A current member of the Jamaican National Team, a former New
Jersey State High School Player of the Year and a four-year letterwinner at
Auburn, Nicole Louden begins her first season on the Columbia women's basketball
coaching staff as a volunteer assistant coach. Louden will work primarily with the Lion guards.
"Nicole Louden is an outstanding young coach who possesses a
lot of natural leadership qualities, and we are thrilled to have added her to
our coaching staff," Nixon says. "She will be a tremendous addition to
the Columbia Athletics Department and our women's basketball family. Our
players are really going to love playing for her."
"With the graduation of Sara Yee, we have a number of
players who are competing not only for the starting point guard position but also
to be in the guard rotation," Nixon continues. "Nicole will be working
closely with this group to guide their development, and our players are
certainly going to benefit from her wealth of experiences as a player at the
highest levels."
This past summer, Louden helped Jamaica to runner-up finish at the
Centrobasket Tournament to qualify the Jamaican team for the 2011 FIBA Americas
Championship. The Americas Championship will serve as the final qualifier for
the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Louden nearly registered a triple-double in the semifinals
against Trinidad and Tobago, tallying 11 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in
a 62-59 win.
Louden was also an integral part of the Jamaica team that
earned a bronze medal at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games in
Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Louden had her best game against the Dominican Republic,
when she tallied 17 points and eight assists in a narrow defeat.
Louden played four seasons at Auburn University in Alabama,
finishing her career with 843 points, 311 assists and 185 steals. Louden helped
the Tigers to back-to-back postseason appearances as a sophomore and junior,
and was a two-time Academic All-Southeast Conference selection.
The 5-7 point guard would go on to play professionally in
three different countries (Israel, Czech Republic and Spain) from 2005-10. For
Valosun Brno of the Czech Republic in 2008-09, Louden averaged 13.7 points, 5.2
rebounds and 2.3 steals per game in helping the team to a third-place finish in
its league.
A three-time Nike All-American at John F. Kennedy High
School in New Jersey, Louden averaged 34 points, eight rebounds and five assists
per game as a senior and became the all-time leading scorer - boys or girls -
in Passaic County history. Louden was the subject of a book entitled "She's Got
Handle" by Adam Zagoria.
Louden graduated from Auburn with a dual bachelor's degree in psychology and physical education in
2007.
