Summer togetherness helped put Nicholls men’s basketball team ahead of schedule

For a new coaching staff and players getting to know each other, a few hours a week during the summer can mean a whole lot for a college basketball team.

“I thought just being able to get those guys here this summer was tremendous,” first-year Nicholls men’s head coach Tevon Saddler said. “With eight new players and six new people on the staff, just to have those two months together before we got back in August, it kind of put us ahead of schedule. I value and appreciate that time. It went far.

“You only get four hours on the court and four hours in the weight room, it’s not too much time, but it allows you to be with your guys every day of the week. As far as basketball, we only get one day off. Just having those four days to be with the guys is better than zero.”

A former Nicholls player, Saddler played for Richie Riley, now the coach at South Alabama. After following Riley to South Alabama as a graduate assistant, he returned to Nicholls as Director or Basketball Operations under Austin Claunch. Following a stint as an assistant at McNeese, he returned home to his native Maryland as an assistant with the Terrapins before getting the head job at Nicholls.

Saddler and his Colonels are now in their second week of preseason practice.

“I think practice for the last week or so has been really good,” Saddler said. “The guys are really buying in. We are preaching discipline. They are doing a heck of a job buying into each other.”

Because of the summer workouts, Saddler said, the Colonels’ offense is a bit ahead of the defense.

“We were able to get the base of our motion offense. That’s one thing the summer did allow us to do, get our basic motion concept down, which everything kind of flows back to,” Saddler said.

“Defensively, I won’t say we are behind schedule, but we didn’t put as much emphasis as we did on offense this summer,” the Nicholls coach continued. “Just getting those day-to-day reps. I appreciate our scout team. They are doing a great job in getting us game ready.

“The way we want to win and how much the way we want to win will start defensively. With, it takes more time. I believe to focus on defense, you need time. Just having the regular 20-hour weeks now, it really allows us to dive into our concept. Now, we are focusing more on the defensively end than the offense.”

Saddler, the youngest head coach in men’s Division I basketball at age 28, said he is pleased with what he has seen from his team since the start of preseason practice.

“Right now, we are in tip-top shape,” said Saddler. “We are wrapping up about 30 days out. We will squeeze in about 20 more days. In 10 days out or so, we start ramping down practice and getting more into the scouting phase. Right now, it’s a lot of competing going up against each other.”

The Colonels are now in the early scrimmage phase of the preseason.

“As we start getting closer to scrimmaging, practice time will start dialing down, and be more focus based. It’s almost time to flip the page from how do we become the best Colonels to how do we become the best Colonels who will beat the best Green Wave team, which is Tulane,” said Saddler.

The Saddler era at Nicholls officially begins on November 6 when the Colonels play at Tulane.

While that first game may be a bit down the line, Saddler said he has already discovered a few things about his team.

“I think we are disciplined. I think we are tough. I think we are talented,” the Nicholls coach said. “We just got to have the ‘want’ to want to do it together every day. That’s our biggest question right now. How many consecutive days can we stack?

“Once we understand the stacking days turn to the stacking weeks and stacking weeks turn into a winning year, I think we will further ahead of the curve. But right now, I’m not really complaining.”

Day-to-day improvement, Saddler said, will be a key focus for the Colonels.

“This is my fifth year in college basketball. I just came from the NCAA Tournament last year. Everybody this time of year has good days and bad days, but being able to cut down on the number of bad days will determine how good of a team you really are and what you will become.”