The Colonels open up play in the conference tournament for the first time since the 2000 season today at noon. The Colonels ended their regular season with a 19-10 overall record and a 12-4 conference record. “I’m excited for these guys. It’s an exciting event and I’m going to enjoy watching them get to take part in this,” head coach J.P. Piper said. “I’m confident and think we are well prepared. I’m not going to guarantee victory, but I feel good.”
The Colonels were tied with Sam Houston for second place in conference and won in the tiebreaker from the game against the Bearkats on Feb. 11 by one point.
The Colonels had a chance to go from worst to first if Stephen F. Austin would have lost their game against the University of Texas-Arlington Lumberjacks on March 12. But Stephen F. Austin defeated the Lumberjacks in the last seconds with a score of 66-62, causing Nicholls to miss being ranked the number one seed in conference.
The Colonels will take on number seven ranked Texas State today at noon with the winner facing the winner of the number three Sam Houston and number six University of Texas Arlington game, which will be played at 2:30 p.m. today. The Colonels were not able to defeat Texas State when they played them on Feb. 21 losing in overtime 71-66.
If the Colonels defeat both Texas State as well as the winner of Sam Houston and the University of Texas Arlington game, they will play Friday a televised game on the Southland Conference Television Network as well as ESPN FullCourt and ESPN360.com. The championship game would be played Sunday at 12:03 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN2 and on ESPN360.com.
Nicholls Office of Alumni Affairs has tried to involve the community and fans of the Colonels by holding the Houston Area Alumni & Colonel Fan Social at the Cadillac Bar in Houston, Texas on Wednesday where Piper and the team made an appearance.
Nicholls has also provided buses to bring students to and from Katy, Texas to help support the Colonels in their success.
“I’m glad that our University administration values what we are doing and it’s important enough to the school community that they want to come and support us,” Piper said. “We’ve had tremendous support in Stopher and it will be great to have that in Katy.”
The Colonels received word earlier in the week that Piper earned Southland Conference Coach of the Year, freshman Fred Hunter landed Southland Conference Freshman of the Year, senior Ryan Bathie captured First Team All-Southland Conference and sophomore Anatoly Bose captured Third Team All-Southland Conference.
“Those are wonderful individual accomplishments. All of that is the function of the body of work of our team and so it’s not my coach of the year award,” Piper said. “It belongs to the coaching staff and players and I feel that way about each award. We are a team sport so none of us would receive those honors without the team doing what it does.
