First-year La Salle coach Darris Nichols surveys the action at a recent practice. (Photo: La Salle Athletics)
By AARON BRACY
July 4, 2025
First-year La Salle coach Darris Nichols still has a lot to learn about his players and their individual skills. But Nichols has no doubt about how the Explorers will perform when the 2025–26 college basketball season tips off in four months.
“The main thing is we’re not going to be soft or selfish,” Nichols said.
With basketballs banging the hardwood in the background, Nichols spoke to Big5Hoops.com this week as he readied for an offseason workout.
“I just like the energy that the guys have,” he said. “The energy and the competitive spirit is something you come into the gym that you hear.”
Hired on March 11 after four seasons as Radford’s head coach, Nichols dived into the transfer portal headfirst. No less than 12 transfers have relocated to Olney Avenue. Add in three freshmen and one returnee and that’s a lot of new games—not to mention names—to learn.
“They all have impressed me in different ways,” Nichols said.
(Read my snapshot look at La Salle’s roster, including Nichols’s thoughts on his players, by clicking HERE.)
Toughness Triumphs
In recruiting the portal—and the high school ranks, for that matter—Nichols, 39, combines old-school and new-school approaches to evaluating players. He is looking for tough, competitive players who can rebound and get to the free-throw line.
His is a unique style that will feature as many as a dozen players seeing the court when seven- or eight-player rotations are the norm today. Nichols wants to get to the foul line early, a doubly positive effect of getting easy points while putting opponents in foul trouble. To get to the line, the coach stresses rebounding, particularly pounding the offensive glass. Explorers coaches are sporting T-shirts in practice that cleverly read: “REBOUND THAT JAWN.”
“Those two things translate on any level, rebounding and getting to the free throw line,” Nichols said.
College Class
Nichols developed much of his coaching philosophy as an undergraduate at West Virginia from 2004–08. Playing 141 games at point guard, Nichols helped the Mountaineers to 99 victories, two trips to the NCAA Sweet 16, an Elite 8 appearance, and the NIT championship during his junior season in 2007. He accumulated 993 points and 399 assists while helping WVU to an impressive .702 winning percentage.
At West Virginia, Nichols teamed with Joe Mazzulla, the head coach of the Celtics who led Boston to the 2024 NBA title. He also played alongside Da’Sean Butler, who starred at WVU and now is on Mazzulla’s Celtics staff. Big 5 fans might remember that Butler was a Saint Joseph’s recruit.
What Nichols learned at WVU is there are different ways to win. His first three seasons were played under coach John Beilein, who won with an offensive approach that greatly featured the 3-pointer. When Beilein departed for Michigan, Bob Huggins replaced him and stressed rebounding and free-throw shooting. With nearly the same roster, WVU went from averaging 30.6 rebounds and 15.5 free-throw attempts in Beilein’s last season there to 36.0 rebounds and 21.1 free-throw attempts in Huggins’s first season at the helm.
Winning Ways?
That style has stuck with Nichols, and it is something he sold La Salle on during his interview. Another major factor in his hiring is Nichols’s belief that the Explorers can win, something that the record will show has proven challenging.
La Salle last made the NCAA tournament in 2013, and you have to go all the way back to 1992 for another appearance in the Big Dance for the Explorers. But there has been renewed enthusiasm around the program under the recent leadership of athletic director Ash Puri and president Dan Allen, who smartly see athletics, in general, and men’s basketball, in particular, as a means to boost enrollment and school spirit. Of course, every university—especially today—is looking for financial assistance, and alumni boosters like to support winning athletic programs.
The opening of the beautifully intimate Glaser Arena, a badly needed upgrade to La Salle’s home court, last season also has provided a boost for the Explorers. And La Salle was competitive on the court in the Atlantic 10 under Fran Dunphy in the Big 5 Hall of Fame coach’s three seasons at the helm of his alma mater prior to Nichols’s arrival.
Although Dunphy bettered prognosticators, who picked La Salle last in the Atlantic 10 in the preseason in each of his seasons, the Explorers were unable to eclipse the .500 mark overall in any of them. In fact, you have to go back to 2014–15 to find the last winning season for La Salle, a 17-16 mark.
All of this is to say that winning, in spite of some very good and even legendary coaches (see: Dunphy) as well as very good and even NBA players (see: Rasual Butler), has not been easy at La Salle for a long while.
It is a history that Nichols was well aware of when he eagerly accepted the position. In addition to an upgrade in facilities, which certainly will help—and has helped—recruiting, La Salle opted into the House settlement, allowing the Explorers to spend up to $20.5 million on its athletes. So, Nichols has some money at his disposal, and it has helped him to quickly assemble a roster.
Creating Culture
While there is proven talent among La Salle’s 16 players, Nichols is counting on intangibles, particularly toughness, and his unique style of play to win at La Salle. The head coach also has assembled a staff that is a mix of veteran and relatively young, but experienced coaches.
There is an enthusiasm around the Explorers program that is palpable, an energy that can be felt through social media posts and interviews. The staff, with a summer Coaches Caravan tour and a willingness to be available to media and fans, has garnered interest and goodwill this offseason.
What does all of this mean? Well, time will tell. While it is true that you cannot win games in the offseason, the feeling here as that you can create a winning culture in the offseason. Again, time will tell, but it seems like Nichols and the Explorers are doing just that.
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Author’s Note: Source for records and statistics from sports-reference.com.
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Aaron Bracy has been covering Philadelphia sports since 1996. Follow Bracy on X: @Aaron_Bracy and like his Facebook and Instagram pages. His book on the 2003–04 Saint Joseph’s men’s basketball team, A Soaring Season: The Incredible, Inspiring Story of the 2003–04 Saint Joseph’s Hawks, was published on March 1, 2025. Read a summary and order it by clicking HERE. Contact him at aaron@big5hoops.com.