First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
January 17, 2019
Sposito lauds colleagues as she leaves chair role
January 17, 2019
When Richie Riley left Nicholls for an opportunity at the same job with South Alabama, the Colonels had two options for a replacement.
Not literally two options. Several men applied for the job. But what I mean is they had two basic philosophies to pick from.
The first option would have been to enact significant change.
The Colonels had candidates from outside of the program — namely LSU-Alexandria men’s basketball coach Larry Cordaro. His ability to recruit and his track record for coaching winning basketball over the past several years was attractive and he, undoubtedly, was an attractive hire — as were others who applied for the job.
The second was to keep Riley’s momentum going with one of his assistant coaches — namely Austin Claunch.
The Colonels chose the second option after their search, opting to hire Claunch in an effort to keep the same philosophy in place at Nicholls — one which focused heavily on high-octane, fast-paced offense, pressure defense and aggressive, opportunistic recruiting that focused heavily on transfer students and graduate transfers from around the country.
Flash forward into the present and it’s hard to argue that
Athletic Director Matt Roan’s decision to promote Claunch is paying off.
The Colonels are 10-7 overall and they sit at 3-1 in the Southland Conference. The Colonels, believe it or not, are ahead of last year’s pace through 17 games. Last year’s team sat 9-8 overall and 3-1 in the conference.
On the surface, that may not seem like significant progress, but please remember the circumstances that Claunch inherited at Nicholls.
The Colonels had to replace their top five scorers off last year’s team — guys who accounted for almost 80 percent of the team’s offense. Roddy Peters is gone. Tevon Saddler is gone. Those guys are bonafide professional basketball talents — among the most talented players in the history of the program.
The Colonels also had to replace sharpshooter Lafayette Rutledge, slasher Jahvaughn Powell, explosive post Kimani Jackson, shooter Stevie Repichowski and massive rim protector Legend Robertin — all in one fell swoop.
But so far, the Colonels have picked up the pieces and have plugged in all of the holes in the ship with an almost entirely new roster full of hungry, talented players — a huge credit to Claunch and his staff.
Jeremiah Jefferson is a bonafide star player — the type of guy who is going to change the way that teams play defense throughout games. He averages 16.4 points per game and he can score from everywhere on the floor. He can get to the rim, make the mid-range jumper and is lethal from 3, shooting almost 40 percent for the season.
But he’s also a willing passer and when teams adjust to Jefferson, the other guys on the floor are capable of beating opponents — role players who are evolving into star players.
Gavin Peppers is one of those guys. He averages 13.5 points per game and is one of the best free throw shooters in the entire country.
Brandon Moore and Elvis Harvey are long, lanky and have next-level bodies and athleticism. They will cause matchup problems for the rest of the season.
And of course, the returnees are giving the team glue.
Sophomore Kevin Johnson does all of the dirty work. The E.D. White graduate defends on the perimeter, gets rebounds and is evolving into a pure point guard. He has a team-high 72 assists (tops on the team by a lot) and he also leads the team with 28 steals.
Post player Daniel Regis is the rim protector, owning a team-high 2 blocks per game. His post presence, as well as that of Ryghe Lyons is helping the team on the inside.
Where it all goes from here, we have to wait and find out, but there’s no doubt that the Colonels are exceeding expectations from those on the outside.
Beating Stephen F. Austin was a historic win — the first time in almost a decade that the Colonels slayed the Southland Conference Goliath. That win shows that these guys aren’t a joke and they have a chance to be one of the top teams in the league when the final games of the season are played.
And that speaks to the wisdom of Claunch and also to the wisdom of Roan for believing in the young coach (the youngest in the country) and making the decision to run it the “Riley Way.”
And that success should bring some stability into the program going forward.
Right now, the Colonels are transfer-heavy, which is fine. But it creates a lot of turnover and affects your APR score over the long haul, if not executed properly.
Now that Nicholls is winning and is establishing themselves, they should be able to attract higher-end local talent via four-year players, which should help the team continue to grow.
And that’s a good thing.
Tip your cap to Nicholls. The start to the season has been awesome. So far, they’re proving a lot of people wrong — myself included.
That Austin Claunch is young, but he can recruit and he can coach.
And that should make Nicholls fans very, very excited about the future.
