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It usually takes a freshman student-athlete a few months of competition to get fully acclimated to life at the next level.
But somewhere around the back-end of the season, the players usually progress and take a step forward in their development and productivity as they get used to their surroundings and the increased speed of play.
If that’s the case, goodness, the Nicholls State University women’s basketball team may be scary good by the time play begins in the Southland Conference.
Nicholls is relying on youthful players at several key positions in 2017-18, but that youth has served the team well so far, which likely means bright days are in the future.
In last week’s win against Spring Hill, Nicholls’ freshman class accounted for 40 of the team’s 78 points, led by redshirt freshman Paige Williams, who scored 17 points with six rebounds and four steals in 21 minutes.
Also key were Kinzie Heineman (11 points) and Destiny Collins (10 points).
“We do have youth, but I think it’s served us well so far,” Nicholls women’s basketball coach DoBee Plaisance said on Saturday morning. “We have a really good mixed. We’re blessed. We have depth. We have some talented upperclassmen, but we compliment that with some younger players who have come in and have been eager.”
Plaisance mentioned depth.
That’s not something Nicholls had a luxury of last season.
Sure, the Colonels had quality players – a byproduct of the quality recruiting efforts of Plaisance and assistant coach/lead recruiting Justin Payne, who has been with Plaisance for the past several seasons.
But the Colonels were bitten by the injury bug, which slashed the team’s depth chart and left the Colonels without the amount of able bodies needed to compete in the Southland Conference.
At times last year, Nicholls had just six or seven players available.
Plaisance said in addition to affecting games, those injuries also affected practice, because the team couldn’t get as much live work to work on sets and plays.
“It was a difficult situation,” Plaisance said.
But now, the bumps are healed, the bruises have gone away and a slew of freshmen have arrived on campus to help out the team’s older players.
Williams was a big factor against Spring Hill, leading the team in scoring in the win. Standing 5-foot, 11-inches, the Karr graduate and New Orleans native is a mismatch for opponents because of her ability to score both on the inside and out.
Collins and Heineman also figure to be big factors in the future – even as true freshmen. Collins, too, is a New Orleans native and a graduate of Karr. She’s a big guard with quickness and athleticism.
Heineman is smaller in stature, but affords Nicholls the ability to stretch the floor, because of elite shooting.
Against Spring Hill, she was 3-of-5 from the 3-pont line, shooting the football with relative ease.
“We’ve been blessed to add back that depth. That’s nice,” Plaisance said. “And we still have some players working their way back, as well.”
Those new players are complimenting an upperclassman group that Plaisance believes has the ability and leadership skills to push the Colonels to wins in high-stakes games later in the season.
In the backcourt, the Colonels are led by senior Tia Charles – a multi-year contributor to the team since signing out of John Curtis.
Charles was one of the walking wounded last season, missing several games with injury, while still averaging 7.3 points per game. A year before as a sophomore, she averaged 10.7 points per game with 2.2 assists.
In the frontcourt, the Colonels get contributions from Vandebilt graduate and junior forward Cassidy Barrios. She’s been helping the Colonels since her true freshman season, playing a variety of roles for the Colonels, while doing a little bit of everything to help the team win.
In the season opener against SMU, Barrios had 18 points with 16 rebounds, three assists and two steals.
