Weird game all around for Nicholson. There was a 5 minutes stretch when he looked like trash. But he played really well much of the game. Played the full overtime, I think.
Not sure how some people gush about how great our coaching staff is "developing our bigs" and others put all the blame on the individual player for not being able to do some basic, fundamental things.
It can't be both.
If you look at where Nicholson started as a freshman compared to where he is now, that’s the definition of development. You can’t just teach "touch" around the basket at the college level. Touch is something that’s developed from a young age, with a little bit of natural ability mixed in. There’s only so much you can teach a player who doesn’t have that natural feel for finishing in tight spaces.
Now, if Nicholson had the ability to score in traffic like some players, trust me, they’d be using that every chance they get against competition like last night. But every player has limitations, and as a coach the job is to find ways to get the most out of players despite those limitations. And that's where I give Nicholson and the coaching staff credit. He's about as sound a player as he can be, considering what he has to work with. That’s a credit to both Matt and the staff. Matt has developed into a really solid player, and his improvement has been no accident.
He’s incredibly smart. He worked on his passing, on his spacing; he adapted his game to compensate for what he couldn’t do. On top of that, he’s the anchor defensively, which is the foundation for everything else NU does as a team. So, he’s been a huge part of the success.
Development in the end is mostly on the player. It’s the player's work, their mentality but, when you see repeated examples of players improving consistently, you can see that the coaches have created an environment where that development comes easy. And this staff, make no mistake, does a fantastic job of developing players.
TLDR: It can.
