MORGANTOWN — There is an old pickup truck parked at the home of William Nichols in Radford, Va., that always brings a smile to the face of his son, Darris.
“You know how some stories always just seem to stick with you?” Darris Nichols asked, as he prepared to lead Radford University into Morgantown at 4 p.m. Saturday to face the Mountaineers. “For me, the (Bob) Huggins story of getting into the truck with no rearview mirror always stuck with me.
“Then, I get back home and my dad’s truck doesn’t have one, either. Every time I see that, it just reminds me of Huggs.”
Huggins’ tale serves as a moral to always keep moving forward rather than looking back at your past.
Not so in the Nichols’ case.
“No, it’s just an old beat-up truck,” Nichols said. “The mirror just fell off and my dad just never replaced it. I don’t have to ask him why it’s not there.”
After working his way up the assistant coaching ranks with stops at Northern Kentucky, Wofford, Louisiana Tech, and Florida, the former WVU standout point guard is in his first season as a head coach with the Highlanders (4-4).
It is home for Nichols, a Radford native who once led Radford High School to Virginia’s Group A state semifinals, while scoring 2,005 points in his prep career.
So, that part of transitioning to being a first-year head coach was easier, because he already knew the area and the people.
He quickly found out there is so much more.
“It’s kind of funny thinking about it, but as an assistant, you spend most of your time trying to take things off the table for the head coach,” Nichols said. “But, I guess you never really knew just how much was actually on his table to begin with.”
Nichols was hired at Radford on April 21. He had six scholarships to fill and a schedule to build.
He explained he was hesitant to travel great distances to play games, due to COVID-19, so if there was a school within busing distance from Radford, it got a call.
“We called everybody,” Nichols said. “You wouldn’t believe how many calls we made, but I think we were able to put together a very competitive schedule and one that would help our guys become better players.”
One of his first calls was to Josh Eilert, WVU’s Director of Basketball Operations, who sets up the Mountaineers’ schedule.
“Josh does all the work with scheduling and I rarely ever change anything,” Huggins said. “We’re playing Darris and we’re playing Andy Kennedy (a former assistant under Huggins at Cincinnati, who is now the head coach at UAB). I don’t know what Josh and D-Nice’s conversation was, but we talk all the time.”
There were six scholarships to fill at Radford upon Nichols’ arrival at a time when the NCAA still didn’t permit open recruiting periods.
And then there was the job of trying to maintain and build chemistry in a program that had won 81 games over the past four seasons.
Nichols has done that with the philosophy of making sure the bulk of his roster gets an equal amount of playing time.
The Highlanders’ leading scorer, junior forward Rashun Williams, averages just 8.8 points per game, but eight players average more than five points and 11 players average at least 12 minutes of playing time.
“I do get a lot of questions on why we’re playing so many guys,” Nichols said. “We do run a lot of guys in and out, and it allows us to change defenses, and we want to be able to wear the other team down some.
“For me, as a coach, it’s been rewarding to have a group that is willing to get back to basics and go out and play hard and then make the sacrifice of getting other guys in there. We have guys who are not complaining about the results, but are working to get better as a team.”
Saturday will actually be the third time Nichols has been an opposing coach inside the Coliseum and it will be the fifth time he’s coached against Huggins and the Mountaineers (6-1).
Still, the first time as a head coach will have a special meaning.
“It’ll be different, because now it’s your own program,” Nichols said. “In all reality, I’m just sliding over a few inches on the bench, but having your own program and going back to the Coliseum, that will mean a lot to me.”
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