Ready for March Madness

THIBODAUX – After an early season 74-68 loss at Southeastern Conference opponent Mississippi State, Nicholls State coach J.P. Piper heard something an opposing coach had never told him before.

Nicholls State guard Justin Payne (right) receives a good luck from a fan as the team prepares to board a bus on Tuesday afternoon for the Southland Conference Basketball Tournament in Katy, Texas. Looking on is center Chris Paige.
Abby Tabor/Staff
“The (coach) at Mississippi State shook our hands after the game and said, ‘Hey, you guys are going to win your conference,’” Piper recalled. “I got on the bus and thought that that was a strong statement. I (didn’t) know if we could win our conference. An 8-8 record would be tremendous looking at where we’ve been. But he obviously saw something, and he’s been at this a little longer than I have.”

The Colonels did Piper better. Four better to be exact, finishing Southland Conference play at 12-4 and missing out on the regular season title by finishing a game behind Stephen F. Austin.

On Thursday, the No. 2 seeded Colonels (19-10 overall, 12-4 SLC) will get a chance to begin proving Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury right, opening the Southland Conference tournament against No. 7 Texas State (14-15, 7-9) at noon at The Merrell Center in Katy, Texas.

The winner of the tournament, which concludes with Sunday’s championship game slated for a noon tip-off , gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

But while a win Thursday puts Nicholls into Friday’s semifinal game, Piper, named the SLC Coach of the Year on Tuesday, is stressing that his team keeps its focus on Texas State.

The Bobcats beat the Colonels in a 71-66 overtime game in February.

“I’m excited and a little anxious about it,” Piper said. “I’ve never experienced it at this level. But you’ve got to focus on 40 minutes of basketball and not everything around it. If you start talking on Thursday about March Madness, and whether we’ll get a 15th or 16th seed if we win, you’re focusing on the wrong thing. You’ve got to focus on Thursday.”

With the earlier loss to Texas State, Nicholls shouldn’t have any problem not looking past the Bobcats. In fact, some players feel the loss to Texas State could provide extra motivation.

“I think we’ll come into the game with a chip on our shoulder,” senior point guard Justin Payne said. “We’re looking forward to stepping up to that task and just trying to handle up on them. They’re a really good team, and we have a lot of respect for them, but we know what we’re going (to Katy) to do.”

Freshman Chris Iles, who is from nearby Houston, said the Colonels have played with that attitude all season.

“Yeah, we’re going out with a chip on our shoulder like we have all season,” Iles said. “We’re not going to change anything. We’ve been winning like this, so we’re just going to keep doing what we do.”

Meanwhile, the Colonels will try to prevent Texas State from doing what it does -- score a lot of points.

The Bobcats lead the SLC, averaging 81.7 points per game, with Brandon Bush’s 17.7 points per game leading the way. The Bobcats also give up a second-worst 77.2 points per game, still, Nicholls wants to avoid a high-scoring contest, opting for more of a defensive battle.

“Texas State is a direct contrast to the way we like to play the game,” Piper said. “They are going to be an up-tempo team that wants to score in the 80s and 90s, and obviously, we’re not that. We want the game in the 50s and 60s, so it’ll be a little bit of a battle of wills.”

And, despite the earlier loss, Piper loves the match up against Texas State.

“If I could have picked who we played, I’d prefer to play a team who had beaten us in a close game,” Piper said. “I think this sets up well to really have our guys keyed in and motivated to try to get a little revenge. I think that works in our favor a little bit.”

Regardless of who the Colonels would have drawn, though, they likely would have been pumped, returning to their first conference tournament since the 2000-01 sea-son.

“Everyone’s pretty excited,” senior Ryan Bathie said. “We can’t wait to get there and finally see what it’s all about. Everyone’s been pretty calm, but I think we just can’t wait to get out and start playing. We’re going to be pretty jacked up. We’re looking to get that first win of the tournament.”

FOLLOWING THE COLONELS

The opening round of the tournament will be streamed live on the Internet on SLC NOW, a subscription-based video and audio streaming channel on www.Southland.org. The price for all games is $12.95 or $5.95 per men’s first round game.

Semifinal games on Friday will be broadcast on Southland TV, as well as made available on ESPN FullCourt, www.ESPN360.com and SLC Now.

Sunday’s tournament championship game at noon will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.