The Nicholls State University men’s basketball team will play against the likes of North Carolina State University, Lousiana State University, Auburn University and University of Texas at Austin in the 2011-12 season this fall.

The Colonels will take on LSU at noon in Baton Rouge on Nov. 12, travel to take on Auburn on Nov. 25, then travel to Texas on Dec. 13 and play at North Carolina on Dec. 19.

It’s a schedule that head coach J.P. Piper said will test the team and show weaknesses, which is what he wants, and he said it will get them ready for conference play.

“I’m excited about it,” Piper said. “There are a couple of really strong teams on there. North Carolina may be Top 5 preseason, and Texas might be Top 25. There’s a couple of other programs on there that we would probably expect to struggle with like LSU and Auburn, but it will be a good measuring stick for us.”

The Colonels’ non-conference schedule is one of the toughest in recent memory, as they face teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Southeastern Conference and Big 12 conferences before Southland Conference play on Jan. 4.

Piper thinks that his guys deserve an opportunity to play the best. He said they do not need 10 of those big-time matchups a year, but one or two a year is good for the team.

“If you’re a basketball fan, being in that Dean Dome in North Carolina and playing in the Franklin Erwin Center in Texas is an unbelievable atmosphere,” Piper said. “I want our guys to be able to experience that. They’re a part of college basketball and those places are kind of the pinnacle of that. It’s neat for them to be able say 20 years from now that ‘hey, I played there.'”

Included in that 13-game home schedule is the annual ESPN Sears Bracketbuster game, which the Colonels will host sometime in February against a non-conference opponent from another mid-major, and will be determined sometime in late January.

The Colonels have already started practicing this fall, and Piper said they are a really young team trying to develop consistency and come together.

“When you return guys, it’s a little easier. We’re really trying to learn, and there’s a lot of unknown in this group. It’s exciting. I can’t wait to see what we find,”  Piper said.

The Colonels lost one of the best players in the Southland Conference in Anatoly Bose last year, and Bose played for the Australian Men’s National Basketball Team over the summer.

Piper told his staff last year that he may never get to coach a guy like that again, but he is hopeful there is another player like him on the team.

“You can’t (replace him),” Piper said. “We don’t even entertain that notion. We have some young men in here who, when you think back to what Anatoly looked like as a freshman, they don’t look any different as a freshman. Now, where they will be in four years remains to be seen, but there’s a ton of potential in this group. We’ll find the next guy that makes you forget about Anatoly, so that’s the goal. It’ll be hard to do, though.”

The Colonels kick off the season on Nov. 3 against the University of Mobile in Thibodaux with the time to be announced.