For Archbishop Hoban's Jonas Nichols, the hard work is paying off

TWINSBURG, Ohio – “Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.”

That quote from Malcom Gladwell in his book ‘Outliers’ could very well pertain to Archbishop Hoban’s Jonas Nichols.

The junior guard was feeling it Thursday night in the OHSAA Division I district semifinals, when he torched GlenOak with a game-high 27 points in just three quarters as the Knights won 81-46 to set up a district final matchup against Nordonia on Saturday at 2 pm.

But Nichols knew way before he walked through the hallway of Twinsburg High School and into the gym on Thursday night that he would have a great game.

“I felt it since yesterday,” Nichols said. “I was in the gym (and) I was hitting every shot. I tried to channel it into the game, and it happened.”

Nichols felt like he hadn’t been playing his best basketball of late, so he got in a late gym session on Wednesday night and then an early one on Thursday morning.

“I was in the gym until like 12 o’clock last night,” Nichols said. “I got up this morning and I was in the gym at 6 before school. I was trying to perfect my craft and it showed.”

What showed was Nichols hitting shots from all over the court.

After GlenOak scored the first four points of the game, Nichols hit a 10-foot jumper and a 12-foot turnaround jumper on back-to-back possessions. And then two possessions later, he knocked down a 15-footer.

And then in the second quarter with Hoban on an 11-3 run that opened up a 12-point lead, Nichols got the ball on the left wing, worked to the top of the key with a screen set by Sam Greer and raised up for a 3-pointer that hit nothing but the bottom of the net to give Hoban a 40-25 lead late in the period.

After the ball went in, Nichols skipped backwards down the floor for a few steps, turned around and threw his hands up in the air, holding up three fingers on both hands as he let out a yell.

“I shot it and made it and I felt like that was the dagger,” Nichols said. “Me putting my hands up was just me signaling this game’s over.”

And it might as well have been. The Knights never led by less than 14 again and finished off the Golden Eagles with a 34-11 third quarter. Nichols scored 11 of those 34, including a 3-pointer from about 25 feet that gave the Knights a 36-point lead and sent the game into a running clock.

He also had numerous assists, finding open teammates for easy layups or 3-pointers, of which Hoban knocked down 11 in the game.

“Everyone was hot,” Nichols said. “We want to play for each other. We want to see everyone win. I’m not selfish. If you’re open, I’ll get it to you. Everyone was hitting shots and that’s how we got the win.”

While Nichols can hit just about any shot in the book and can score from all three levels, he isn’t going to force a shot just to get one up if he has a teammate with a better look.

“Since he was a freshman, he’s been a great passer,” Hoban head coach T.K. Griffith said. “He will shoot a bunch of tough mid-range shots, but great players shoot mid-range shots. As a coach you have to adjust a little bit and give him that liberty because analytically maybe that’s not the greatest shot in the world but with him, he’s not going to take that shot if he has a wide-open guy for a layup or a three.”

With Hoban comfortably in the lead, Nichols watched the fourth quarter from the bench. But had the game been a little tighter, he felt like he could have had a huge night scoring the basketball.

“I would have probably gotten like 40 tonight,” Nichols said. “I was feeling it.”

That feeling comes from all of the hard work he puts in on a daily basis. While most players put in the work in the gym, Nichols really puts in the work.

“Ten thousand hours, Malcom Gladwell ‘Outliers,’” Griffith said. “He’s an outlier. The kid lives in the gym. He trains every day.”

That isn’t just a coach trying to hype up his player. That’s what Griffith – who is in his 30th season as the head coach at his alma mater – has seen with his own eyes every single day.

“This isn’t coach speak either because I have been around this a long time,” Griffith said. “The honest truth is he doesn’t go one day without putting in two or three hours in the gym after practice.”

It’s a tireless process for Nichols, who averaged 16 points per game this season and had a season-high of 30 in an 83-60 win over Villa Angela-St. Joseph in early January.

“I am in the gym late at night, early in the morning, two times a day,” Nichols said. “During AAU, I work out mostly every single day. I don’t take breaks. Even if we would have lost tonight, I would have been in the gym tomorrow and I would have just kept working.”

And if Hoban would have lost, no doubt Nichols would have taken it hard. That’s one thing his coach would like to see him improve upon.

“He is very tough on himself,” Griffith said. “He actually needs to be a little kinder to himself because he wants to be so good that if he is having a night where he is not being the great player he wants to be, he will emotionally have to dig through that.”

But Griffith enjoys watching No. 0 play basketball.

Well, sort of. It’s not easy to sit back and watch when you’re going through the stress of postseason basketball.

“He is fun to watch, I just want to enjoy this,” Griffith said. “It’s hard to enjoy, to be honest with you. But maybe when the season is over, I can look back and enjoy it a little bit more.”

One thing Griffith sees for sure is that the hard work is paying off for his 6-foot-2 guard.

“He is seeing the fruits of his labor right now,” Griffith said. “I think he is one of the best players in the state.”

All it took was ten thousand hours.

Photo Gallery (photos by Jeff Harwell)