Communication an early emphasis as Nicholls women’s basketball team starts practice

Communication has been a major point of emphasis for the Nicholls women’s basketball team under first-year coach Justin Payne.

“We just finished our first week of official practice and implementing our offense and our defense. We’re just building on that now. Building on the principles, making sure they understand the verbiage and understanding everything we are trying to get done offensively and defensively,” Payne said.

The Lady Colonels are practicing daily, except for Sundays, in preparation for the 2023-24 season under their new coach. Payne, a former Nicholls basketball player, has returned to his alma mater after spending the last four years as head coach at Georgia Southwestern, a Division II school.

“We are just breaking everything down. It’s a new offense for them, a new defense for them. Just making sure they know all the ins and the outs of the offense and the defense – things we are going to do and how we will mix it up. It’s very important right now with their learning process that they are using the right verbiage that the staff is using,” said Payne.

For returnees, it’s a matter of unlearning a previous system while simultaneously learning a new one.

“That’s some of the things that is challenging right now. Some of them have been doing it this way for so long, especially on the defensive side of the ball. On both sides, they have to learn a totally new system offensively and defensively. To their credit, they’ve been doing really, really good because they just work so hard,” Payne said.

Among the areas of early emphasis, Payne said, is working on mental toughness.

“We have some toughness. I’m just really, really excited to see how they continue to progress in our system,” the Nicholls coach said.

Another area is limiting mistakes.

“I’m pretty sure everybody is dealing with this right now – cut down on the turnovers, understanding what it takes to win ball games,” said Payne.

Yet another early emphasis is shooing efficiency.

“We want players that are more efficient in making shots. If they can do that, they can make some open shots. We will get them open shots. The offense is going to work. We will be open; can we make open shots?” Payne said.

What has the coach learned about his players a week into practice?

“They are extremely hard workers,” Payne said. “They are working extremely hard right now, coming in asking what can they do more, different things like that.”

What have the players learned about the new coach?

“We will not accept mediocrity. We are going to be excellent. We want to excel at the highest of levels. I’m not going for ‘just good’ or ‘good enough.’ We want to be great. We want Nicholls to be at the top. We don’t want to finish last or in between. We want to be Number 1, no matter what year it is. We all have our goals. Our goal is the finish No. 1.”