Post by 01- PirateDave on Mar 10, 2015 18:04:33 GMT -6
Memphis forward Austin Nichols shone brightly in chaotic season
Michael Cohen 6:12 PM, Mar 10, 2015, 35 mins ago
MARK WEBERSHOW CAPTION
A swath of reporters gathers in the lobby of the Larry O. Finch Center on the afternoon before a crucial game between Memphis and Connecticut, two teams fighting for a bye in the upcoming American Athletic Conference tournament. With cameras and microphones pointed at a blue backdrop, the predictably uncomfortable questions about how the Tigers can salvage the season spill forth.
Just a few feet away in the players’ lounge is the reason why salvaging anything is far from an easy task. There sits Austin Nichols, star sophomore forward, his right leg elevated on a black leather recliner while electrodes and a stimulation machine juice his sprained ankle.
Such is the unfortunate reality for the best player on a team that often needs everything he can provide if it wants to win, and sometimes even more. Nichols, who averaged 13.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.4 blocks per game, was arguably the team’s lone bright spot in a season that included nine double-digit losses, the dismissal of a former top-40 recruit, rampant speculation about the coach’s future and defeats to Division-II Christian Brothers, Stephen F. Austin and Tulane — all at FedExForum. Memphis fans will hope to remember this year as a freakish outlier, an unfathomable detour along a highway perennially bound for the NCAA Tournament.
But Nichols, who was named a first-team All-AAC performer Tuesday, doesn’t see it this way, and his unrelenting positivity toward teammates, his coach and the program he now defines made this season a fascinating case study of a great player on a mediocre team. He is the homegrown talent who chose to play for Memphis over the likes of Virginia and Duke, yet even as speculation about his future swirled — Twitter debated the merits of a transfer; his father admitted to wondering about if his son had gone elsewhere — Nichols has stood by his beloved Tigers.
“At the end of the day I decided to stay home,” Nichols said, “and I think I made a great decision.”
Up until the summer of 2014, Nichols was simply a contributing member of a nationally ranked, senior-laden team that reached the Round of 32 in last year’s NCAA Tournament. Then Joe Jackson exhausted his eligibility, and Chris Crawford, and Michael Dixon Jr., and Geron Johnson, and David Pellom.
Nichols was summoned to the office of head coach Josh Pastner, who challenged him to become a leader on a team that was, all of the sudden, his. Nichols would be named captain, he would be the focal point of both the offensive and defensive strategies, he would be encouraged to literally triple his number of field goal attempts.
“After him saying that,” Nichols said, “I just had confidence. So I went out there and started shooting more shots.”
His offseason preparation was dedicated to improving both physical and mental strength, two areas of extreme weakness during his freshman season. So frail and vulnerable was Nichols a year ago that Pastner said his team was “literally playing five on four with Austin on the court defensively.” So fragile was his confidence that Greg Graber, a mindfulness coach who had conducted several sessions with the team, said Pastner asked him to work one-on-one with Nichols.
Nichols supplemented hours in the weight room — he is listed as being 16 pounds heavier this year — with mental training from Graber, whose goal it was to instill the self-belief Nichols needed to become an effective leader. Their meetings, which began early in Nichols’ freshman year, progressed into an almost daily occurrence. Additional phone calls and texts reinforced Graber’s lessons about settling one’s emotions, meditation and deep-breathing techniques.
The on-court product this season was eye-opening. Points, rebounds and blocks piled up in bunches for Nichols, whose defense thrived after learning to read body angles of in-swooping guards and improving his weakside communication with frontcourt partner Shaq Goodwin. A former defensive liability reinvented himself as the second-leading shotblocker in the nation, and one of the harshest criticisms flung at his coach — that Pastner does not develop talent — was suddenly tested.
And then there were the jump shots, those 15- to 17-foot beauties that were not unlike the baskets made by another big man who calls FedExForum home. Nichols attempted a minimum of 500 per day over the summer after Pastner challenged him to expand his range. Now, with the midrange game a proven success, Pastner wants Nichols to become a reliable 3-point shooter in pick-and-pop situations next season.
“He is so good around the basket with both hands,” Pastner said, “but the strength of his game is the ability to make the jump shot. That has opened up parts of his game.”
Still, Nichols was something of an oasis in the larger context of a barren team. While his output was incredible — 15 points, 9 rebounds, 8 blocks against Oral Roberts; 28 points, 9 rebounds, 4 blocks against Tulane; 16 points, 8 rebounds, 7 blocks against Connecticut — his surroundings were often bleak at best as an inexperienced crop of guards repeatedly melted and Goodwin inexplicably regressed.
While Nichols attributed the struggles to “a rebuilding year” and reiterated his complete support for Pastner, he acknowledged the pressure of being the focal point for a team largely dependent on his presence. He did his best to block out comments from fans on social media and says he avoids reading or watching news coverage as often as possible. But to be completely unaware of the negativity heaped on his teammates and his coach, he said, is almost impossible, and Pastner would go so far as warning players about what to expect after each game.
“Like Coach says, it’s a poison — no matter if it’s positive or negative,” Nichols said.
But the string of unsightly performances radiated through the fan base as NCAA tournament hopes dimmed. Mark Nichols, Austin’s father, said it was difficult to watch his son succeed on a team that consistently stubbed its toe. The games were “very frustrating,” he said, but points out that the experience of the last two years overall has been “awesome” for the Nichols family.
Mark Nichols declined to comment on whether the family discussed a transfer at any point this season, but he did say his mind wonders what could have been at another school.
“It’s bittersweet,” Mark Nichols said. “I would have loved for him to play for Virginia or Duke. But the downside is we couldn’t have made every game.
“Being here, being in Memphis you hear things and see things that most of the time it makes you feel pretty good. It’s been great, it’s been great. But you always think about the other side of the coin, you know?”
Back inside the Finch Center, Nichols adjusts the stimulation machine that has been periodically zapping his injured ankle. He will take it home to his apartment for 24-hour treatment in hopes of returning to the court this season, perhaps in the NCAA Tournament if the Tigers muster three straight wins this week in Hartford.
A television on the opposite wall rolls through an episode of SportsCenter, a program on which both Virginia and Duke have made plenty of appearances this season as they fight for a No. 1 seed. “Yeah, maybe,” Nichols said when asked if he too wonders what might have been. And then he follows up with the passion, positivity and pride that Memphis fans adore.
“But like I said,” Nichols explained, “I’m proud to be a Tiger. I’m so glad to be here.”
Michael Cohen 6:12 PM, Mar 10, 2015, 35 mins ago
MARK WEBERSHOW CAPTION
A swath of reporters gathers in the lobby of the Larry O. Finch Center on the afternoon before a crucial game between Memphis and Connecticut, two teams fighting for a bye in the upcoming American Athletic Conference tournament. With cameras and microphones pointed at a blue backdrop, the predictably uncomfortable questions about how the Tigers can salvage the season spill forth.
Just a few feet away in the players’ lounge is the reason why salvaging anything is far from an easy task. There sits Austin Nichols, star sophomore forward, his right leg elevated on a black leather recliner while electrodes and a stimulation machine juice his sprained ankle.
Such is the unfortunate reality for the best player on a team that often needs everything he can provide if it wants to win, and sometimes even more. Nichols, who averaged 13.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.4 blocks per game, was arguably the team’s lone bright spot in a season that included nine double-digit losses, the dismissal of a former top-40 recruit, rampant speculation about the coach’s future and defeats to Division-II Christian Brothers, Stephen F. Austin and Tulane — all at FedExForum. Memphis fans will hope to remember this year as a freakish outlier, an unfathomable detour along a highway perennially bound for the NCAA Tournament.
But Nichols, who was named a first-team All-AAC performer Tuesday, doesn’t see it this way, and his unrelenting positivity toward teammates, his coach and the program he now defines made this season a fascinating case study of a great player on a mediocre team. He is the homegrown talent who chose to play for Memphis over the likes of Virginia and Duke, yet even as speculation about his future swirled — Twitter debated the merits of a transfer; his father admitted to wondering about if his son had gone elsewhere — Nichols has stood by his beloved Tigers.
“At the end of the day I decided to stay home,” Nichols said, “and I think I made a great decision.”
Up until the summer of 2014, Nichols was simply a contributing member of a nationally ranked, senior-laden team that reached the Round of 32 in last year’s NCAA Tournament. Then Joe Jackson exhausted his eligibility, and Chris Crawford, and Michael Dixon Jr., and Geron Johnson, and David Pellom.
Nichols was summoned to the office of head coach Josh Pastner, who challenged him to become a leader on a team that was, all of the sudden, his. Nichols would be named captain, he would be the focal point of both the offensive and defensive strategies, he would be encouraged to literally triple his number of field goal attempts.
“After him saying that,” Nichols said, “I just had confidence. So I went out there and started shooting more shots.”
His offseason preparation was dedicated to improving both physical and mental strength, two areas of extreme weakness during his freshman season. So frail and vulnerable was Nichols a year ago that Pastner said his team was “literally playing five on four with Austin on the court defensively.” So fragile was his confidence that Greg Graber, a mindfulness coach who had conducted several sessions with the team, said Pastner asked him to work one-on-one with Nichols.
Nichols supplemented hours in the weight room — he is listed as being 16 pounds heavier this year — with mental training from Graber, whose goal it was to instill the self-belief Nichols needed to become an effective leader. Their meetings, which began early in Nichols’ freshman year, progressed into an almost daily occurrence. Additional phone calls and texts reinforced Graber’s lessons about settling one’s emotions, meditation and deep-breathing techniques.
The on-court product this season was eye-opening. Points, rebounds and blocks piled up in bunches for Nichols, whose defense thrived after learning to read body angles of in-swooping guards and improving his weakside communication with frontcourt partner Shaq Goodwin. A former defensive liability reinvented himself as the second-leading shotblocker in the nation, and one of the harshest criticisms flung at his coach — that Pastner does not develop talent — was suddenly tested.
And then there were the jump shots, those 15- to 17-foot beauties that were not unlike the baskets made by another big man who calls FedExForum home. Nichols attempted a minimum of 500 per day over the summer after Pastner challenged him to expand his range. Now, with the midrange game a proven success, Pastner wants Nichols to become a reliable 3-point shooter in pick-and-pop situations next season.
“He is so good around the basket with both hands,” Pastner said, “but the strength of his game is the ability to make the jump shot. That has opened up parts of his game.”
Still, Nichols was something of an oasis in the larger context of a barren team. While his output was incredible — 15 points, 9 rebounds, 8 blocks against Oral Roberts; 28 points, 9 rebounds, 4 blocks against Tulane; 16 points, 8 rebounds, 7 blocks against Connecticut — his surroundings were often bleak at best as an inexperienced crop of guards repeatedly melted and Goodwin inexplicably regressed.
While Nichols attributed the struggles to “a rebuilding year” and reiterated his complete support for Pastner, he acknowledged the pressure of being the focal point for a team largely dependent on his presence. He did his best to block out comments from fans on social media and says he avoids reading or watching news coverage as often as possible. But to be completely unaware of the negativity heaped on his teammates and his coach, he said, is almost impossible, and Pastner would go so far as warning players about what to expect after each game.
“Like Coach says, it’s a poison — no matter if it’s positive or negative,” Nichols said.
But the string of unsightly performances radiated through the fan base as NCAA tournament hopes dimmed. Mark Nichols, Austin’s father, said it was difficult to watch his son succeed on a team that consistently stubbed its toe. The games were “very frustrating,” he said, but points out that the experience of the last two years overall has been “awesome” for the Nichols family.
Mark Nichols declined to comment on whether the family discussed a transfer at any point this season, but he did say his mind wonders what could have been at another school.
“It’s bittersweet,” Mark Nichols said. “I would have loved for him to play for Virginia or Duke. But the downside is we couldn’t have made every game.
“Being here, being in Memphis you hear things and see things that most of the time it makes you feel pretty good. It’s been great, it’s been great. But you always think about the other side of the coin, you know?”
Back inside the Finch Center, Nichols adjusts the stimulation machine that has been periodically zapping his injured ankle. He will take it home to his apartment for 24-hour treatment in hopes of returning to the court this season, perhaps in the NCAA Tournament if the Tigers muster three straight wins this week in Hartford.
A television on the opposite wall rolls through an episode of SportsCenter, a program on which both Virginia and Duke have made plenty of appearances this season as they fight for a No. 1 seed. “Yeah, maybe,” Nichols said when asked if he too wonders what might have been. And then he follows up with the passion, positivity and pride that Memphis fans adore.
“But like I said,” Nichols explained, “I’m proud to be a Tiger. I’m so glad to be here.”