Dominance continued: SL teams take district titles
October 29, 2013
BREAKING: Coach, girlfriend, 3 others given criminal summons after Destrehan forfeitures
October 30, 2013
Nicholls State women’s basketball coach DoBee Plaisance is always excited at the start of a new season.
But this year, Plaisance has a little bit of an extra hop in her step. That’s because her Colonels are loaded with both talent and experience – a combination that has Nicholls thinking about the NCAA Tournament.
After graduating just one player off last season’s 19-win squad, the Colonels believe they have what it takes to make a push for the Southland Conference Championship in 2013-14.
“We’re there,” Plaisance said. “Everything is in place. The light we see at the end of the tunnel is so big and bright. What’s going to decide whether we reach our goals is how we handle things now that it’s all in place.”
At least one and maybe two preseason All-Southland performers will guide Nicholls’ hopes in 2013-14.
Senior guard KK Babin is back for her fourth-straight year as Nicholls’ starting point guard.
The 5-foot, 4-inch Gonzales native averaged 13.2 points and 5 assists per game last season – enough to garner Third-Team All-Southland Conference honors.
Plaisance said having a point guard with as much experience as Babin is a huge coup for the Colonels.
Babin has started since her first day on Nicholls’ campus. She has played every, single minute in more than 70 of her 90 career games.
“Coaches say the cliché, ‘A second coach on the floor.’ Well that’s KK,” Plaisance said. “She’s a leader. She makes her teammates better. KK is a great player for us, and as awesome as she’s been, I think her best year may be here.”
Babin said she is happy to have another season with the Colonels. She said she embraces the role of being a leader and hopes to lead the Colonels to bigger and better things in the upcoming season.
“It’s bittersweet with it being my last year,” Babin said. “But I think everything is in place for us to have a great year.”
Senior forward LiAnn McCarthy may be the icing on the cake.
Like Babin, the New Orleans native is preparing for her fourth season with the team – a starter in every year.
McCarthy averaged 8.6 points per game last year in the 25 games she played. She missed the back-end of last season with a torn ACL injury that required an offseason of rehab and conditioning.
McCarthy is six months removed from the setback and both player and coach hope she will be available this season.
If McCarthy can’t play, she will redshirt and be back next season.
“We’re praying,” Plaisance said. “We’d love to have her here with us. She’s getting better, but we want her 100 percent.”
Names like Babin and McCarthy are stalwarts in the program’s turnaround from cellar dweller to perennial Southland contender.
But it’s the team’s new contributors that have Plaisance smiling for the future.
Babin’s replacement, sophomore point guard Emani White, returns after averaging 8.9 points per game last season as a true freshman. White is a versatile offensive player and lethal 3-point shooter, shooting 34.7 percent from behind the arc last season.
“She takes a lot of the load off me,” Babin said. “She allows me to play off the ball. She’s a hard worker and an awesome player.”
Plaisance also seemed excited about the returns of sophomore guard Hope Pawlowski, junior guard Jenny Nash, junior center JonMarie Guillory and junior forward Syeida Ellis – players that all pitched in key minutes to Nicholls last season.
The Colonels also landed several talented recruits in their latest class, hauling in prospects like freshmen Marina Lilly, Elexus Allen and Taylor Morrison.
“We have all of the positions now,” McCarthy said. “We look like a basketball team now one-to-five. We have posts, forwards and guards. That’s a blessing.”
To reach the top, the Colonels will have to endure a tough schedule. The Colonels will play Baylor, Georgetown, Louisiana Tech, Texas A&M and Southern Mississippi in non-conference play.
Plaisance said those games will keep the team ripe before Southland play begins and the team begins its run toward the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s been 40 years,” Plaisance said, referencing the history of the Colonels’ program. “God willing, we hope it’s our turn.”
“We’ve seen other teams have their time,” Babin agreed. “I think we all feel like it’s our turn now.”
