Long journey eventually leads Bose to Nicholls

Sitting in his family’s home in New York, a young Anatoly Bose received a gift from his father.

The gift was a video game – NBA Live Basketball ’96.

To most kids, that gift would be commonplace as the NBA Live franchise has sold millions of copies since its inception in the late 1980s.

But to Bose, it was the start of a new chapter in his life – a chapter that is currently taking place at Nicholls State University and is taking the Southland Conference by storm.

“I was about eight-years-old and didn’t even know basketball existed,” Bose said. “But I started learning the game and I went out and bought a basketball and started going to the parks.”

New York is just one of many places the Colonels’ forward has called home.

Bose was born in Kazakhstan in 1988. His father’s work obligations moved his family around the globe throughout his childhood.

Along the way, Bose has had stops in Russia, New York and Sydney, Australia, before his current stop in Thibodaux.

“I’ve seen so many cultures and so many experiences,” Bose said. “It’s been pretty remarkable. It’s made me who I am today.”

It was in New York where Bose started to play basketball, but it was a few years later in Sydney Australia where he started to excel. Bose averaged 22.5 points per game and 12.8 rebounds per game in his final season of high school – putting college basketball on his radar.

“I got an e-mail from him and a DVD when he was in high school,” said Nicholls men’s basketball coach J.P. Piper. “He sent us almost like a mini-résumé and he had on there some names that we already knew from our own contacts and they recommended us to start looking harder at him.”

Bose said overall he was recruited by just “a few schools” and chose Nicholls, thanks in part to a recommendation he received from a former Colonel player – Stefan Blaszczynski.

“I spoke to Stefan Blaszczynski, and he told me there were a lot of Australian players here,” he said. “So I talked to Coach Piper and I just liked the way he was wired and I could just tell he really cared about me.”

At Nicholls, Bose hit the ground running and started 12 games as a true freshman, averaging nearly 11 points per game.

Piper said he was never concerned about Bose’s transition to South Louisiana.

“What’s great about the Australian kids is their culture blends very well with ours here,” the coach said. “The desire to have a good time, the desire to enjoy the company of other people – to laugh, relax and eat well – they are very comfortable down here. And when their parents come down here, they blend in very well here, too.”

Bose took on a more expanded role in his sophomore season and was named to All-Southland Conference’s Third Team after averaging 15 points per game.

But following last season, the Colonels lost their emotional leaders Ryan Bathie and Justin Payne to graduation, leaving the timid Bose to make a new type of transition in his life.

“I’ve always been very quiet,” he said. “But this has brought me out of my shell. Being a leader is a new thing for me.”

So far this season, the transition has gone well for Bose and he has upped his average to 19.6 points per game – third in the Southland Conference.

Bose has used his 6-foot-6-inch frame to create mismatches for opposing defenses with his ability to score from anywhere on the floor, which has allowed him to score 20 or more points in seven of the team’s past eight games.

“That’s how Anatoly has to play for us to win in this league,” said sophomore forward Fred Hunter. “He’s our best player and when he’s rolling, we’re more than likely going to win, because everybody feeds off him.”

But Piper said the biggest change he’s seen this season in Bose has been his willingness to play with the same energy on defense as he does on offense.

“Last year, we’d put him on the other team’s worst player, but this year, we’re putting him on their best player,” he said. “Early on, he was getting torched, but as we’ve progressed, he’s taken the other team’s leading scorer and regularly holding them 8-to-10 points below their scoring average.”

With still one more season to go in his Nicholls career, there are rumblings Bose might be capable of taking his game to the NBA.

But Bose said the thought of potentially being on a video game himself as an NBA player is not yet in his vision.

“I still don’t think I’m that good at basketball,” he said with a smile.

Anatole Bose

Misty McElroy