University of Georgia Athletics
Nicholson’s Patience, Persistence Paying Off
February 19, 2024 | Women's Basketball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
It took until her junior season to start her first game. It took until this season, her fifth on the Georgia women's basketball team, to start more than eight games and be the kind of impact player she always believed she could be.
Yes, Javyn Nicholson is finishing strong.
"It's the first time that I'm reaping the fruits of my labor, I would say," Nicholson said said earlier this month. "It took a while; it took a lot of patience. It took a lot of re-evaluating myself as a player and as a person, and just trusting the process."
In her final collegiate season, the 6-foot-2 forward has emerged as one of the best players in the SEC. She leads the conference with 14 double-doubles. She has scored in double figures in 24 of 25 games, with seven games with at least 20 points.
It's not just that Nicholson is getting more minutes on the court than ever before at Georgia, it's what she's is doing with those minutes that makes this final-season surge so impressive.
Through 25 games (with 19 starts), Nicholson is averaging a career-best 16.0 points (ninth in the SEC) and career-best 9.1 rebounds (seventh) while playing a career-high 29.6 minutes a game. Even though this Lady Bulldogs season hasn't gone the way she or anyone else wanted, Georgia is 11-14 overall and 2-10 in SEC play, Nicholson's play has been a consistent bright spot.
"I think for me, if we were winning, it would obviously be sweeter. And it just challenges me to try to do more, which is a win-win for me," she said. "If we could win and I still have a good game, that's good. But when I have a good game and we lose, it's kind of like, 'Eh.'
"There's two ways of looking at it, I feel like, for me. I still want to do good whether we win or lose, but if we could just get a win, it just makes everything better."
On Sunday, playing at No. 1 South Carolina, Nicholson had the best game of her career. She finished with a career-high 27 points and 12 rebounds in a 70-56 loss to the powerhouse Gamecocks, who set an SEC record with their 43rd straight conference regular-season win.
"Javyn went to work today," coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson said afterward. "She is a phenomenal scorer for us who can score in so many different ways."
And she's done a lot of scoring this season, in the paint, in the mid-range area and at the free-throw line. So is she playing so well because she's been given the opportunity to thrive? Or is she playing so well because she's made a great leap as a player?
"I think it was pure opportunity. ... I feel like I've gotten to the space where I've matured and I can say, let me perfect these certain parts of my game so that I can be the most efficient, and that is also learning the system, learning where I can be efficient in that system," Nicholson said. "But it was pure opportunity."
In her first three seasons at Georgia, playing under former coach Joni Taylor and her staff, Nicholson was a reserve who was mostly a spectator. She averaged 10.8 minutes a game as a freshman during the 2019-20 season, 12.8 as a sophomore and 14.0 as a junior, while shooting well above 50% from the field and averaging between 3.3-4.7 rebounds a game. Her scoring averages during those first three seasons: 3.5, 4.8, 5.3.
"I was blessed to have two coaches (Taylor and Abrahamson-Henderson), but the coach that I was originally committed to didn't have that vision for me at the time. And that's OK," Nicholson said. "I don't blame her for that. I'm not bitter about it. That's just how my journey went, and I'm grateful for those moments because I was able to learn a lot."
And looking back, Nicholson, who doesn't shy away from taking a hard look at herself, said she probably wasn't truly ready for a major role on the floor early in her career.
"I wholeheartedly believe if I was given this position as a freshman or a sophomore, I would have mishandled it, just because it is a lot. ... Just the pressure of even taking a lot of shots, knowing that your teammates are going to expect you to take a lot of shots, you want to make all of them. And that's just not realistic," she said.
"Navigating that, even as a fifth-year, it's still very difficult for me. If I would have gotten that any earlier, I don't know how I would have handled it. Or how I would be mentally. I believe everything happens for a reason."
Last season, her first under Coach ABE, Nicholson only started eight of 33 games, but her minutes went up to 22.8 per game, and her production rose to 9.5 points and 7.0 rebounds an outing. When Nicholson played, she produced.
There were times earlier in her career when Nicholson was frustrated, and she said she came "very close" to entering the transfer portal at the end of her junior year. But she opted to stay and keep working until she got her shot.
"I tried to water the grass that I had, because it's not always greener on the other side," she said.
Nicholson is proud of her double-doubles, but not satisfied. She'd love to average a double-double for the season, which means getting a lot of rebounds over the remaining four games of the regular season.
"I've got to get that 10" rebounds a game average, she said with a smile.
Regardless of the stats, Nicholson hopes to play well down the stretch and help Georgia close out the season as well as possible, starting Thursday at Ole Miss.
Staff Writer
It took until her junior season to start her first game. It took until this season, her fifth on the Georgia women's basketball team, to start more than eight games and be the kind of impact player she always believed she could be.
Yes, Javyn Nicholson is finishing strong.
"It's the first time that I'm reaping the fruits of my labor, I would say," Nicholson said said earlier this month. "It took a while; it took a lot of patience. It took a lot of re-evaluating myself as a player and as a person, and just trusting the process."
In her final collegiate season, the 6-foot-2 forward has emerged as one of the best players in the SEC. She leads the conference with 14 double-doubles. She has scored in double figures in 24 of 25 games, with seven games with at least 20 points.
It's not just that Nicholson is getting more minutes on the court than ever before at Georgia, it's what she's is doing with those minutes that makes this final-season surge so impressive.
Through 25 games (with 19 starts), Nicholson is averaging a career-best 16.0 points (ninth in the SEC) and career-best 9.1 rebounds (seventh) while playing a career-high 29.6 minutes a game. Even though this Lady Bulldogs season hasn't gone the way she or anyone else wanted, Georgia is 11-14 overall and 2-10 in SEC play, Nicholson's play has been a consistent bright spot.
"I think for me, if we were winning, it would obviously be sweeter. And it just challenges me to try to do more, which is a win-win for me," she said. "If we could win and I still have a good game, that's good. But when I have a good game and we lose, it's kind of like, 'Eh.'
"There's two ways of looking at it, I feel like, for me. I still want to do good whether we win or lose, but if we could just get a win, it just makes everything better."
On Sunday, playing at No. 1 South Carolina, Nicholson had the best game of her career. She finished with a career-high 27 points and 12 rebounds in a 70-56 loss to the powerhouse Gamecocks, who set an SEC record with their 43rd straight conference regular-season win.
"Javyn went to work today," coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson said afterward. "She is a phenomenal scorer for us who can score in so many different ways."
And she's done a lot of scoring this season, in the paint, in the mid-range area and at the free-throw line. So is she playing so well because she's been given the opportunity to thrive? Or is she playing so well because she's made a great leap as a player?
"I think it was pure opportunity. ... I feel like I've gotten to the space where I've matured and I can say, let me perfect these certain parts of my game so that I can be the most efficient, and that is also learning the system, learning where I can be efficient in that system," Nicholson said. "But it was pure opportunity."
In her first three seasons at Georgia, playing under former coach Joni Taylor and her staff, Nicholson was a reserve who was mostly a spectator. She averaged 10.8 minutes a game as a freshman during the 2019-20 season, 12.8 as a sophomore and 14.0 as a junior, while shooting well above 50% from the field and averaging between 3.3-4.7 rebounds a game. Her scoring averages during those first three seasons: 3.5, 4.8, 5.3.
"I was blessed to have two coaches (Taylor and Abrahamson-Henderson), but the coach that I was originally committed to didn't have that vision for me at the time. And that's OK," Nicholson said. "I don't blame her for that. I'm not bitter about it. That's just how my journey went, and I'm grateful for those moments because I was able to learn a lot."
And looking back, Nicholson, who doesn't shy away from taking a hard look at herself, said she probably wasn't truly ready for a major role on the floor early in her career.
"I wholeheartedly believe if I was given this position as a freshman or a sophomore, I would have mishandled it, just because it is a lot. ... Just the pressure of even taking a lot of shots, knowing that your teammates are going to expect you to take a lot of shots, you want to make all of them. And that's just not realistic," she said.
"Navigating that, even as a fifth-year, it's still very difficult for me. If I would have gotten that any earlier, I don't know how I would have handled it. Or how I would be mentally. I believe everything happens for a reason."
Last season, her first under Coach ABE, Nicholson only started eight of 33 games, but her minutes went up to 22.8 per game, and her production rose to 9.5 points and 7.0 rebounds an outing. When Nicholson played, she produced.
There were times earlier in her career when Nicholson was frustrated, and she said she came "very close" to entering the transfer portal at the end of her junior year. But she opted to stay and keep working until she got her shot.
"I tried to water the grass that I had, because it's not always greener on the other side," she said.
Nicholson is proud of her double-doubles, but not satisfied. She'd love to average a double-double for the season, which means getting a lot of rebounds over the remaining four games of the regular season.
"I've got to get that 10" rebounds a game average, she said with a smile.
Regardless of the stats, Nicholson hopes to play well down the stretch and help Georgia close out the season as well as possible, starting Thursday at Ole Miss.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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