I changed my flight back to New Orleans from early tomorrow morning to tonight after Tulane got totally hosed by the refs in the final 26 seconds. First, they reversed a goal-tending call that would have given Tulane a one-point lead, and I have not gotten clarification on the rule there. Cisse definitely contacted Brumbaugh's lay-up attempt before it reached the backboard, but his hand was still on the ball when it got pinned on the backboard, and the rule says simultaneous contact with the backboard while the hand is on the ball constitutes goal-tending, but it does not specify whether you have to have taken your hand off the ball before it makes contact with the backboard. If that's OK, the reversal was right, but if it's not, the reversal was wrong.

The next call was even more egregious. After having the ball poked away from him, Brumbaugh had it before Haggerty fell on top of him (after already hitting his arms going for the ball) and inadvertently kicked him in the head as well as he gained control of the ball and called timeout, which was awarded. There was a point of emphasis this year to call a foul in that exact situation, but the referee swallowed his whistle. A foul would have sent Brumbaugh, an 82-percent free throw shooter, to the line for a 1-and-1 with a one-point deficit and 20 seconds left. There's no way to know whether he would have made both free throws or whether Memphis would have scored in response, but what a gutting way to lose. I booked my original flight back to New Orleans for Monday because I knew Tulane had an excellent shot to reach the final, and I believe today's game against UAB would have been 50-50. You can throw out the result from last Sunday when UAB went through the motions in the second half, but the way Tulane is playing right now, it is good as any team in the league and matches up better with the Blazers than with North Texas, whose defense really bothers guys like Kaleb Banks and Kam Williams.

Having said all this, I'm really not into the fan conspiracy theories about the NCAA (or, even stranger, the AAC) not wanting Memphis to lose. It's absurd on every level. The biggest mistake people make is mistaking incompetence for malevolence. Ron Hunter, as he almost always does, handled the controversy with class, and so did Brumbaugh and Asher Woods, the two players Tulane brought to the podium. I also talked with Hunter for a few minutes afterward--some on the record and some off the record.

The key moving forward is retaining as many players as possible in the NIL transfer portal era. My sources say Brumbaugh and Glenn will return, but the two to worry about are Banks and Williams. Recent history says it will be incredibly hard to keep them, but we will see what Tulane's NIL people can do. Their losses would be huge, but keeping Brumbaugh would be massive. In my opinion, he is the best player Hunter has had at Tulane because he's a winner whose work ethic and want-to infects his teammates. He absolutely loves it at Tulane. I never say never, though, because money talks, and if other guys leave, you never know what his thought process would be.

I will post quotes shortly.

That was a gutty win by Tulane yesterday and one Hunter's previous teams would have lost. Tulane could not make a lay-up in the first 10 minutes, could not stop FAU's 7-0 center from controlling the paint on both ends of the floor and got in all kinds of fall trouble but showed the toughness to take control at the end with the huge assist of the center fouling out. Tulane went on a 12-0 run to end the first half and n 11-2 run to end the game. It was the tougher team.

Beating Memphis today will require making a high percentage of 3-point shots and doing a better job defensively in the interior, when the defense was overmatched for one of the only times all year against FAU. Tulane is capable of doing much better there. It held Yaxel Lendeborg to 13 points and 5 rebounds last Sunday, and he exploded for 30 points, 20 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 steals and 4 blocked shots in a performance for the ages yesterday against East Carolina. Most Memphis games are tight headed into the final media timeout, but the Tigers usually make winning plays from there. Their defense can be suffocating at times, and Rowan Brumbaugh will have to find a way not to get worn down by the pressure down the stretch.

On another note, my two preview stories for basketball and baseball in The Advocate could not have proven more wrong. I wrote about Kam Williams being the key factor in the tournament and he missed all three of his 3s, scored 2 points and got replaced for stretches by Mari Jordan and Tulane still won. My lead item in my baseball notebook was about Jacob Moore returning to form, and he walked three guys out of the four batters he faced yesterday and had to be pulled again for Lombardi. Moore now has walked nine guys through less than four weeks after walking 10 all of last year.

Hunter, Brumbaugh and Gregg Glenn were sent to the podium yesterday after the game, and I asked a question to FAU's coach, too.

HUNTER

"Well you get to this time of year, every game is hard. This is a team that doesn't have a senior, and this is a lot of these guys' first conference game, and I'm so proud of them the way they handled it. I thought we were a little nervous the first four or five minutes because I know how much they want this but they hadn't been there. We knew we were playing a good team. I've got a really good team, but Mari Jordan was the difference for us today. What he did was incredibly, absolutely incredible. A lot of thing that you look at on the stat sheet won't even show up. He was absolutely terrific today."

On overcoming a lot of adversity to win:

"We've been winning like that all year. As a matter of fact, I think there was 6 and a half to go, we were talking in the timeout this is our kind of game. We've won a lot of games like this this year. We executed at the end of the game with our defense. We made free throws when we needed to, and then Asher (Woods) hit a clutch shot to make it a two-possession game. It felt like a Tulane basketball game with how we've played the last six weeks."

On having so many guys who can step up:

"It's huge, especially when you've got seven freshmen. We knew that someone would have to step up, and Mari was big, but we held them to 9 of 33 from the 3-point line and they are one of the better 3-point shooting teams, not only in our league but in the country. When our 3-point defense is there, we know we've got a chance. We didn't give up a ton of 3s. We won that battle, but I'm just really proud of these young men because no one thought we'd be what we are all year. It's awesome what these guys have done."

On closing halves with huge runs:

"It's funny. I've been talking about how young we are and being the only team in the country without a senior, but it felt like I had nine or 10 seniors today. They never cracked. Early in the year teams would jump on us and we'd kind of fade back. We've been through so many battles, and people wrote us off in November, and these guys just grinded it out. There's nothing that's going to happen in this tournament that we haven't seen. We're not freshmen anymore. We still look on paper like the youngest team in the country, but right now these guys are hungry and they are confident."

On playing Memphis:

"I'll worry about that tonight. I even brought my worn Penny Hardaway shoes. I might wear them again. Just out of respect for my brother I may wear some Penny Hardaway shoes in the game tomorrow. Maybe that will give us a little luck."

GLENN

On huge rebound to tie it with a little more than two minutes left:

"I gave all I got to win the game. I gave all I got."

On what made FAU freshman center so difficult to deal with:

"It wasn't necessarily him. It was just us being a little nervous. Like you said the first four minutes were tough, but the rest of the game we did what we do best."

BRUMBAUGH

On feeling like they would win:

"We just played every possession. Teams are going to go on runs. It doesn't matter what they do. We just have to focus on what we do."

FAU COACH JOHN JAKUS

On retaining his freshmen:

"There couldn't be two more people we want back more than these two. Everybody we recruited with the attention they would come back. Some people think we were crazy for doing that. Some people think we're crazy for doing that and some think that's impossible in today's college basketball culture, but we rolled the dice. I think we've separated ourself in player development, and we're going to spend the next two weeks selling that the next two weeks to keep these guys because if they stay we're going to be just fine."

On how Tulane can give itself a chance against Memphis:

"The 3-point line probably helps in these tournament games if you look at so-called upsets, and then the free throw line will matter. If they keep them off the line and get to the line like they did today and then they are going to have to control pace. I think it will be a good one."

I am in Forth Worth (or actually Dallas at the moment) to cover Tulane in the AAC tournament. My rule is I go when the Wave does not play until the quarterfinals, and so far they are 2-0 in that scenario, winning in 2022 and 2023. We will see if they can make it a third time today. FAU is a 3.5-point favorite despite being the lower seed, despite losing to Tulane by 15 at Devlin in January and despite being 0-7 against the top five seeds in the tournament while Tulane is 2-3. I have no idea what is going to happen today because Tulane has been a bad road team, going 4-5 in the league and getting very lucky that UTSA spit the bit in the last two minutes to prevent that record from being 3-6. As I mentioned in a previous post, it's a question of whether Tulane only struggles in opposing team's buildings because of the crowd or whether it needs the comfort factor of playing at home to reach its top level. If it's the former, this team is very capable of beating anyone in the field. All five starters have scored 20 points in one of the last six games, which is very rare in college basketball, and these guys are committed to winning and competing much more than their predecessors.

FAU is a very tall team but hardly dominant inside offensively. If Tulane closes out on the 3-point shooters like it has at home but has not done away from home recently, it will be hard for FAU to win. Oppnents have hit more 3s against Tulane in conference games than anyone else in the league, but are hitting them at the third-lowest percentage, which is literally the concept behind the matchup zone--to force teams to settle for low-percentage shots. The biggest concern is FAU leads the league in blocked shots, and Tulane has three guys who do damage close to the rim-Rowan Brumbaugh on drives, Gregg Glenn off the dribble in the post, and Kaleb Banks when he is feeling confident--and all of them could be affected by the shot blockers.

If Tulane gets past FAU, it likely will play Memphis in the semis, but not definitely. Wichita State, which plays Memphis in less than two hours, was one of two league teams to beat the Tigers and gave them a tough fight in Memphis the first time they met. I don't like Tulane's chances to beat Memphis in the semis because the Tigers have experienced players who know how to win, but if Wichita State did the Wave a solid, I'd very much like the Wave's chances against the Shockers.

I talked to Ron Hunter, Kam Williams and Brumbaugh Wednesday.

HUNTER

On being excited about chances:

"I think since I've been here this is probably the best opportunity in regards to the defense teams we're bringing, and we don't have to play the No. 1 team in the country (Houston). We've been ousted by them a couple of times (in 2021 and 2022), but we know it's still going to be tough. There are a lot of good teams playing good basketball. I think there are going to be some serious upsets in this tournament just because from top to bottom anybody can beat anybody on any given day, but I feel good where I am with this young group. They've had a great year and the confidence is there. That's what I like."

On Kam Williams needing to be aggressive:

"He has to be aggressive early. There is only so much we can do. We run things for him and he's not going to be open for very long. That's what he's got to understand. In high school you can be open for a long time. Here he's not going to open for a long time, but it's going to be a collective effort of a lot of guys. What I love about this group is I don't have to rely on one guy to have a great game. We've had different guys step up at different times of the year, and I like that about this group, and I also know the fact that we can defend. I'm really excited about it, but the hardest one to win is the first one. Everybody thinks it's the last one. The first one is the hardest to win."

On being 2-0 in AAC quarterfinals coming off a bye:

"I love your numbers. They scare me sometimes, but no, my philosophy is that you've got to win the first one, and I put everything into that first game because after that, everybody is the same. We don't know who we play (they practiced Wednesday as if the opponent was FAU, which it is), but we have to be ready to play, and that's the key."

On five starters who can score:

"We haven't had that, and what I also love is that we've had great bench play. It's the best bench play we've had since I've been here, so I'm not afraid to play some of those guys in tournament play when every possession means something. There are eight or nine guys that I have problem playing and know that they can come in and help us out."

On Brumbaugh averaging more than 37 minutes in conference play:

"I'm probably going to cut him to about 39.9 for the tournament. We'll give him about a five-second rest. He can rest in the summer. Right now we want to play three great basketball days. That's what I keep telling these guys."

BRUMBAUGH

On importance of Kam Williams being aggressive:

"It's super important. When he gets in the paint and he's getting downhill it opens up the whole game because everyone plays him as a really good shooter, so they try to run him off the line. If he can get in the paint and start creating because he has a great feel, it just opens up our offense so much."

On Williams as deadeye shooter:

"It's not like it's just in games. He does it in practice every day. Even when he misses a shot in games, I always think the next one's going in just because he's always working. He probably makes 85 to 90 percent of the shots he shoots in practice."

On confidence of whole team going into tournament:

"We're very confident, but we have to make sure that we stay even keel, too, because they can go on one early run in the game and you can lose all your confidence. You've just got to keep playing the game like it's our last, which it literally could be."

On not having road crowds to deal with being beneficial:

"Definitely. We struggled early on neutral sites, but we are different team right now 100 percent. How we closed out the conference, us being picked so low, we've got a lot of external motivation. We obviously all love each other and we love coach Hunter, so we have a lot of internal motivation, too."

WILLIAMS

On how he developed his shot:

"That's the main thing thing I was working on growing up. My dad always used to say that if you could shoot, you could space the floor for others, so that was the first skill that I worked on."

On best part of his shot:

"I I just know I put in a lot of work when nobody's around so I have the form, release and everything."

On why he chose Tulane:

"Honestly when I came on a visit I already knew I was coming here because the coaching staff was good, the people were good, the facilities."

On confidence entering tournament:

"We're very confident. We trust our work. We work on a lot of different things in practice--defense to offense, transition, everything. It doesn't matter who we are matched up against. We just know that we trust our defense against theirs and our work ethic is going to be better than them."

On road struggles maybe not being the same at neutral site:

"You could say that a little bit. When you are at home, the fans play a critical part in the energy that you bring, so now it's neutral. Nobody really has X amount of fans more than the others, so now it just comes down to the people on the court."

On importance of him being aggressive offensively:

"It's critical just because when I'm aggressive, it gives them a new look. Teams mainly focus on Rowan and Kaleb, but if I'm being aggressive, too, it gives them another driving lane because they're not going to help (defensively) if I'm the corner."

On why he is good defensively:

"I would just say the I.Q. and the reads I get of an offensive player. If they come off a screen, I know he's probably going to throw a skip pass, so I get a hand up to get a deflection. It's really just knowing the game."

On significance of winning tourney:

"It would mean a lot. We had a lot of doubters at the beginning of the conference season and now we're top four. We already beat the odds in that case, but we are not done yet. We still have to win three more games."

Tulane put it all together yesterday against UAB, getting terrific shooting from Kam Williams and Asher Woods, outstanding passing from Rowan Brumbaugh, good offense and defense from Gregg Glenn and athleticism from Kaleb Banks, who blocked three shots despite struggling from 3-point range. It is a talented starting five that meshes well. and if can take that home cooking to Fort Worth, it will have a legitimate shot to win three games and get back to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 30 years.

Tulane has not been a good road team, but there's a difference between playing on someone else's home court and in the sterile, empty environment all teams will face at Dickies Arena. Some teams simply cannot play well away from home regardless of the venue, but for others the problem is hostile environments rather than not being at home. We will find out which is the case for Tulane, which had the biggest home/road disparity in the AAC according to the metrics.

As for the Wave's path, I hesitate to predict easy or difficult ones based on the history of conference tournaments. For example, Chattanooga lost to Furman in the SoCon semis yesterday after sweeping Furman in the regular season. SIUE beat Southeast Missouri by 21 in the Ohio Valley final after losing by 15 and 16 during the regular season.

I will say this. It's a good thing Tulane is being coached by Ron Hunter rather than Perry Clark in his prime. Clark, for whatever reason, was abysmal in conference tournaments, going 3-11 in his Tulane tenure. (Hunter is 3-5). The Wave almost certainly would have gotten a bid to the 1997 NCAA tourney if it had won its first-round game in CUSA and might have made it in 1996 with a first-round win. Hunter has won four tournaments, although at a lower level than even what the AAC has become. Tulane likely will play FAU in the quarterfinals, and Hunter is 2-0 in quarters with the Wave. FAU would be a slight favorite by the point spread in that matchup. A matchup with Memphis in the semis would be tough because although the Tigers seem to play to the level of their competition no matter the level, they usually make the necessary plays to win at the end, but it is not out of the question that Wichita State would upset Memphis in the quarters if it gets past USF on Thursday. They split their meetings this year and Wichita State had a real chance to win at Memphis, too.

Tulane has not reached a conference tournament final since 1992 and did it only one other time, in 1983, since leaving the SEC, when it lost to Kentucky in the championship game twice. It has never won a conference tournament.

The most likely outcome this week is a semifinal loss to Memphis, but Tulane can beat anyone in the league (and also lose to almost anyone). If Williams and Banks are aggressive in Fort Worth and Glenn does not counterbalance his unique talent with bonehead plays, winning three in a row is possible.

For anyone wondering, Hunter's four tourney titles came when IUPUI finished tied for second in the Mid-Continent at 10-4 in 2003 and when Georgia State won the Sun Belt at 15-5 in 2015, finished second at 12-6 in the Sun Belt in 2018 and finished first at 13-5 in the Sun Belt in 2019.

Hunter, Williams and Woods talked after the game. I also had a brief interview with UAB coach Andy Kennedy, who was not in a great mood.

HUNTER

"I thought we were pretty good today. Defensively we played with an edge for most of the game. We came out of the gate really well, something we hadn't done in the past couple of games. I keep saying I wish we could play every game in this building because we're just a different team in this building than we are when we go play on the road. A lot of that is just maturity. We'll be better a year from now when we play on the road, but right now I just love what these kids have done. What a great year for these guys. Predicted almost last in the league and finished fourth. We didn't want to back in. Florida Atlantic won, so we were able to back in, but we wanted this thing outright. That was personal for us, and the other thing that was personal was we hadn't lost back-to-back conference games all year. We didn't want that to happen. Now the new season starts. Doesn't matter what your record is. We have to be ready to play on Friday. I'm really happy that we don't have to play until Friday."

On having 40 minutes of top level after seeing signs of it in spurts all conference season:

"It's great. Also what's great is UAB is the only (top) team really that we got a chance to play at home other than Memphis (I agree with this. I think UAB, North Texas, Temple with a healthy Jamal Mashburn and Wichita State are the most talented teams in the AAC other than Memphis and Tulane played each of them on the road with no return trip until facing UAB). We haven't had many of them, so we took advantage of it today. But again, at some point we'll pause and reflect, but I can't say how proud enough I am of these guys. There were probably a lot of people that gave up on us in November, and we talked about that, the bandwagon was going to grow and grow by the time we got to the end of the year. These guys stayed focus and showed how good they can be."

On Kam Williams being aggressive:

"He played great today. When he's aggressive, he knows it, he's a really good player. Like most really good players, when they see the ball go in they can't wait to get that next one. He saw one go in early and he stayed patient, and then we were were able to get our transition 3s. We haven't been able to get a lot of those lately, but today we got them. We usually get those here. We just can't seem to get them when they're on the road."

On Asher Woods:

"Asher has been steady really all year. It's almost to the point where it's expected. He's one of our older guys. He made some clutch shots today. His attitude that we weren't going to lose this game showed on all the other guys today. He was great defensively. He talked and showed his leadership. I don't know if a guard drove by him at all. He was really good defensively today."

On closing it out in second half:

"We game planned for Yaxel (Lendeborg). He's a really good player. Probably the most impressive thing we did was he only got five attempts, and for a guy like that, we really wanted to take him away and let the other guys become volume shooters. Again, it was really the defense. The defense kind of led, and it's done that all year. There were three out of four possessions where we had blocked shots at the other end of the floor. It looked like they were facing seven or eight guys. We were just swarming everything."

On how this creates momentum going into conference tournament:

"Well you always want to feel good about going into it. We finished the season off strong and beat one of the better teams at our place. We'll have confidence. There's no question about that. We've been waiting for this all year. As I told the guys, we are not even supposed to be in this situation, so we'll go down and play relaxed and we're going to try to bring our defense with us and see what happens."

On how confidence he is that this team can make a run in tournament:

"I've taken multiple teams to the NCAA tournament. The most important thing is what this team has that none of the teams had is this team can defend for 40 minutes. If you can do that in a tournament atmosphere, it gives you a chance every single night. That's what really affects me. I've had more explosive teams, but I haven't teams that for 40 minutes can compete. These guys (UAB) were averaging almost 80 points, and we shut them down. That just shows that this defense can do a lot in the tournament."

Tulane gets one more crack at one of the top three teams in the AAC tomorrow, and this is by far the Green Wave's best chance to win. Although UAB is not a top-100 team in the NET due to an incredibly poor non-conference performance, the Blazers have NCAA tournament caliber talent and were the preseason pick of the coaches to win the league over Memphis. Tulane lost to Memphis at home, lost to North Texas on the road and gets UAB at home, where it will be a slight underdog with the point spread. I know this much. UAB is not as good a team on the road as ECU is at home, so Tulane's predictable and annual loss in Greenville, N.C. won't have much bearing tomorrow.

Tulane has yet to lose two conference games in a row, so something's gotta give. A win clinches the 4 seed, and if FAU wins at home against ECU in a game that starts an hour before this one, the Wave will lock up the double bye before its game is over.

I talked to Ron Hunter, Rowan Brumbaugh and Asher Woods today before practice:

HUNTER

On importance of winning for confidence entering AAC tourney:

"We need that. We know we play well in this building. We also know we're playing a really good team in this building also, but right now I want to make sure the message they understand is, hey, we've had a great year, and one of the things we've done is finish games well for the most part; let's finish the season the same way. That's the message to them.--you know what, finish the season the way we started in conference play and let's finish it well."

On key to beating UAB:

"We can't do what we did the other day. We can't turn the ball over early. When you turn the ball over and take quick shots against these guys, they turn them into points at the other end. They've probably got the most talented player in the league sitting there, so we've got our work cut out for us, but we played well when we played them the first time. That was our third game in the league, and we're a much different team now, and so are they. They are all seniors for the most part, but we have another energy in this building. I hope we save our best for last in this building for this season."

On Yaxel Lendeborg:

"We just have to make sure, I thought for the most part we rebounded well against them (in the first meeting), but you just have to take care of the ball and have good shot selection. You can't let them just race up and down the floor with 3s and dunks. They just feed off that energy, and they are really good when that happens."

On Kam Williams taking one shot against ECU and not starting the second half:

"He does (need to be more aggressive), but for a guy like Kam that's a lot of pressure for a freshman. It's one of the reasons why I don't play freshmen because of the ups and the downs. Like most young people, not just our freshmen, they play much better at home than they do on the road. It's something he'll learn. He'll be much better at it a year from now, but just learning how to be able to go to that next level and find the next part of your game. When they take this away, you've got to be able to do this, and all of the hoopla that goes with being a good player, he's learning how to handle all that. We're trying to protect him, but there's only so much protecting you can do."

BRUMBAUGH

On importance of playing well Sunday heading into AAC tourney:

"It's very important just for momentum standpoint. You don't want to come into the tournament with back-to-back losses. We didn't play the way we should have at ECU. It's a big game. I don't think we've lost two in a row in conference, so just to keep that going and be able to return the next day and be better than you were the previous day is very important."

On what went wrong at ECU:

"We got rattled and got away from our game plan offensively and defensively. The crowd was definitely an advantage for them. Our home crowd isn't that great, so when we get those crowds, sometimes we get sped up, and I think that's what happened again."

On potential:

"You see our potential. We lost to UAB. We lost to Memphis. We lost to North Texas, all teams we feel are beatable. We are in fourth place right now. We have the talent. If we have a great game plan and we buy in and we take every possession one at a time and make every possession about winning, I think we can beat any team in this league."

WOODS

On importance of this game:

"It's huge. It wouldn't matter if we had three games left. It's always about the next game. and focusing on that. We've just got to go in and prepare today and be ready to play tomorrow. Everything's in front of us. We've got a huge opportunity to come out and get a win and control what we can control and get it done."

On tourney potential:

"We've got a good group of guys willing to fight and willing to compete and we know that. We know we're right there. We're maturing game by game, practice by practice, day by day. If we get ourselves in a good spot and we come out and compete, there's a lot of wonderful things we can get done when it's conference play."

On key against UAB:

"It's just about heart, intensity. We've got to come out with our foot on the gas and ready to play because we haven't done the best job of starting, so we have to focus on that and coming out and starting well. It's just about the details. We've got to be where we need to be on defense and we have to convert on offense. At the end of the day it's about that competitive spirit."

Tulane will play its first game against a team from North Dakota tomorrow. North Dakota State nearly beat LSU on Tuesday, leading 7-1 at one point before the Tigers finally went ahead in the bottom of the eighth for an 11-9 victory. LSU won in the more expected fashion yesterday, 13-3, leaving North Dakota State with one win in 12 games against a ridiculously demanding schedule. Tulane needs to sweep this series.

I talked to Jay Uhlman, Michael Lombardi and the surprisingly strong Tayler Montiel yesterday after a morning practice:

UHLMAN

On California trip:

"We had four really tightly contested games, good pitching, good defense, took timely hitting, execution with hitting and running, safeties, drags, a lot of West Coast baseball going on in parks that are not conducive to offense. Really thrilled with how we pitched and especially how we salvaged the series and won on Monday, too. Looking to bounce back this week at home. We got back in the wee hours last night and the guys rested up all day yesterday, and here we are today."

On consistent pitching:

"Really good. Like I said before, we thought the strength was going to be our bullpen. We knew what Luke (Fladda) was going to give us and he actually continues to outpitch those expectations with a lot more strikeouts. His numbers are really good, and to be able to get Trey (Cehajic) into that Saturday role. He's pitching tremendous, and then we kind of like TBA on Sunday. That gives us some flexibility out there, and then J.D. (Rodriguez) pitched a whale of a game on Monday--no-hit ball through five and that was really a big thing for us to have him do that, and then we're getting different contributions from guys in the back end. Montiel has been tremendous. Lombardi's been spectacular. J Bob (Jacob Moore) continues to give us an inning. I'd like to get him going a little bit more through than just one inning. (Carter) Benbrook's been awesome, and so as the group as a whole. Just really thrilled about the pitching staff.

On Montiel having to earn his way onto the roster in the fall and preseason and terrible first two years at Tulane:

"He was. That's really the neat story of that. The thing I love about him is he's honest with himself, what he needs to get better at, what he needs to do and now you're seeing his talent come to fruition. It's taken longer than all of us wanted, but sometimes that's how the game is."

On flashes of potential in the past:

"Yeah, and he's left-handed. It's hard to find left-handers that are throwing 94 and 95 with a real breaking ball. It's just a matter of could he harness it. He's worked really hard and I'm really proud of him."

On Jason Wachs status:

"He should be (back). He came out and ran. He's been hitting. Cautionary. We kept him out. He ran again today. I imagine he's going to be back."

On what most proud of thus far:

"It's cliche, but it's the truth. I think our process is really good. The way we treat each other as teammates is great. Those two things are components of really good teams because we're going to have really good players sitting on the bench, and if they're not great teammates and they are not ready for their opportunity, we can't mix and match and get production off the bench, so whoever's name's in that starting lineup, our guys have been able to separate and do their jobs, and that goes for the pitching staff as well. Just really pleased with that mentality they've carried."

On steady trajectory that he believes is sustainable since his first year:

"The transfer portal really helps us. That's the big, sustainable piece with our cost of education and our scholarship (totals) not going up any time soon, our ability to get into the portal and have demonstrated success with guys that have come from Power 4s, and not all from Power 4s, but mostly from there, here, development, win, get a chance to play professionally, those things bode well for us. Families are able to justify spending the kind of money it takes to come to a school like Tulane for one year or two years as opposed to four. Just really getting the right kind of guys in the program. The assistants have done a great job in the recruiting piece and really infused the roster with big, physical, talented, team-oriented guys."

On rotation for weekend:

"It will be Fladda, Cehajik and TBD."

MICHAEL LOMBARDI

On the way the extended weekend ended:

"It felt good. The first two games were tough. Credit to Pepperdine. Their pitchers were getting after it and throwing strikes. I really felt a lot of stuff was out of our control. The process was good. We played good baseball and sometimes you get the short end of the stick, but it was a good weekend for us. Going forward we're in a good spot."

On his two saves:

"I felt good. Coming in from the outfield and playing a position and getting on the mound, you are in the flow of the game and your competitive juices are flowing and I kind of just leaned into that a little bit, especially in a big spot."

On three straight strikeouts with breaking ball when batters (two from Pepperdine, one from Long Beach State) did not move a muscle:

"It's a good feeling. It's always more fun to throw fastballs by people. We've been doing a good job and Izz calls an incredible game."

On Monday pressure situation:

"Just compete. I told James (Agabedis), who was playing third base, let's make them earn it. We were playing way in taking away the bunt and I knew that I was going to attack the strike zone and go after them and see what happened. I knew I was going to go out there swinging."

On how he warms up during games:

"Most of my prep happens pre-game, doing all my drill work and making sure I'm ready to go. You can see sometimes they are throwing balls out to center field, and I kind of have gotten a good sense of when my number's going to be called and if there's a chance I'm going to throw, so before the next inning starts I'll throw a couple of changeups and breaking balls to (Tanner) Chun (centerfielder) at Matthias (Haas) the other day, and they did a good job catching them. I try to get a few pitches in if I can and then just go out there and be an athlete on the mound."

On upper limit on fastball:

"My fastball is mid-90s."

On recovering from first two losses to Pepperdine:

"Even after those first two losses. the coaches were stressing to go out to the park with energy. Losing a game or two, that shouldn't change the way you go about your business or the joy you play the game with, so that was pretty special to go out there, have fun and get the wins."

On growth during the year:

"Growth is a good word. Some people lose sight of the fact that is a time to develop, even during the season, and it's not mutually exclusive. You are competing four or five times a week, but still you have an opportunity on off days in pre-game and during the game to get better as a player. That growth mindset has been huge for us."

On getting down 3-0 Saturday:

"I don't think there was really any panic. I felt good. Baseball's a frustrating game. Sometimes you can square a ball up, hit it right and it just finds a hole and the next inning you can get jammed and it falls in short right field for a hit, so you can't really get too consumed with the results. Our whole lineup did a good job of sticking to our approach and our game plan and playing with our hair on fire."

On cementing status as closer:

"I know there are a lot of guys that can do it and will do it if their number is called. It's a good feeling. I feel the trust from my coaches and teammates, and I hope that they feel the same way because when they are on the mound I have nothing but belief that they are going to go get it done."