Colonels report: Notes, quotes

March 22, 2008
The Sports Xchange

Notes, quotes · Strategy and personnel · Getting inside

FINAL RECORD
10-21, 5-11 Southland Conference, fifth East Division, 11th overall.

WHAT WENT RIGHT
Nicholls played North Carolina tough in an early-season contest and seemed like it would be a factor in the Southland Conference race until G Michael Czepil was injured. The team also beat conference frontrunner Stephen F. Austin to start the season. Wing Ryan Bathie emerged as the new scoring threat. Freshman G Anatoly Bose was a tremendous scorer and one of the league's three best freshmen.

WHAT WENT WRONG
The season took a turn for the worse at a Las Vegas Tournament before New Year's. G Michael Czepil injured his knee and was done for the year. Nicholls is a perimeter-based team, but its lack of inside power truly was frightening. The team was bullied at times inside and sophomore C Mitch Boyce, a starter as a freshman, took a major step back this season.

QUOTE TO NOTE
"I was explaining to the young guys in the locker room the dues Adonis has paid. I think we are on the verge of being a pretty good basketball team. That would not have happened without Adonis walking through the fire that he had to walk through during his time here." -- Nicholls coach J.P. Piper to the Thibodaux Daily Comet on senior Adonis Gray setting up the program for a better future.