Tuesday, Jan. 25
January 25, 2011Thursday, Jan. 27
January 27, 2011
Maybe it’s the bus rides in cramped and uncomfortable fabric seats.
Maybe it’s the lumpy hotel room beds and the stale continental breakfast on the day of a game.
Or maybe it’s the team’s lofty expectations after beating LSU, a victory that snapped the Tiger’s monumental winning streak against in-state opponents.
Whatever the reason, the Nicholls State men’s basketball team is searching for answers after limping to a 0-2 start on the road in Southland Conference play.
“Basically, we just have to figure out how to win [Southland games] on the road, there’s no question about it,” junior guard Ben Martin said. “Right now, we just feel like we’re not the same team away from home and we have to get that fixed.”
The root of the Colonels’ recent road woes have mostly come on the offensive end of the floor.
In the team’s two losses, at Sam Houston State and at Northwestern State, Nicholls has combined to shoot just 36 percent from the field, a drastic drop from the team’s 45 percent shooting percentage for the season.
“We just struggle offensively,” Colonels coach J.P. Piper said. “We just don’t make baskets. I thought we executed well in both games, we just didn’t score. We missed five layups against Northwestern. That’s 10 points. We lost by nine. Quite frankly, if you make those plays, it changes the complexion of the game to where it may play out differently and you’d have a chance to have things easily in our favor.”
Junior forward Fred Hunter agreed and said the statistics especially shock him because with a veteran-laden team, he doesn’t believe nerves are a cause of the team’s failures.
“I honestly don’t know what we’ve done wrong in the away games, I seriously couldn’t tell you,” Hunter said. “We just kind of let things get away from us and we just lost it, weren’t focused and weren’t playing like ourselves.”
While players scramble for answers, Piper has another theory why the team is struggling offensively away from Stopher Gymnasium: success and expectations.
As always, Nicholls played a fierce non-conference schedule that took the team into places as challenging as Oklahoma State, Wichita State, Mississippi State, LSU and Texas A&M.
For all intents and purposes, Nicholls held their own in most of those games, keeping the score close despite the hostile crowds.
But Piper admitted Nicholls was “supposed to lose” those games.
Piper added he believes the problem is his team’s inexperience in closing out opponents in games against opponents on their competitive level.
“When you look at what we’ve been through, you play at Wichita State, you play Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, if you look at the teams we’d played on the road, we didn’t play a Northwestern State-type team on the road. In my mind, as frustrated as I am, I have to remind myself that it’s fair for them to not quite have it figured out yet in league play. It would have been nice to have some opponents on our level on the road in the non-conference, so we could have figured out how to put a team away on the road when we have them in the position to put them away. … Hopefully we’ll be in that position in the next few weeks and hopefully we’ll finish somebody off.”
Fortunately for Nicholls, they have plenty of time to prepare as the team is enjoying the comforts of a four-game home stand, which begun last Wednesday with a 70-51 win against Central Arkansas.
Since 2008-09 Nicholls is 27-4 in Stopher Gymnasium, compared to just 10-24 away from home.
Piper said taking the traits that make the team successful at home to the road is the next step in the team’s progression.
The coach hopes to see the team play better through adversity when the crowd isn’t wearing Red and White.
“It just really sinks us on the road,” Piper said. “These things just don’t bother as much here at home and we just keep playing. But on the road, we kind of wear it. I think that’s the key to becoming a better team on the road. We’ve got to learn how to better handle that adversity that’s inevitable in the game. It doesn’t seem to faze us when we’re at home, but it kind of gets us when we’re away. We get antsy, we get nervous, we get worried. We just need to relax and play. Trust what we do. Don’t press the panic button.”
Until then, there’s no place like home for the Colonels with the conference tournament looming.
Nicholls State junior forward Fred Hunter throws up a shot in traffic during a game earlier this season. The Colonels are hoping to find road consistency, struggling to an 0-2 start in conference play away from Stopher Gymnasium. NSU SPORTS MEDIA
