. It’s devastating. I can’t express that enough. But we’re all trying to be strong for each other.”

Funeral arrangements had not yet been finalized when Jones and Hodge spoke to media members Tuesday at the team’s practice facility.

Jones said he and athletic director Wood Selig had already begun discussing how the Monarchs might honor Mullen this upcoming season, whether it’s with a jersey patch or some other memorial.

When Jones was introduced as ODU’s coach in March, he’d spoken to Mullen the night before. Mullen told him he wouldn’t make it to the next day’s press conference.

When Jones entered the room at Chartway Arena, the first person he saw was his old friend.

More recently, Mullen had begun to get involved in ODU’s program.

Like all of his former teammates, Jones is wrapping his head around the fact that he won’t see Mullen again.

“It’s been rough, but it is what it is,” Jones said. “I hate to say it, but we’re all getting to an age where sometimes things like this — I won’t say are expected — but they’re not surprising. Mario was a little bit different because we had seen him just recently, and he was so excited for us and ready to jump two feet in and support everything we’re building here. So to have such a drastic change with him was very unexpected.”

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.

Cox High’s Ben Nacey and Maury’s CJ Parker are among the nine newcomers who will join fall signees Caden Diggs and Deion Ware for the upcoming season.

Nacey, a 6-8 freshman, averaged 21.7 points, 12.4 rebounds and 4.0 blocks per game for Cox. He was the Class 5 Region A Player of the Year and a first-team all-state selection.

“Ben will be a big part of the foundation that we are laying,” Jones said in a release. “His size stands out when you first see him, but his hands, touch and skill set will be what we all will remember him by.”

Parker is a 6-4 freshman swing player who also played football on Maury’s state championship team.

“CJ is the son of former UVA great Cornel Parker,” Jones said. “Like his dad, CJ has great size and a superb basketball IQ. His ability to compete on both ends of the floor provide our team with depth …”

Siena transfer Sean Durugordon, a 6-5 junior from Harlem, New York, brings in the most impressive college stats in the group. He averaged a team-high 18 points and 7.3 rebounds per game last season.

“Sean brings a tremendous amount of talent on both sides of the ball as well as level of college experience that we really wanted,” Jones said.

Other transfers include Robert Davis Jr., a 6-6 sophomore from UMass; Donovan Raymond, a 6-10 sophomore who played for Hampton University last season; Stephaun Walker, a 6-7 junior from Robert Morris; and Caelum Swanton-Rodger, a 7-foot junior who played for Maryland the past two seasons.

Walker averaged 9.9 points and 6.2 rebounds per game for Robert Morris last season. The other three saw limited playing time.

The remaining newcomers are high school recruits: 6-7 Caden Diggs of Bullis School (Maryland), 6-6 Scottie Hubbard of Jackson-Reed (Washington, D.C.), 6-2 Jaden Johnson of Fork Union Military Academy and Bishop McNamara High, and 6-4 Deion Ware of the Academy of Central Florida.

Johnson averaged 16 points, six assists and five rebounds for Fork Union last season.

The scene appeared to be fairly normal for the finish of an offseason workout — until it wasn’t.

When the competition wrapped up, the players chanted “USA! USA! USA!” as they jumped up and down and cheered.

The patriotic fervor was the result of the presence of a handful of special guests.

About seven pilots, members of the Navy VFA-106 Demo Team out of Naval Air Station Oceana, went through agility drills with the Monarchs. The visit was reciprocation for ODU’s visit to the base for a jet fighter demonstration last week.

Lt. Marty Wilson, a 38-year-old instructor pilot, was drenched in sweat by the time the pilots and the players finished sprinting and cutting between various arrangements of sticks and cones under the morning sun.

“We tried to teach a little bit to them about how we do things, and this was very much the other side of the coin here,” said Wilson, a 16-year Navy veteran. “We came out here to learn and see how the ODU football team applies some of our common traits to being successful in practices, and hopefully successful for them on the football field when the season starts in the fall.”

Monarchs head coach Ricky Rahne, whose father and uncles were in the military, said both teams picked each other’s brains.

Meanwhile, Rahne hoped to create some new fans while reminding his players how cool what they do can be.

“I think one thing that’s really important is that the other walks of life want to be you,” Rahne said. “They want to be able to experience that. Just like our guys want to be musicians and all that sort of stuff, guess what: The musicians all want to be athletes. So take advantage of the opportunities that you have and know that this is a pretty special deal to be able to play college football. And I think this was a great reminder of that.”

The exchange of experiences isn’t new. The Monarchs participated in similar activities before the pandemic paused them. Thursday marked its first resumption.

Wilson, a native of Lorton, said his group benefitted.

“There’s commonalities between the two organizations,” Wilson said. “The two that I saw were teamwork and diligence to detail. That applies to our organization. It applies to theirs. And sharing those things and strengthening those ideals is great. I’d love to do more of it.”

Rahne said many of his players and staffers come from families with military backgrounds, so making them understand the importance of what their visitors do was not difficult.

That was evident in how the morning ended.

“They get a pretty good sense of it,” Rahne said. “They went into that ‘USA’ chant pretty quick at the end.”

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.

The San Antonio Brahmas will take on the Birmingham Stallions in St. Louis, marking the conclusion of the spring professional football league’s first season after the XFL and USFL merged last winter.

Wide receiver Justin Smith, linebacker Tavante Beckett and defensive end Tim Ward are all on the Brahmas’ roster and have connections to the 757. Beckett attended Indian River High in Chesapeake, Ward played for Old Dominion and Smith for Norfolk State.

Smith said Wednesday he and his teammates are realizing just how special an opportunity they have to be the UFL’s first champions.

“In 50 years, I’ll have a ring and if you go to Google (and search) ‘who won the first UFL championship,’ it’ll be our team,” Smith said. “So like all of us are taking that into account and really realizing we have a really, really, really big opportunity in front of us.”

Last year, Smith played for the XFL’s Houston Roughnecks, bringing in 16 catches for 238 yards and one touchdown. When the merger of the XFL and USFL was announced, Smith said he was worried what it would mean for his roster spot until San Antonio picked him up in the XFL dispersal draft.

“It definitely was a sigh of relief,” Smith said. “But going into it, it was more like all right, I gotta get back to work. Because it is two leagues joining together with way more talent, everything, like way more competition. So I had to lock in and make sure I was ready to go.”

Smith has played well in his second season as a pro. He’s currently third in receiving for San Antonio with 25 catches for 265 yards and a touchdown.

The Brahmas defeated the St. Louis Battlehawks 25-15 last weekend in the XFL conference championship game. Smith made a 63-yard touchdown catch early that helped San Antonio build an early lead and silenced the St. Louis crowd.

“From catching the ball and to the end zone, nobody really was around me,” Smith said. “I just took that moment in, hearing 35,000 people just go quiet. It was a great time, it was a good feeling.”

WE ARE HERE!!! @Justoo_ gives us another TD and it's 13-0! #TorosUnidospic.twitter.com/feVhsjjoKy

— San Antonio Brahmas (@XFLBrahmas) June 10, 2024

Although Smith is a Richmond native, he knows he’ll be representing Hampton Roads on the national stage when he steps onto the field Sunday. It’s something he takes pride in.

“I’m always a Virginia advocate,” Smith said. “We got a lot of DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia) guys here. So I feel like us and the DMV as a whole, we always get overlooked, but especially in Virginia. I’m gonna put on for the 804, of course, but going to Norfolk State, I really got a lot of love for 757. (There’s) a lot of talent that comes out of the 757. So, just being remembered as one of the guys to come out, especially for sports, with all the great athletes like Allen Iverson, Mike Vick, guys like that, it’ll be something for sure.”

As an alum of an HBCU and someone whose initial opportunity in the pros was catapulted by the XFL’s HBCU Showcase, Smith is hoping his success in the UFL is an example that anyone from Norfolk State or other HBCUs can achieve the same.

“Come to Norfolk State, you’ll get opportunities in the league,” he said. “A lot of talent comes through Norfolk State, a lot of talent in general at HBCUs. … So there’s a lot of talent out here at HBCUs and hopefully people are starting to open their eyes to it.”

The game

UFL championship

Sunday: Birmingham Stallions (10-1) vs. San Antonio Brahmas (8-3), 5 p.m. (WVBT)

757 connections in game

• San Antonio LB Tavante Beckett (Indian River HS)
• San Antonio OL Rashaad Coward (Old Dominion)
• San Antonio DE Tim Ward (Old Dominion)
• San Antonio WR Justin Smith (Norfolk State)

Michael Sauls, (757) 803-5774, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com

The contract, signed by Jones on May 2 and by athletic director Wood Selig and university president Brian O. Hemphill a day later, is for five years and includes an automatic one-year extension for each time the Monarchs reach the NCAA Tournament.

The Monarchs hired Jones, 50, on March 1 to replace Jeff Jones, who retired after a pair of health issues cut short his 2023-24 season. Mike Jones had most recently been an assistant at Maryland and Virginia Tech after 19 seasons as the head coach at Maryland’s DeMatha Catholic High.

Asked about his incentive-laden deal after a team workout this week, Mike Jones chuckled.

“To be honest with you, I haven’t really looked at my contract,” the former ODU star said. “I let my agent handle that. I wanted to be here. Yeah, I want to be here. This is home for me, and I’m excited to be here.”

Among the incentives in the contract:

• A $10,000 bonus for an outright regular-season conference championship or a $5,000 bonus for a shared title.
• $5,000 for an appearance in the conference tournament championship game.
• A $25,000 bonus for an appearance in the NCAA Tournament as well as a $25,000 increase in supplemental pay for each year remaining on the contract.
• $10,000 per NCAA Tournament win.
• $50,000 for a Final Four appearance.
• $100,000 for a national championship.
• A $20,000 pool bonus for Jones’ assistants for reaching the NCAA Tournament.
• A $25,000 pool bonus for Jones’ assistants for reaching the Final Four.

The contract also includes a $20,000 bonus for moving expenses, courtesy cars for Jones and his spouse and a country club membership.

The contract, which is fairly standard, is similar to that of Jeff Jones, whose base salary of $242,012 was supplemented by $283,200 in private funds as well as a number of the same kinds of performance-based incentives.

Mike Jones admitted this week, as he did during his introductory press conference, that his agent found him to be a poor negotiator after landing the job at his alma mater.

“I’m looking forward to this,” Jones said, motioning toward the court at the Monarchs’ practice facility as his players put up shots and continued to try to get to know each other. “Those things, they are what they are. I don’t want to say I don’t care. Obviously, I have to. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s not at the top of my priorities.”

ODU returns six players, including four on scholarship, from a hard-luck team that went 7-25 overall and 3-15 in the Sun Belt Conference last season.

The Monarchs finished the season under interim coach Kieran Donohue, who remains at the school in a fundraising role.

Two top players, including leading scorer Vasean Allette, were dismissed from the team for disciplinary reasons during the season.

A handful of others, including remaining leading scorer Chaunce Jenkins, entered the transfer portal after the season, leaving Mike Jones to rebuild the roster like many coaches around the country are forced to do in college basketball’s current transient climate.

Jeff Jones suffered a heart attack in December while the team was playing in a tournament in Hawaii. A later recurrence of prostate cancer conspired to end his season and ultimately helped lead to his retirement after a combined 41 years at the University of Virginia, American University and ODU.

Mike Jones, meanwhile, seeks one more scholarship player to add to a sea of new faces. He and his wife, Stayce, are getting settled back into the area, and they have a promising lead on a home they hope to purchase in the coming weeks.

“If we’re able to do that, I’ll feel much better, much more comfortable,” Jones said. “But to be honest with you again, my focus is on filling the roster out.”

___

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.