THIBODAUX - Nicholls State University today announced the signing of men's basketball head coach J.P. Piper to a three-year contract extension.  The three-year deal is the first multi-year deal in the program's history and will keep Piper in Thibodaux through the 2013-14 seasons.

"We want stability, consistency and competitiveness from our head coaches," Nicholls Athletics Director Rob Bernardi said.  "Clearly J.P. has demonstrated those qualities in his coaching style and the play of his teams.  We are confident that our basketball program will continue to progress under his leadership."

"I would like to thank Dr. Hulbert (Nicholls President Dr. Stephen Hulbert), Dr. Boudreaux (Nicholls Vice President for Institutional Advancement Dr. David Boudreaux) and Rob Bernardi for demonstrating their confidence in me," Piper said.  "It is a privilege and an honor to represent Nicholls as its basketball coach.  My staff and I will continue to work hard to make our University and the local community proud of this basketball program."

The extension comes on the heels of one of the most successful stretches in the program's history.  The 2010-11 season saw Piper lead the Colonels to their third consecutive Southland Conference Tournament appearance, tying a school record. 

The Colonels finished the year just 3.0 games out of first place in the closest conference race in the country.  The 2010-11 Southland Conference regular season saw its top ten teams separated by just 4.0 games.  No other conference race in the country saw so many teams separated by so few games.

The 2010-11 Colonels, picked to win the Southland Conference East Division by the league's preseason coaches poll, started the year strong, picking up the program's first ever victories over LSU and Tulane during the non-conference portion of the schedule.  After losing junior forward Fred Hunter (who was ranked 19th in the nation in field goal percentage) to a season ending knee injury in late February, the Colonels won three of their last five regular season games to clinch their third straight Southland Conference Tournament appearance, tying a school record set from 1997-98 through 1999-2000.

Piper also oversaw the development of Anatoly Bose into one of the most consistent scoring threats in the nation.  Bose finished his 2010-11 senior season by leading the Southland Conference and ranking eighth among NCAA Division I players with a 22.1 point/game scoring average.  Bose also grabbed a team-high 164 rebounds, and averaged 5.9 rebounds/game en route to being named All-Southland Conference First Team and All-Region 23 First Team.

Bose scored 20 or more points in 21 of 28 games his senior year, including three games with 30 or more points. Over his four-year career, Bose recorded 50 20-point games, including 41 in his final 58 career games, spanning the final two years of his career.  Bose became just the third Colonel in school history to ever surpass the 2,000 career point mark, reaching the milestone on March 2, before concluding his career with 2,050 points.

Piper took over the program prior to the 2004-05 season after serving as an assistant coach for the Colonels.  The Baton Rouge native was tasked with rebuilding a program that was under sanctions from an NCAA infractions case and had compiled just 11 wins against 71 losses over the previous three seasons.  While doing so, Piper also began earning a reputation for playing some of the toughest non-conference schedules in the nation.

In his third season, Piper was named 2006-07 Southland Conference Coach of the Year by CollegeInsider.com after leading the Colonels to victories in five of their final seven games and narrowly missing out on the program's first conference tournament berth since 1999-2000.

The Colonels finally returned to the postseason in 2008-09 as Piper helped to engineer one of the strongest regular seasons in the history of the program. Piper led the Colonels to a 20-11 record and a 12-4 Southland Conference mark.

The 2008-09 season marked just the second 20-win campaign since Nicholls moved up to Division I in 1980-81, and the first one since 1994-95. The Colonels produced three Southland Conference postseason honorees that year in the form of Ryan Bathie (First-Team All-SLC), Anatoly Bose (Third-Team All-SLC) and Fred Hunter (Freshman of the Year), and Piper was honored by being named Southland Conference Coach of the Year. 

The Colonels earned the No. 2 seed to the conference tournament that year, advancing to the semifinals of the league tournament.  Nicholls returned to the postseason tournament again in 2009-10 before tying the school record with their third straight trip in 2010-11.

Piper will begin his eighth season at the helm of the Nicholls basketball program when Nicholls opens the 2011-12 season in November.