NSU men rounding into form in conference

The Nicholls State men’s basketball team posted just a 1-9 record in non-conference play.

Since then, they’ve hit the proverbial reset button and have turned around their season.

With Southland Conference play has come new results for the Colonels, who posted a 5-3 record in the opening games of league play – a mark that has the team expecting to make a push for the Southland Conference Tournament Championship in March.

“Right now, we’re beginning to come together,” junior guard Jeremy Smith said. “We’re really trying to play our best ball to make a push.”

There’s one obvious reason for the Colonels’ struggles – a hellacious early-season schedule.

Nicholls opened its season playing several major-conference opponents – a laundry list of foes including Vanderbilt, Missouri, Michigan State, Nebraska and Utah State.

The Colonels held their own in a lot of those games, dropping some of them by single digits.

But the losses piled nonetheless, which hunkered the team down in the standings.

Nicholls coach J.P. Piper said the team plays such a difficult slate because of financial constraints facing the school’s athletic department.

He added that he constantly preaches to the team that they shouldn’t focus on its win/loss record in those games, but should rather look at the opportunity the team receives in each game.

“We’re blessed to be able to go to Michigan State and to Missouri,” Piper said. “Those teams are ranked in the Top 25. To go there and play, our guys should be excited about that. We don’t want them to focus on the fact that we struggled and lost the game.

“But at the end of the day, those teams aren’t in our league. The teams in our league are just like us and we’ve got to find a way to beat those teams, so lets use the lessons we learned there to go and win.”

Smith agreed with Piper and said the team kept an open mind amidst their early struggles.

He said the team had to be really creative when looking through the standings to avoid feeling down on themselves.

“It’s very hard to do – to reset and see yourself as 0-0 again,” Smith said. “We look at the newspaper like anyone else. We see it and say, ‘They’re 4-1 and we’re 1-4.’ It’d be easy to see that and think we’re in big trouble. But when you dig deeper in the numbers, you see that the 4-1 team didn’t play anybody, while we did.

“You just have to use your imagination a little bit to visualize how things would be if everyone played our schedule. And guess what? If they did – they’d have had the same results as we did.”

Visualization and mindset are nice.

Having senior forward Fred Hunter helps, too.

The Nicholls senior has made a giant splash in his return from a torn ACL. He currently is averaging 18.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game – while shooting 54.4 percent from the field.

Hunter said he feels fine physically after missing a year and a half with the injury.

He added that he’s able to succeed because of the unselfishness of his teammates to accept him back into the rotation.

“Everyone has really come together and kept a mental focus throughout the season,” Hunter said. “We like to say that everyone on our team is a leader. We have great chemistry here. We have a lot of guys who know how to do the things necessary to win.”

With that chemistry has come an offensive balance.

In addition to Hunter and Smith, Nicholls has a slew of players capable of contributing double-digit points in a game – a group consisting of players like sophomore guard Shane Rillieux, freshman guard T.J. Carpenter and junior Dantrell Thomas, among others.

Smith said that balance allows the Colonels’ offense to be complete – a dangerous thing in basketball.

Dangerous for Nicholls’ opponents, that is.

“We all play off each other,” Smith said. “We have Fred in the post – we all know that. He’s dominant on the inside. When he gets the ball, we all know when to cut, where to go what to do.”

“It’s just chemistry – on and off the court. We are a team that’s close. We are a team that has a lot of guys who like one another. That gives us a little bit of an edge when we’re in games.”

The thing Nicholls must now master going forward is consistency.

The Colonels have won more games lately, but they’ve failed to string together victories – alternating wins and losses in each of their first seven Southland games until Saturday’s win against Sam Houston State – their second in a row.

Hunter said that needs to continue.

“We have to give a more consistent effort,” Hunter said. “We gave away too many games early in the season.”

Smith agreed, but said he believes the team has what it takes to rattle off consecutive victories.

When that happens, the final product could be something memorable, according to the team’s players.

“We can win the league,” Smith said.

“We want to go there and win the tournament – that’s the goal,” Hunter added. “Why would anyone say that they wanted to do anything less?”

Nicholls State senior forward Fred Hunter dribbles through traffic during the Colonels’ victory against Central Arkansas in January. Hunter and the Colonels have rebounded from a slow non-conference start and have found victories in Southland play. Nicholls started the conference season with four wins in their first seven games. 

Misty Leigh McElroy