Mother and daughter set for big years at Nicholls and LSU

Nicholls State women’s basketball practice has been over for probably 10 minutes or so now on this particular early November day.

It was the team’s first day practicing in Shaver Gymnasium and things were just a little rusty.

That’s never a good time for a reporter to be scheduled to talk with a coach.

I gingerly trudge toward the bleachers to await my awkward moments talking to what will surely be an angry DoBee Plaisance.

What I get when I arrive is not what I expected.

Coach Plaisance wasn’t angry at all.

“Did you see what Theresa did last night?” DoBee boasts with a giant smile, shaking my hand. “Right now, I’m a proud momma!”

If it hasn’t been made obvious by now, the Nicholls coach is the mother of former Vandebilt-turned LSU forward Theresa Plaisance, who the night before had dropped 20 points in the Lady Tigers’ exhibition rout of Xavier (NO).

“She protected the ball,” DoBee adds, adding her coaching instincts to her motherly pride.

Theresa Plaisance struggled a little bit in her freshman year and didn’t have the impact she wanted to have. Heck, “struggled” is a little bit of a bad word choice, because that would indicate an opportunity being given in the first place.

Former Lady Tigers coach Van Chancellor has always been a little bit nervous about playing inexperienced players, so Theresa never saw much burn in 2010-11.

I’m not fully sure why. Watch the kid play and it’s clear she’s always one of the better players in the gym, but she never was able to firmly establish herself as a full-time player within LSU’s rotation.

Van Chancellor’s a Hall of Fame coach and has won something like 4 million games in his career, so it’s not my place to second guess his decisions.

But with that said, it’s at least debatable that he slipped up on this particular one because I’m pretty sure any team can use a 6-foot, 5-inch player who can score both inside and outside and also rebound the basketball.

Chancellor resigned following the season and LSU hired former UCLA coach Nikki Caldwell to take his place.

By all accounts, the common sense light bulb has finally been lit. Theresa is now being given an opportunity to shine.

The world is about to see what our local can do.

In LSU’s scrimmage against Xavier, the game DoBee was referencing, Theresa scored 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting.

She scored inside, she scored outside, she scored from anywhere on the floor, she basically was a women’s basketball honey badger, taking what she wanted, when she wanted it.

In the Lady Tigers’ first true test, a season-opening win against Wichita State, Plaisance’s stats were chopped down to just 5 points, but her impact was still felt as 3 of those 5 came via a huge 3-pointer to help the Lady Tigers take control.

Theresa’s success needs to be viewed with sound perspective. She’s ultimately a sophomore in a new offense, so there will be ups and downs.

At least she’s being given the opportunity. Something she wasn’t given before.

I’m not a betting man, but I’m betting on raw talent over a lack of talent any day of the week.

Momma will sit back all day and talk about Theresa if you’d allow her to.

She’ll show you pictures, she’ll tell you stories about how gifted her daughter is. With good reason. It’s all true.

But don’t let motherly love blind your vision. DoBee’s got some pretty big plans for 2011-12, too.

The Nicholls State women’s basketball team isn’t exactly the most prestigious program in the world.

In the past, if they didn’t finish last place in the conference, it was a good year. If they won 10 games in a season, it was, straight-up, a cause for celebration.

In fact, if there were a college basketball stock market, their stock would be some of the cheapest on the lot.

But in a down economy I have a little insider information to share: buy gobs and gobs of Colonels stock right now.

You won’t regret it. The Colonels are clearly on an upward swing.

Nicholls returns virtually all of its 2010-11 team this year.

The Colonels’ record was nothing to brag about a year ago, but they made a valuable step in their program’s development; competitiveness.

The team hung with virtually everyone they played, even taking eventual conference champion McNeese State down to the wire.

A lot of that gritty, tough personality comes from the team’s coach, who is as energetic as they get when it comes to basketball.

DoBee Plaisance isn’t the first solid coach the Nicholls women have had.

But she’s the first to sell a vision. An image that Nicholls doesn’t have to be below average. An image that attending the school places one in the position to not follow an already paved path, but to instead build a road for yourself.

That’s the image that players like KK Babin, Alisha Allen and Sumar Leslie have bought into.

That’s the image that future players are currently mulling over. Plaisance believes she has a chance at a heck of a 2012 recruiting class.

With an added year of experience, Nicholls will win a bunch of those games they narrowly missed last year.

Some games might not even need to be close at all , the Colonels just might be the better team and win handily.

That’d be a first in the recent history of the program.

But then again, there’s also never been a DoBee Plaisance around these parts, either, nor a Theresa, for that matter.

Those Plaisances are about to do big things to turn Louisiana women’s basketball upside down.