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February 1, 2011Thursday, Feb. 3
February 3, 2011
Ask any Nicholls State fan or opponent to name two Colonels’ players and they’ll probably be quick to blurt out the names Anatoly Bose and Fred Hunter.
Those two are the obvious ones. They combine to average 37.4 of the Colonels’ 67 points per game this season.
Ask any Nicholls State fan or opponent to then name the other three players in the team’s starting lineup and their success rate might not be quite as high.
But despite their lack of statistical success and campus-wide recognition, it’s the Colonels’ “lesser-known’s” who are arguably making Nicholls tick and are thus keeping the team alive in its push for a conference title and an NCAA Tournament berth.
“We just do what we have to do,” Colonels senior guard Kenny Franklin said. “We just play together. It’s a family thing. It’s a ‘we’ thing, not a ‘me’ thing.”
What the Colonels’ “other three guys” primarily have to do is defend, according to Nicholls coach J.P. Piper.
He said when he mapped out his team’s starting five in the fall, he looked for the three best players that could protect the perimeter and thus, keep Bose and Hunter out of situations where they’d pick up cheap fouls and be out of the game.
It was from that grading curve that Franklin, junior guard Ben Martin and senior guard Kellan Carter officially etched their spots into the first five – a lineup Nicholls has had for every game but one this season.
“Really what we do is we talk about that first wall of defense, which for us is Kenny, Kellan and Ben,” Piper said. “That’s because (Bose) and (Hunter) are usually guarding our opponent’s post players or interior players. So that first wall in my mind is a pretty good group. They really do a good job. And that’s those three guys.”
With defense taken care of, the team’s “unsung heroes” then get to focus their attention to the offensive side of the ball, where again their jobs are to protect Bose and Hunter.
With defenders sometimes looking to double or triple team the Colonels’ two primary scorers, Franklin, Carter and Martin all agreed it’s their primary role to make defenders pay a steep price when they are paying too much attention to the Colonels’ most dangerous offensive players.
“We know coming in game to game, everyone’s going to have 90 percent of their focus on Fred and Toly,” Martin said. “So we know when they double team and whatnot, we’ve just got to just step up and make plays around the rim and knock down shots for them and by us doing that, it creates plays for them as well. We just feed off of them offensively and try to make plays when we get the opportunity.”
Carter agreed and said once a few shots fall, they can then turn the game plan inside-out and work to create offense for Bose and Hunter.
“We’ll look to get going, then we’ll always try to get them open and try to get them going, too,” Carter said. “We actually try to get them going early, because if they get going early, it’s going to be a long night for our opponent, so that’s how we feel and I know that’s how all three of us feel.”
Regardless of how well or how poorly the Colonels’ unknown trio does their job, they probably won’t get noticed – something that each player admitted took some time to adjust to out of high school where they were their team’s primary offensive players.
But with a spot in the NCAA Tournament perhaps hanging in the balance?
These guys are happy to do anything they can to win.
“I’ll do whatever it takes for me and my team to get the win,” Franklin said. “If getting the ball to the best player or to the high man is that, then that’s what we’ve got to do. I can score zero a night and have six assists and be totally happy if we’re winning.”
Carter agreed and said he’d rather do the little things and be on the floor, than try to play outside of Nicholls’ system and be benched.
“It’s really just about accepting your role and loving to play basketball. If you love playing basketball, you’ll do whatever you have to do to help your team,” he said. “Just accept your role and play. I think we get our respect. I know we get respect from Toly and Fred. I think we get it from people around here, too, and I know we get it from our team, so we don’t worry about that.”
It’s that mentality that helps make the Colonels tick, according to Piper who said it’s sometimes difficult to find good role players in a collegiate basketball program.
He said he’s blessed to have several on this year’s squad and he believes it’s not a coincidence that this year’s team is one of the best he’s ever had at Nicholls.
“We just have tremendous young men,” Piper said. “Kellan doesn’t have a selfish bone in his body and he’ll do whatever we need him to do. Ben’s the same way. Kenny’s the same way. These guys are very content and they understand their roles and they understand their values to the team.”
Who knows? By the end of the season, maybe more people will know their names.
If not, they are OK with that, too.
The Nicholls men’s basketball team gets more than 50 percent of its scoring from Anatoly Bose and Fred Hunter, but the players surrounding the duo are pitching in as well. Pictured are (top row, from left) Hunter, Kenny Franklin, Ben Martin, (middle row) Dantrelle Thomas, Bose, Chris Talkinton, (bottom row) Elridge Moore, Bryan Hammond and Kellan Carter. COURTESY PHOTOS
