Former Mountaineer Nichols gets head coaching job at Radford

Nichols
SHEPHERDSTOWN — It wasn’t a barbaric trip from Radford (Va.) High School to West Virginia University for basketball player Darris Nichols. But it’s been a typically long route back to Radford University for the still-youthful basketball coach.
Nichols, who played for both John Beilein and Bob Huggins at West Virginia, was plucked from the ranks of college assistants to be Radford University’s next head coach in April of this year.
After his four distinguished years at WVU, where he totaled 993 points and was a contributing member of the 2007 National Invitational (NIT) championship team, Nichols began the typically vagabond-like trek many young coaches are forced to endure as they chase after their first head coaching position in the college ranks.
Nichols played a year of professional basketball in Hungary. He was able to use his intelligence and people skills to move through a world that ordinarily doesn’t produce NBA players or widely known coaches on any collegiate or professional level.
The one-time point guard for the Mountaineers had been a two-time Big East Academic All-Star and the 2008 Fred Schaus Captain award recipient at WVU.
He returned to Morgantown for one year before taking to the nomad’s trail as an assistant coach at Wofford (S.C.), Louisiana Tech and Northern Kentucky before getting a plum of an assistant’s position at the University of Florida.
Staying six seasons at Florida, Nichols was seen as a rising star of the future by many involved in college athletics. He still hadn’t reached his 40th birthday when tapped by Radford.
Radford is member of the 12-school Big South Conference and had a 15-12 record for the 2020-21 season. The Highlanders were 12-6 in the Big South, which also houses such schools as Winthrop, Campbell, UNC-Asheville and North Carolina A&T.
Even though he never played for Radford, being a native of the area should help Nichols and his knowledge of the high schools, their talent level and the abilities of the high school coaches within driving distance.
Besides a vital recommendation from Florida’s head coach, Nichols was given a firm endorsement from both Huggins and Beilein — his coaches when playing in Morgantown.
Said Beilein, who left West Virginia to coach Michigan to a spot in the NCAA national championship game and then on to the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA, of Nichols, “Darris Nichols is a rising star in the world of coaching college basketball. We have remained in close contact from the time he played for us at WVU. He has always had a thirst to learn the game and was one of the smartest players I ever coached. His recruiting skills are exceptional, and he will bring the right people to Radford. Darris really knows the game and how to develop talent, too. Student-athletes will love playing for him as well. This is a great match for both Radford and Darris, and I look forward to following all his success in the years to come.”
Before the arrival of Nichols back in the low-slung mountains of western Virginia, the Highlanders had been on West Virginia’s schedule. That arrangement could change if Huggins doesn’t want to become an adversary of his one-time point guard.
Nichols seems to have landed on his feet in a league where he could produce winning seasons, but replacing Winthrop as the usual team to beat in any season will not be easy.