STARKVILLE — DoBee Plaisance doesn’t swear.
The Nicholls women’s basketball coach burns with an intensity that allows her to deliver a message louder and more effectively without profanity.
In the middle of January, mired in what stretched into a four-game losing streak in Southland Conference play, Plaisance relied on her intensity to try to get the Colonels back on the right track.
“It was going to take,” Plaisance said. “At that point, you were either in or out.”
You get the sense Plaisance isn’t one for hyperbole, so when she says she thinks the players needed “ice baths for about a week” following that Monday practice, it’s easy to tell why the Colonels eventually responded.
Since that talk following a loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and ones to Lamar and Southeastern Louisiana, Nicholls has won 11 of its last 12 games. The last three came in the Southland Conference tournament and helped Nicholls earn the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
No. 16 Nicholls (19-13) will make its first appearance in the NCAA tournament at 5 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2) when it takes on No. 1 seed Mississippi State (32-1) in a first-round game at Humphrey Coliseum.
Nicholls defeated No. 5 seed Texas A&M-C.C. 61-59 on March 9, No. 1 seed Lamar 74-68 on March 10, and No. 2 seed Stephen F. Austin 69-65 on March 11 to win its first Southland Conference tournament. The team’s seven-game winning streak ties the best in program history. The 19 wins also matches the single-season mark set in 2012-13.
Plaisance said “she had to change the narrative” in the middle of the season because she said she didn’t want another “special” team to come up short.
“It was about the intangibles,” Plaisance said. “In life it is so much about the intangibles. You can’t scout grit. You can’t scout toughness. At one point in the season, I said, ‘Toughness is a choice, and my advice is for you to choose wisely because if you don’t get tough, they’re going to run all over you.’ ”
Plaisance reiterated there was no doubt in her mind there was going to be a complete buy-in from all 13 players.
Senior guard Tia Charles said there has been a “complete” buy-in from all of the Colonels. She said part of the reason the players embraced Plaisance’s message is because they realized they were all “blessed” to be with the program.
Junior Cassidy Barrios, who leads the team in scoring (17.7 points) and rebounding (9.3), said the Colonels have stayed together since the practice in January. The 5-foot-10 guard from Raceland, Louisiana, said defense has been a key to the team’s transformation.
“We really pride ourselves on defense,” Barrios said. “Once we get in on the defensive end, it makes our offensive end that much easier.”
Barrios, who became the first Colonel to be named Southland Conference Player of the Year, said one of Plaisance’s mantras is “defense travels.” Redshirt senior center Marina Lilly said Plaisance also is fond of saying “faith travels,” which she said is something the team has focused on to help it make history.
Charles said all of the players “looked at themselves in the mirror” and realized they needed to stop pointing fingers at each other.
“We just had a reality check,” Charles said. “We were all able to get on the same page and to know it was us. Once we understood we needed to be together to make it this far, that is pretty much that is what it was all about.”
Plaisance echoed those thoughts and stressed a positive message. She said she encouraged the Colonels to play for each other and to win and to make it about themselves. She said things turned when the players focused on the things they could control and “fighting the good fight.” That’s why she said she is “fired up” to be in Starkville for a chance to pull the upset.
Raised by parents she called “eternal optimists,” Plaisance said she continues to believe she and her players can realize their dreams if they work hard and do things the right way.
“A lot of people might have had us counted out in a number of games,” Plaisance said, “but I would always tell them, ‘We’re going to be fine. We’re going to be fine.’ So far, we’re fine.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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