Nicholls State head basketball coach Louise Bonin is more than excited about this team’s potential and the possibility of having a great season.
After missing last year’s post-season and finishing Southland Conference play in seventh place, the Lady Colonels finished the off-season and are now ready to begin play. “The preseason workouts came and went a lot faster than I expected it to. The preseason probably moved faster than any other preseason we’ve had here,” Bonin said.
“The work outs went remarkably well. I think it’s no different from what we’ve experienced in years past,” Bonin said , “We had some players come back in better shape than others, but the important thing is we all got through the pre-season, and I think we’ve established a level of foundation that we can build on going into our in-season workouts in terms of our level of competition”.
The Lady Colonels will have nine players returning from last season with only one starter from last season’s team returning. When asked what players will need to step up this season for the Colonels to be successful, Bonin mentioned that Jessica Gipson, Lisa Lawrence, Kaci Fulton and Ami Benya will be the players that she will be counting on.
“We have nine players returning, of those nine players only one was a starter and that’s Lisa Lawrence. Two other players of that nine saw considerable playing time and that was Jessica Gipson and Kaci Fulton,” Bonin said.
“Ami Bunya was a true freshman last year and came off the bench and was really a bright spot as the season went on last year. Also there are two players from last season that were red shirt players and didn’t play a minute last year. One of them is Tiffany Leake, she’s a point guard from Bossier City and the other is the post player from Morgan City, Clemisha Mingo. In addition to those two players, we signed six new players, three of them are junior college transfers, while the other three are true college freshman,” Bonin said.
Bonin said she will expect the junior college transfer players which are, Cristin Burdette, Marneshia Bryant and Nkechi Nwachukwu to contribute faster than the freshman this season because of the speed of the game and the fact that those three have already played college basketball.
When asked about her approach to recruiting this off-season said she put an emphasis on getting players that filled the team’s needs.
“The three junior college players are going to impact us more quickly then the three freshman. It takes time for the freshman to make the transition from the high school game to the college game. This year we really had to make sure that the junior college players could help us right away because we knew that we were losing our top three scorers from last year, Jen Posey, Mandy Broussard, and Crescent Washington, so we had to make sure that we brought in three kids that could help us right away, “Bonin said.
When asked what her personal coaching philosophy is Bonin said, “I think what you’ll find about our team is we very much structure our system around our players’ ability, what our players can and can’t do and their strengths and weaknesses. I think every year my players are different. Sometimes there are better athletes than others, so I think we really have to run things offensively and defensively that fit the personnel that we have, and that’s what we’ve done year in and year out.”
“Last year we were very good defensively. We could guard anybody in our league, but we struggled offensively. We made sure everything that this group coming in this year could put the ball in the hole and I know that we’ve done that. Every position will have someone that can score. I could not say that about last year’s team,” Bonin said.
When asked about this year’s expectations and some team goals Bonin said, “I think every year it’s our mission as a women’s basketball program to compete at the end of the season in the Southland Conference Tournament. I think that that is a realistic expectation every year to be good enough to compete in the tournament.”
“We have consistently been in the top six or seven in the conference, and considering where the program was prior to my getting here that’s quite a accomplishment,” Bonin said.
“The people in the Thibodaux community and the people in the Nicholls community have an opportunity to see good women’s Division I basketball, and I’m excited because I know we put a good product out on the floor every night, that those people come to watch Lady Colonel basketball,” Bonin said. “We put a product that will play hardnosed basketball and they will play well and as team. They’re exciting, the pace of the game is fast and I think that it is exciting to the fans not only to watch us play but also the good competition that we bring in,”
“I think that what I’m most excited about this season is our depth at each position,” Bonin said. “On defense we are going to dive on the floor for loose balls and play strong defensively, and while on offense, any given player is going to be able to put points on the board,” Bonin said.
The Lady Colonels are picked to finish ninth this season according to Southland Conference Information Desk, while Texas State, Texas-San Antonio, and Stephen F. Austin were pick to finish first through third.
No matter where the Lady Colonels finish this season, one thing is for certain, coach Bonin will provide an exciting brand of basketball this year.