The Colonels basketball team has started its Southland Conference schedule with the best record since the 2000-2001 season when the squad began the season with a 5-0 start.After finishing off a pre-conference schedule which featured games against opponents from the Big Ten, Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference, the Colonels have begun their conference season with a 3-1 record.
The Colonels collected wins at home over Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston State and Southeastern Louisiana University while their lone conference loss was to the University of Louisiana at Monroe on the road. Overall the Colonels have a 7-8 record with non-conference wins over Maryland-Eastern Shore, Kentucky Christian, Centenary and Jackson State.
The squad will return to action tonight when it travels to Lake Charles to take on McNeese State at 7 p.m. It will also play at Texas-Arlington on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Last year’s squad finished conference play with one win in 17 conference games. This season’s squad returned one starter and three players from last year. It opened up conference play winning its first two games against Stephen F. Austin (77-71) and Sam Houston State (80-73) before falling on the road to ULM.
Along with starting their conference season with the most success since the 2000-2001 season, the Colonels also have the most wins in a season since that year.
Head men’s basketball coach J.P. Piper said he is pleased with the way his squad has played this season.
“We’re probably a little ahead of where we expected to be,” Piper said. “I wasn’t sure that opening up 2-0 in conference was a realistic possibility, but we were able to do that.”
Piper said the loss at Louisiana-Monroe provided his squad with a lesson because he said the team did not prepare enough for the Indians, who defeated the Colonels 78-59 in Monroe.
This year’s squad has 10 newcomers, including nine true freshmen. Piper said his freshmen’s impact has been great. He said they put in additional time to improve and are easy to coach.
“They really fit together nicely,” Piper said. “If guys don’t get along and don’t care for one another, it’s hard to play together out on the floor. I think what’s been most remarkable is these kids seem to understand that, and they work hard at being a basketball family.”
Several freshmen lead the team in statistical categories. Guard Kevin Goffney leads the squad in field goal percentage (66.7), and center Chris Paige leads the team with 20 blocks. Paige along with guard Justin Payne are tops in three-point percentage (40.0).
As of January 14 conference statistics, freshman guard Ryan Bathie ranks 15th in the conference in three-point percentage and is ninth in three pointers per game. Freshman guard Michael Czepil is 11th in three pointers per game and 15th in defensive rebounds per game. Paige is fifth in block shots per game.
After playing their first seven games of the season on the road, the Colonels returned home for their first home games. Because leaky ice chests in Stopher Gym where New Orleans evacuees stayed following Hurricane Katrina damaged the floor, the Colonels played their first two home games at South Lafourche High School in Galliano and the Alario Center in Westwego.
The Colonels beat Kentucky Christian at South Lafourche and fell to Lipscomb at the Alario Center.
Piper said he was not sure if playing at the Alario Center and South Lafourche expanded the Colonels’ fan base, but he was hopeful it did. He said playing at these sites had been talked about before, but the idea was never pursued. Now that his team has been able to play at these facilities, Piper said he would like to do it again to draw fans from those two areas of the state.
Following the Lipscomb game, the Colonels were able to return home to Stopher Gym on Dec. 22 to play their first game against Centenary on a portable floor from the Thibodaux Civic Center that was placed on the damaged court.
The Colonels beat the Gents 89-80, which began a four-game winning streak.
The team concluded its non-conference schedule with a 93-87 victory over Jackson State before beginning its conference schedule with two straight wins.
Piper believes his team will finish out the season on the portable floor but is not certain. He said if the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the state of Louisiana and the Nicholls Administration decide the floor has to be put in during the season, the Colonels will play at alternative sites again.
Piper said if that happens, H.L. Bourgeois High School in Gray will be the first choice for home games.
Piper said he expects work to begin on the floor in mid-March and to be completed by this summer, but if plans change, he is unsure of what will happen.
With the rest of his squad’s season filled with Southland Conference games, Piper is uncertain of how things will pan out for everyone in the conference.
“I’m scratching my head right now about who’s going to fall where in this conference race,” Piper said. “Before we beat those two teams to open conference, I’d have told you we were in the bottom two or three in the league, and we’d have to scratch and claw to be in that eight spot in the tournament.”
He said if his team is ready to play and play hard, then they can compete with everyone in the league.
“I think we need to win our games at home and find a way to win a few on the road which we’ve not yet been able to do in conference since I’ve been at Nicholls,” Piper said. “I think that’s the next step for us.
