It has been an unbelievable season for the DU men’s’ basketball team after Saturday’s 63-61 victory over New Orleans clinched the SBC West Division title for the Pioneers.

But the same can be said about one of the players, junior Yemi Nicholson.

At the beginning of the season many thought returning senior starters Rodney Billups and Erik Benzel would be the stars of the show for the Pioneers this year.

As the season has developed that has changed and Nicholson leads the team in points (18.7 per game), rebounds (8.7 per game), blocks (86) and field goal percentage (.588).

“Yemi decided over the spring and summer to dedicate himself to improvement and he got in the weight room a lot and played a lot, so now he maturity and experience are catching up with his size and now the sky is the limit for him, because of how hard he wants to work,” said Head Coach Terry Carroll.

Nicholson started playing basketball as a child and later played four years on the Overland High School’s junior varsity and varsity teams.

Few colleges looked at Nicholson during high school and he ended up on a music scholarship at Fort Lewis College for his skills with music instruments.

He was later recruited by the Fort Lewis basketball coach to play for the squad and saw limited action.

During the summer after his freshman year, Nicholson was at DU playing some pick up basketball and a couple weeks later both he and his dad talked to coach Carroll about attending the University of Denver.

And now he is at the center of a team looking to go to the NCAA tournament for the first time since returning to Division I in 1997.

“I just worked hard every day to get to where I am now, going to the weight room and just practicing by myself or with some of the coaches,” said Nicholson.

The SBC Coaches poll at the beginning of the season selected the Pioneers to finish last in the west conference, but Nicholson and the rest of his teammates have quickly shown how good they really are.

“I knew the type of quality and character of the type of guys on this team going into the season and the poll was based totally on losing three seniors from last year,” said Carroll.

“We just wanted to come out this year and prove to this conference that we were a good team,” said Nicholson.

He is currently ranked as the ninth best center in division one this season by Sportsline.com and is hoping to lead the Pioneers to a SBC tournament title this weekend at North Texas University.

“Yemi is just a part to the team, he is a valuable part, but everybody has to do their part, and everybody just has to come out and do their job and hopefully it will come out that way,” said Carroll.

Last season Nicholson did not start one game and averaged 7.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game coming off the bench.

He worked very hard during the off season to become the dominant player that he is today.

However, Nicholson is not the only player who had an excellent season for the Pioneers.

Benzel has avenged injuries and is averaging 13.3 points per game, sophomore Antonio Porch is scoring 13.2 a game and pulling down 6.2 rebounds and Billups has scored 9.9 points per game and dished out a team high 185 assists.

“Basketball means a lot to me now, I breathe it, think about it, sleep it, just trying to get better every day,” said Nicholson.