Kam Williams is confirmed in the transfer portal and is not coming back.

Sources tell me Kaleb Banks, Mari Jordan and little-used reserves Spencer Ellliot and Michael Eley skipped the first College Basketball Crown practice today and are expected to enter the portal.

Of the relevant players, Rowan Brumbaugh and Asher Woods practiced along with Gregg Glenn and Percy Daniels. Glenn announced publicly last week he was returning.

With Pro Day coming up tomorrow, the stars were out to watch Tulane's Saturday morning practice. Michael Pratt, who may be in town to throw to the receivers tomorrow, was there along with Parry Nickerson, Lorenzo Doss, Mario Williams and Josh Remetich for the shorts and shoulder pads workout that featured the first significant contact of the spring. When I got there, the linebackers and safeties were doing a tackling technique drill hitting cushions at full speed under the direction of linebackers coach Tayler Polk. It's still too early for me to get a read on individual players, but it is very easy to see the difference in size and speed of the entire roster compared to five years ago. Tulane will have lot to overcome in the fall with so few returning starters on both sides of the ball--likely among the fewest in Division I--but the guys stepping into roles will be talented. On Thursday, I noticed how abnormally tall Middle Tennessee transfer Dallas Winner-Johnson was for a linebacker. Saturday it was early-enrolling freshman wide receiver Antwaun Parham, who is 6-4. Whether he develops into a big contributor remains to be seen--the Wave is still waiting on the 6-5 Sidney Mbanasor--but he looks the part of the big, skilled receiver Willie Fritz never was able to find. Having said that, the first play I saw him involved him was one where the ball skipped off his hands on a fade route in the end zone.

Some of the numbers on the roster we were given on day 1 are inaccurate, so hopefully that issue will get fixed. There was a No. 12 playing cornerback on Saturday and I did not know who he was, as well as a No. 33 playing nickel. In seven-on-seven drills, Kadin Semonza made a nice pass to Garrett Mmahat, who continues to produce in practice but has not proven he is game-ready at receiver. TJ Finley hit Zycarl Lewis deep a little later. Kellen Tasby dropped a snap, bringing up memories of his rough mop-up series against Temple last year when he had to be replaced for not knowing the plays, but he did respond with a TD pass to Parham over the top.

When they went to a spirited 11-on-11 at the end of practice, Finley showed off his big arm strength by overthrowing Shazz Preston by about 10 yards on a deep ball. There was nothing Preston could do there, but he had a rough day. Finley then had a bullet pass deflect off the hands of Bryce Bohanon on a crossing pattern. My concern with Finley is how hard he throws all of his passes. He needs to dial it down on some of them, although the gun is a nice tool to have when necessary, as when he hit Bohanon through a tight window past Kevin Adams for a big gain to kickstart a long drive that started inside the 20. He then hit Zycarl Lewis over the middle and Mmahat on a quick out before Preston dropped a hard throw on the corner in the red zone. A quick pass in the backfield to Maurice Turner did not produce much, and the drive ended when Finley eas ruled to be sacked by DeShaun Batiste. Finley who stepped up in the pocket when Batiste got close to him, disagreed with the call.

Donovan Leary was next, and he looked to have a long completion to Anthony Brown-Stephens down the sideline, but Jahiem Johnson, who had a strong first week, got back to knock it down. Leary threw wide of Anthony Miller on the short sideline. Preston then caught a short pass and slipped on his cut with room to run. Bohanon caught a short pass and juked a defender to get extra yards. Shaun Nicholas got open on an out pattern against E'Zaiah Shine before Leary threw over the top to a wide open Brown-Stephens for about a 35-yard touchdown. Safety Chase Green got lost in coverage, and the offense celebrated wildly on the sideline behind the end zone, mobbing Brown-Stephens. And when I say celebrated wildly, I have never seen a practice celebration that intense by the offense in the 16 years I have covered practice at Tulane.

I did not catch the full series from Semonza, but Preston dropped a pass in the end zone before he completed a short scoring toss to running back Zuberi Mobley.

The starting offensive line at the moment appears to be no-brainers Derrick Graham and Shadre Hurst on the left side, with Elijah Baker at center, Landry Cannon at right guard and Reese Baker at left tackle.

Injured guys who did not practice included wide receivers Omari Hayes and Oliver Mitchell and defensive back KC Eziomume.

Before I got there, Ty Thompson went down with a knee injury that could keep him out a while. Observers who were there said it did not look good at first, but they added he was walking under his own power. More importantly, Jon Sumrall gave a relatively positive diagnosis.

"Ty tweaked his knee a little. It's nothing major. We'll image it either today or tomorrow. It doesn't look like a several month type thing. It may be a lateral meniscus, which I'd like to inject (him with a pain-killer) and get him through some of spring and then even if we had to shut him down at the end of spring with a week left, because he's been doing some really good things quite honestly."

The practice tomorrow will not be open to reporters because it will be earlier in the morning and Sumrall will head to the Saints facility for Pro Day, which I will attend.

Here is the rest of Sumrall after practice plus our Thursday interviews with Jesus Machado and Arnold Barnes.

We’re 21 games into the regular season and the conference season starts this evening against Wichita State. Even Tulane fans like me, who don’t see much chance at getting an at-large bid to the NCAA baseball regionals, want Tulane to succeed. Most of us root fervently for the team. But, gaining a regional bid is a long putt at this point. Warren Nolan predicts us to have a 37-19 final record and an RPI of 90. Boyd’s World is more pessimistic and has us going 31-25 with an RPI of 128. I personally think Nolan is closer and I wouldn’t be shocked if we won 40 regular season games but, due to strength of schedule, would probably not be enough for an at-large bid. To reach 40 wins would mean winning at the same clip as we have done so far, 71.4%. But that won’t be easy. We’ve played an incredibly weak schedule so far. Our opponents have won only 38.3% of their games. As of today, future opponents have won 54.7% of their games. And we’ll be playing many more tougher away games than we have to date. Some thoughts:

We’re hitting OK but with very little power. Rasmussen, Haas, and the freshmen, Chun and Wachs, are doing better than expected, but Jackson Linn’s drop off has been devastating. Others are performing about as expected, though with a reduction in HR’s.

On the mound, Cehajic, Lombardi, and Montiel have been consistently good. Fladda, Wilcenski, and Clements have both good and bad appearances. Most of the rest have not been very good. To get an at large bid, we probably need four starters and four or more relievers who can be counted on.

What can be said about our defense that is positive? We make too many errors, don’t make simple plays, throw to the wrong base, and continuously miss cut-off men. Over recent years, our fielding average has never fallen below .970, but this year it’s at .962. That’s quite bad.

The next dozen games continue the trend of weak opposition where we must “make hay while the sun shines.” The latter part of the schedule is much tougher. Let’s sweep Wichita State.

Roll Wave!!!

The first Thursday of the NCAA tournament is my Holy Day, so I did not have a write-up yesterday after attending the morning practice, but here it is. I asked Jon Sumrall about Trey Tuggle, and he is indeed no longer on the team.

"Trey already had graduated, is working on his master's and he has decider to be done playing football, Sumrall said. "It's something that when the injury happened and you get an older guy like that who already has his degree in hand, they have decisions to make. We support Trey fully. Great guy. Would have loved to have had him back. Was not anything like we're like, hey, you need to leave. Love Trey. Mississippi guy. Great kid. Had his degree in hand and was wrapping up his master's so just felt like it was in his heart to move on and go do life as opposed to keep playing football, which no judgment in that al all."

Tuggle is a loss because he was slated to start last year at left tackle before his ACL injury near the end of spring drills. That spot is no longer open because of Derrick Graham, but Tuggle certainly could have been in the mix at right tackle. His departure leaves Tulane with two linemen who have significant experience in Green Wave uniforms--Graham and Shadre Hurst. The other 15 practicing in the spring are either young or transfers.

It was chilly and very windy Thursday morning, but the practice was much more lively than Tuesday's, which was a little flat. This one had the typical Sumrall-coached energy, and the defense made a lot of big plays. Safety Jack Tchienchou jumped a route for a pick six against TJ Finley in 11-on-11, and cornerback E'Zaiah Shine recovered a fumble for a score after a botched exchange between Finley and a running back whose number I did not catch. Finley immediately dropped down to do push-ups after the interception, but it was a really good play by Tchienchou, whom I believe will be an All-AAC player in the fall. There also was a touchdown in 7-on7 when Jahiem Johnson stepped in front of a pass from walk-on Jakson Judge and ran to the end zone. Johnson has looked good in the first week, and he is a guy that was healthy all last spring and still ended up being outplayed by Rishi Rattan. He's not the same player now. It's too early to get a handle on the depth chart as guys rotate in and out, but Johnson and Pleasant would be my first-team cornerbacks at the moment with Shine, Armani Cargo and Wofford transfer Isaiah Wadsworth in the picture. The nickelbacks--spears in this staff's terminology--are Javion White, Jaydon Lewis and East Central University transfer Tavare Smith. The starting safeties are Tchienchou and Bailey Despanie, with Kevin Adams, Joshua Moore and Chase Green competing for roles.

Jesus Machado and Chris Rodgers were playing together at linebacker Thursday, and later Jean Claude Joseph joined Machado. Even though he has been 100-percent cleared and even could have come back at the end of last season, I'm not sure Machado really feels 100 percent. We talked to him after practice, but he never has been a good talker, so it was hard to get a read. Obviously Sam Howard and Dickson Agu will play big roles there, too. The tallest linebacker out there is Missouri State transfer Dallas Winner-Johnson, who is listed at 6-5, 230. I can't recall seeing a Tulane linebacker that tall.

The offensive linemen on the same unit as Graham and Hurst were Elijah Baker at center, Landry Cannon at guard and Reese Baker at right tackle. Another unit from left to right was Liberty transfer Jordan Hall, who strangely is listed as a Georgia transfer on the roster we were given, Appalachian State transfer Jack Hollifield, FIU transfer John Bock at center, Nicholls transfer Robbie Pizzolato and Indiana State transfer Jude McCoskey. I also saw Hollifield at center some unless I wrote it down wrong.

Bryce Bohanon has not done much on the field in his Tulane career, but he has looked a lot better in the first week. He made a nice cut to get open for a pass in 1-on-1 drills and had a long catch-and-run on a throw from Donovan Leary. Getting separation has been his problem, but it looks like he will have a better chance of making an impact in the fall. Kentucky transfer Anthony Brown-Stephens has a nice catch on a deep out, and Louisville transfer Jimmy Calloway scored on a pass from Finley. Zycarl Lewis left Smith on the ground with a sharp move. The throw of the day came from Leary to Shazz Preston on a fade when he had only a half-step of separation and the ball hit him in the hands running full speed in the corner of the end zone. Kadin Semonza talked about the chip on his shoulder Tuesday trying to prove doubters wrong because of his short stature, but Leary came across as the guy with the real chip on his shoulder. He felt like he should have earned more playing time at Illinois than he received.

Sidney Mbanasor, who looked good Tuesday, dropped a TD pass Thursday, then pulled up as he tried to run under a deep throw later, allowing a defender to knock it down and walking a little gingerly after the play. That bears watching. Oliver Mitchell, the freshman from Karr, got open for catches a few times.

The quarterbacks, who have been generally sharp, missed a few throws in 7-on-7. The wind, which was gusting to 25 miles per hour, likely affected some throws. Finley threw low for an open Lewis and Semonza missed badly low for tight end LeRon Husbands before completing a touchdown pass to Preston. I do not have a pecking order in my head for the QBs yet. It's too early.

The highlight in 11 on 11 was when Leary scrambled to his right a la Darian Mensah, except Mensah more often drifted to his left, and hit Lewis on the sideline with little room. Semonza hit Garrett Mmahat, whom I hesitate to say has been productive over the first two practice. I hesitate because he has impressed me a lot in practice over the past two years, and Sumrall even singled him out as a ball player early in camp last fall, but like Rattan in the past on defense, it never has translated into a game for the former quarterback who never had played wideout until he switched in fall camp of 2023. Finely threw through traffic to complete a pass to Mitchell before Leary hit Lewis over the middle. I have no idea how the receiving depth chart is going to shape out. Sumrall singled it as his biggest concern entering spring drills, with no truly proven guy but a lot of candidates vying to be starters.

When the pads aren't on, it is hard to judge running backs, but early-enrolling freshman Javin Gordo has popped out in the first week. He looks quick and decisive. I really haven't noticed Jamauri McClure much through two practices, which is a little surprising and I expect will not be the case for much longer.

Former Tulane OL coach Cody Kennedy stopped by practice to catch up with new passing game coordinator Will Hall, who brought him to Tulane when he was hired as offensive coordinator after the 2018 season. I had a great relationship with both of them when they were on staff, so Kennedy and I talked for several minutes. He said the talent on this roster is so much better than the group he and Hall inherited in 2019, saying Tulane is getting the guys that Houston and UCF used to get when they dominated the AAC, adding the only AAC team that compared to Tulane in talent now was Memphis.

Dontae Fleming is out of eligibility, but he has hung around practice both days to watch.

Three injured players were doing exercises in the stands when I arrived, and a fourth was on the sideline with a boot on his right foot. The guys in the stands were walk-on tight end DJ Cicero, Albany transfer DB KC Eziomume and No. 61`, who is not listed on the roster. The player with the boot was FAU wide receiver transfer Omari Hayes.

I was wrong about being the only media guy there Thursday. Three of the four local TV stations were represented, with WDSU the exception. Sumrall, Machado and Arnold Barnes spoke after practice, and I will have their transcriptions up at some point today.