Tulane had a spirited 11-on-11 session at the end of a a 90-minute practice on Thursday morning in preparation for Friday morning's scrimmage, which has been moved from Saturday because of the possibility of bad weather early Saturday. I did not realize the workout was ending early, so I caught only the last 40 minutes or so. A couple of times guys were tackled to the ground in what was supposed to be a non-tackling session, but Jon Sumrall prefers over-aggressiveness to under-aggressiveness and had no problem with the enthusiasm. The first thing I saw was a big run by Louisville transfer Maurice Turner on a cutback. He and freshman Javin Gordon have been the standouts of the spring at running back, but I will be very interested to see what Jamauri McClure does tomorrow. Although he has been quiet to this point, he excelled in every scrimmage last preseason. So far, Turner has been the home run threat and Gordon, who is built like Duda Barnes, has been Mr. Consistent, picking up the playbook quickly as an early enroller.

My spies said Cadin Semonza was not as sharp today as in other practices, but he completed three in a row during a 7-on-7 drill right before the 11-on-11 work. He started by going underneath to Gordo, then hit Sydney Mbanasor deep with a bit of a wobbly pass before throwing a dart to walk-on Walker Davis for about 20 yards.

When the 11-on-11 drill started, T.J. Finley let an inaccurate snap by Elijah Baker go through his hands on the first play. He followed with completions to Barnes underneath and Shaun Nicholas underneath around a draw by McClure.

Donovan Leary was next, and he completed a quick pass to Jimmy Calloway, who reversed field immediately and tried to cross to the other side, where linebacker Jean Clause Joseph met him and stripped him for a fumble the defense recovered. Leary then scrambled to his right and made a nice throw to Mbanasor, who received encouragement/motivation from wideouts coach Carter Sheridan all day. Leary was "sacked" on the next play, I believe by Geordan Guidry. Gordon caught a pass underneath on the last play.

Third was Semonza, who began by scrambing. He overthrew walk-on Trevor Evans on a deep route by a good margin before hitting tight end Anthony Miller for a dcent gain and throwing behind Nicholas on a slant.

Kellen Tasby got a turn and started off with a perfect pass deep down the middle to Bryce Bohanon. For a second I wondered if he could create a four-way competition, but his next throw went right to walk-on safety Carson Klein for an easy, inexplicable interception, I'm not sure who he was trying to hit. The day finished with a pass to LeRon Husbands underneath.

At one point, they had the two true freshman defensive linemen out there together--tackle PaLanding Drammeh and end Nik Alston--with rush endTy Cooper and Guidry. The top cornerbacks were Jahiem Jojhnson and Armani Cargo--I did not see Rayshawn Pleasant--but they are mixing and matching the defense a lot and I will get a better handle of the early depth chart tomorrow.

I still don't have a pecking order at QB. If I had to wager right now, I would put it at Finley/Semonza/Leary but with little separation. Your guess is as good as mine at receiver even though you have not watched practice. A bunch of them have made plays, but none of them have been consistently productive in the four practices I have seen. It will be interesting to see which guys make plays in the scrimmage. I would put Bryce Bohanon, who has not been a significant factor in the passing game, at the top of the list to this point, with no clear order behind him. Jon Sumrall says it is the position that concerns him the most and one he might have to address after the spring in the portal.

The scrimmage will be at the end of tomorrow's practice, which will be a normal one until the tackling portion to finish off the week.

Sumrall, Will Hall and Javin Gordon talked after practice. I do not have time to transcribe them right now, but will get those quotes later.

We've seen no evidence that is going to happen, but Tulane's best hope is to dominate the AAC in the standings, starting this weekend at South Florida, which inexplicably has by far the league's highest RPI at 43. It will require a different team than the one that has played the first 25 games.

The sole encouraging thing about last night's 7-6 loss to UNO was Wes Burton's lights-out performance from the bullpen. It's not just that he struck out seven of the nine batters he faced in three perfect innings. It was how he looked doing it, going to a 2-0 count only once while showing total command and punching out some quality hitters. The 6-foot-8 grad transfer from Santa Monica, Calif., who appeared ticketed for a big role last season before tearing his UCL in the Fall Ball World Series, is a great interview. Here is what he said today.

On how confidence he is that he can replicate that performance:

"I've always believed in myself. I've obviously been through a lot in my career. I'm really grateful for the coaching staff and them giving me the opportunity to be here and continue to progress and continue to work with me. Just more than anything I'm really grateful for that opportunity and for that support. I'm starting to feel like myself again out there coming off the injury. That's really exciting, and I hope to keep it rolling."

On recovery process from Tommy John surgery:

"It was definitely a challenge, and my career as a whole has not gone exactly the way that I drew it up coming out of high school, but I've learned a lot of lessons in that journey and picked up a lot of different things along the way. Probably the biggest thing that I've learned has just been the power of perseverance and that failure isn't final and you're not locked into whatever position you're at. It's something coach Jay says a lot, it's never as bad as you think it is and it's never as good as you think it is, so the temptation is to think that I threw really well last night and I'm on top of the world, or when it's not going your way, which obviously I've spent a lot of time in that position, the temptation is to be woe is me and think it will never turn around, but it's just having that belief in the coaching staff and really just belief in myself that I can get where I want to."

On when he got hurt and when he had surgery:

"It was November 16th or Nov. 17 of 2023. It was our second game of the Fall World Series. I had the surgery Dec. 6 of 2023. I haven't had any other major injuries, but the elbow was always a nagging thing. It was something that I had initially injured my senior year of high school, and we evaluated some different options, got a couple of opinions, a couple that recommended surgery, and then by the time I was able to get an appointment with Dr. (Neal) ElAttrache, who at the time I wanted to have do the surgery and eventually did the surgery when I had it in 2023, my elbow didn't hurt. His instructions were give it another couple of weeks and then try throwing and see how it goes. I managed it the five years of my career and had gotten here and thrown really well my first fall and got to the end of the fall and reached back for a 3-2 fastball to Michael Lombardi. Struck him out for the record, so we went out on a win, but I felt it and I knew what I was dealing with at that point, and even my whole career I'd known I was going to need it at some point. It was kind of a management process, but the little thread that was still hanging on finally went."

On taking advantage of his last chance:

"It's a huge motivation. I've been around the block in my career and seen a thing or two. I don't think I've ultimately accomplished what I've wanted to accomplish. I've gotten to be a part of some really good teams and experienced some really cool things and am incredibly grateful for that, but there's still more I want to achieve and am excited to be a part of. I love my teammates and I love the group and I love the coaching staff that we have here and I'm really excited to play whatever role I can in helping us reach our goals."

On his role at Indiana in 2023:

"I was kind of a mid-relief guy. We made it to a regional and lost. I got hot in the bullpen about 17 times that weekend but didn't end up going in, which if you compared my career stats to how many innings I threw in the bullpen warming up, it's very different."

On success of teams at Ole Miss and Indiana:

"I have watched a lot of winning. That is true. I've been in the clubhouse for a lot of winning."

On Ole Miss years:

"I had a great experience there and I'm super grateful for my time there. I don't think it went the way that I or coach Bianco or any of the staff there necessarily had envisioned it when they were recruiting me out of high school. Consistency and executing multiple pitches in the strike zone, the game just didn't always shake out the way you want it to. I still have a tremendous relationship with everybody there and left on great terms. When we had our ring ceremony to get the national championship team back together, I went and gave everybody hugs. The plan all along was for me to be there for three years. The hope was that I would get drafted and move on, but I graduated from there."

On how he ended up at Ole Miss:

"I wasn't really looking at the SEC coming from California. I had grown up going to UCLA games. That was what I knew of college baseball. Watched some great baseball growing up. The standard Friday night in the Burton household was to go to Jackie Robinson Stadium and watch some baseball, but I was looking more at the high academic institutions, the Dukes and the Stanfords and places like that. Ole Miss saw a video of me on Twitter and they happened to be going to play Long Beach State two weeks later. They came and saw me throw a bullpen at 7 in the morning at an empty facility and recruited me off of that. Then I went down there and fell in love with the place. I'm so grateful for my time there. It was an amazing experience that I'm incredibly lucky to have had."

On Ole Miss going from mediocrity in season to College World Series champion in 2022:

"Absolutely. If there's one thing I can emphasize, I'm so grateful for the various lessons I've learned along my journey and things I hope I can help this team with that I've seen in my career before I got to Tulane. If I had to signal something from that experience, it would just be the perseverance piece where things weren't going our way but we knew we were a good ball club, we knew we had the talent, we knew we had the pieces to get where we wanted to go. I feel the exact same way about this team. We have all the talent in the world. We have all the pieces to get where we want to go. It's just a matter of getting everything lined up and executing on a day-in, day-out basis. I have no doubt that we'll get there and do that."

On what he does best on the mound:

"I'm dominating the strike zone with my best stuff and executing three pitches for strikes. Something coach Izzio and I have worked on a lot in the last three weeks was I came into college as a fastball-curveball guy and got away from that. I don't think in a Division I game I'd thrown a curveball before three weeks ago. so after my first outing against Nicholls this season, we were relying almost exclusively on my fastball, and he and I met the next morning and talked about adding a curveball. I was like I threw one back in the day, and he said I think that will help with the way my fastball plays. We can create a tunnel off of that with the downward, hard breaking ball. We got to work with that. Frankie Niemann as well has been a huge help with that, and that's really been a focus of developing that so we have something to keep guys off of my fastball. It's kind of a rising tide lifts all boats. You add something else to the arsenal and it takes them off my fastball. Now my fastball looks better even though it's the same fastball it was. Now they're not hunting just that. The development of that has been huge for me, and I have to credit coach Izzio with that. We've incorporated my changeup more and continued to work on that, refining that and having that be something that we can lean on really. That's been the biggest development for me over the last couple of weeks. I've gone from really a one-pitch pitcher, which I think I've thrown 90-percent fastballs in my career, and had some decent success doing it."

On fastball speed:

"It's been up to 95, but it's probably more 92, 94 than anything else. It's really more the peripheral metrics that make it as good a pitch as it is, but hitters at this level are so talented that if you're only throwing one pitch at them, regardless of the velocity, regardless of the induced vertical break, they can get to it, but now if you can force them to respect two or three pitches, it makes it a lot more difficult especially when you have the low-mid 90s in your back pocket. Now it gets up on you a little bit quicker."

On grad degree:

"I'm getting a master's in sports studies.:

On being two-time Academic All-SEC at Ole Miss:

"One thing my mama always emphasized, that was the deal we made was all right, if you're going to go to Ole Miss, you better get good grades. You're going to graduate in three years and if baseball doesn't work out, you can go to grad school. I was just excited to play baseball forever. I'm going to play college baseball forever."

We all know that Lombardi has been excellent this year, but his strikeout rate is unbelievable. In 13 innings, he has fanned 28 batters for an incredible 19.4 strikeouts per 9 innings. I’ve never heard of such a thing! Montiel is also spectacular, but his 15.4 Ks per 9 innings pales by comparison.

Speaking of our bullpen, thanks largely to Lombardi and Montiel, our relievers are striking out 12.1 batters per 9 innings while our starters only 9.3. Opponents are also batting .281 against our starters and only .220 against our relievers. The ERA’s for our starters is 5.42 and relievers is 4.49. Relievers are harmed by poor control walking or hitting 7.2 per 9 innings while our starters are walking or hitting 5.3— better, but still not particularly good. We need 4 starters and 4 relievers we can trust. We are far, far short of that.

Among our starters, Fladda has been either very good or very bad. His first, third, and fifth starts were good. His second, fourth, and sixth were bad. In his “good” starts, his ERA is 2.37. In his “bad” starts, it’s 10.95. If he is truly good every other start, we should see the “good” Fladda this Friday.

Cehajic has been much the same. During his first, third, and fifth starts, his ERA is 6.92. In his second and fourth starts, it’s 0.82. His next “even numbered’ start should be this weekend. Can we look forward to a “good” performance?

As to the seven other guys who have started a game, none have gone more than 3.1 innings and, as a group, have a 6.82 ERA as starters.

Over to the hitting side, although he’s still hitting .329 on the season, Mathias Haas is only 2 for his last 16. We need him to turn it around.

Like much of the team, Tanner Chun has struggled recently (3 for his last 24), but two of those four hits were HR’s.

Rasmussen, on the other hand, is on a terrific hot streak, Over the past twelve games, while the rest of the team has hit .221, he’s batted .400, to raise his already solid batting average to .366.

Everyone recognizes that Jackson Linn is having a terrible time at bat, but examining his season to date is interesting. He’s struck out 21 of his 48 official times at bat (44%), which is quite a lot. But he’s got 2 doubles and 2 HR’s among his seven hits, which suggest (with very little data) that when he hits it, it goes a long way. But, oddly enough, while the team as a group is hitting .341 when putting the ball in play (hits divided by at-bats minus strikeouts), Linn is only hitting .259 when he puts the ball in play. That is a very low success rate. So, strikeouts aren’t his only problem. Even putting the ball in play isn’t resulting in base hits.

Defense is harder to quantify but anyone who watches us play realizes our defense is bad. Coach rushes defensive replacements onto the field at four to five positions in almost every game to minimize the problem. But our .964 fielding average is the only well documented, though flawed, recognition of our ineptitude. It’s been several years since we fell below .970. Even our opponents, no great shakes either, are fielding at .971. But our inability to make simple plays, missing the cut-off man, and throwing to the wrong base is hard to quantify. Not getting to balls that should be outs is also a problem.

Anyhow, those are some stats that I found interesting. Let’s add some better ones.

Roll Wave!!!

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!!!

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.

No practice report today because they practiced early in the morning so players and Sumrall could attend Pro Day at the Saints indoor facility. I was there, and it looks like Adin Huntington helped himself. he's been projected as a potential seventh-round pick despite having only an OK season as a senior transfer, but his measurables are really good for his position as an edge rusher. He apparently had a 38-inch vertical jump and a 10.6 broad jump. I did not get many times or numbers, but that's impressive. For example, Caleb Ransom's outstanding numbers at the NFL combine in addition to his insane 4.33 40 times were a 40-inch vertical and a 10.9 broad jump, and he's a DB where the numbers are a lot better in general.

Tyler Grubbs did not participate today because of a pulled groin. Also absent were Phat Watts and Jacob Barnes and Thomas Peterson among eligible seniors, but the other 17 performed in front of scouts from all 32 NFL teams.

The full list:

Terrell Allen
Reggie Brown
Yulkeith Brown
Javon Carter
Johnathan Edwards
Dontae Fleming
Jalen Geiger
Rashad Green
Eric Hicks
Ethan Hudak
Huntington
Patrick Jenkins
Vincent Murphy
Ransaw
Josh Remetich
Micah Robinson
Mario Williams

The three receivers all looked fast and probably helped themselves, but none of them are going to get drafted. Mario Williams, whose parents I met today, should be able to get into someone's camp.

Other than Ransaw, who definitely will get drafted, Huntington, Jenkins and Edwards are the next best bets, with all of them hoping to go at the end of the draft. Everyone else will be undrafted and simply hoping to get into a camp somewhere. I

After the players lifted weights, did the vertical and standing broad jump, two reps of the 40-yard dash and a shuttle run, they broke into individual position work. TJ Finley was the quarterback throwing passes to those guys, which surprised me because I did not realize players still in college could do that. Apparently Kai Horton served in that role two years ago in the Pro Day I skipped.

For the first time, the players had a cheering section, with various Tulane staffers and a bunch of players who arrived after practice ended whooping and hollering for the guys they thought ran well.

Robinson ran a 4.39 40 I heard, helping himself, too, but I don't see him getting drafted even though he played in front of Edwards at cornerback.

I had a short 1-on-1 interview with Ransaw before the media as a group interviewed Sumrall, Jenkins and Remetich as well as Ransaw, who did not say anything he did not give me. Ransaw did not run the 40 today because there was no reason to after his performance at the combine, but he did the shuttle run and the individual drills.

SUMRALL

"Excited to watch our guys work. Really good group. Proud of what they did at Tulane and really proud of the product they put out there on the field today. Fast times, and you could tell whether guys are prepared or not, and our guys looked prepared today, which is cool to see that everybody showed up ready to go and put their best foot forward. It was really cool for our current team to be able to get here and watch them go through this process, and hopefully we'll have some guys follow in their footsteps."

On having all 32 NFL teams or close to it have someone attending:

"It didn't hurt that you have a top-end guy like Caleb who ran the 40 at the combine, so that doesn't hurt them when he's going to do drill work. It's nice to have a top-end-of-the-draft marquee type guy that can maybe get other guys a look or attention, but then the depth of this team. You look at both cornerbacks today, Johnathan and Micah both ran really good times. All the receivers represented themselves well. Pat Jenkins looked really good. I think there was a lot of interest in different guys having a fit at the next level, so that's a positive. Any time you can get 31 or 32, that's a positive."

On Ransaw at next level:

"It's been fun to see him grown. He's from my hometown basically. I grew up in Huntsville, and he's from Harvest, which is out in the sticks a little bit more. I'm a city boy compared to him, but I remember watching Caleb in high school. What he is going to bring to an NFL team is he's got five-position DB physical ability. He can go outside and play corner. He did that for us in '22 at Troy. In '23 he played in the slot and in '24 here he played in the slot. His long-term position could be safety, which is what he played in the Senior Bowl. He's got the physical ability to be a five-position DB. More impressive is he's got the mental makeup. He is a football junkie. He had an illness about a year ago and I went to visit him when he was in the hospital, and he was in the hospital bed watching PFF (Pro Football Focus) and other DBs in this year's class that he thought he could compare to. He loves the game. He's a football junkie. High character, competitive, really a good representation of what all our guys that are here today are, but I think he's got a really bright future. As he's gone through the draft process, he's elevated. He's helped himself out at every step of the process so far."

On Johnathan Edwards getting invite to Senior Bowl and proceeding from there:

"Johnathan's a cool story. He came to us from Indiana State, got here in June last year. He's big and fast. You can't teach his size and speed. When we got him, it was like getting the ball in play, a guy we were able to teach a lot and him learning a lot. He's a sponge. He got the late call-up to the Senior Bowl game. His response was is that a good thing to be invited to that game, and I'm like, yeah, it's a pretty good thing, you need to get there. Well, what if I don't have a ride? I was like, I'll drive you. His ceiling is really high. He has a lot of development left. His best football is not just a year in front of him. It could be four, five or six years out in front of him potentially because of the type of athlete he is."

On the two plays last year where he ran down guys who were in open field headed for touchdowns:

"Yeah, the Louisiana-Lafayette one where he ran the running back down, that was the first glimpse where we all like, whoa. We knew in summer workouts he could run well, but that's the first time you really saw it translate on the field. He made another one at UAB. He's got such great speed, he can recover from a bad movement if that makes sense. At the Senior Bowl he was in a one-on-one period in a rep that he was not clean at the line of scrimmage, but he was able to recover because he's got such great athleticism and speed, and he's got length that helps with that, too. Just a gifted kid with a bright future, and I look forward to seeing where he lands because he's got a lot of development."

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.

I believe all tournaments are irrelevant other than the NCAA tournament, which Tulane came oh-so-close to reaching this year (after watching Yaxel Lendeborg doubled over in exhaustion for most of the second half against Memphis yesterday, I'm pretty sure Tulane would have beaten UAB), but getting a postseason bid is a nice reward for a team that played top-level basketball in Fort Worth. It also is a better opportunity than a first-round road game at a mid-major would have been in the NIT because Tulane will have a real shot to advance and beat a major conference school (USC) in a neutral-site affair.

That said, other than Boise State being in the field--a team I had pegged for an NCAA tournament berth--the field is very weak. There are five teams with losing records, including DePaul and Colorado, which were terrible from start to finish this year before each pulled an upset in the first round of their conference tournaments.

USC, with a NET of 70, gives Tulane a shot to notch its first top-100 victory of the year. The Trojans (16-17) are one of the teams in the field below .500, but they are better than the record indicates and nearly beat Purdue in the second round of the Big Ten tourney.

With the transfer portal opening March 24, it's anybody's guess who will be playing for the teams in the field, but Ron Hunter told me today he expects 80 to 90 percent participation from his players. The winning team will split $350,000 in NIL money.

Here is the bracket. The tournament starts March 31 and Tulane-USC play at 10 p.m. on April 1.

Bracket

It's very easy to tell Tulane's three transfer quarterback prospects apart, with TJ Finley a giant at 6-7, Donovan Leary mid-sided at 6-2 and Kadin Semonza a tiny 5-11. When they began competing for the starting job on a beautiful, cool Tuesday morning to open spring practice, though, it was harder to differentiate them. All of them had good moments and looked better than any of the three quarterbacks last year did on day 1 as the Green Wave adjusted to a new coaching staff. My first impression has Finely and Semonza, the two with starting experience, ahead of Leary, who barely played at Illinois as freshamn, but it it far too early to make any concrete judgments.

Finley threw a strike to Garrett Mmahat soon after I arrived around 8:30 (practice started at 8 and ended at 10) and was very decisive with his decisions. As Jon Sumrall points out, he knows how to win starting jobs, having done it at LSU, Auburn, Texas State and Western Kentucky before making Tulane his fifth and final college stop. He later had back-to-back completions to Shaun Nicholas and Mmahat and was making accurate throws with zip.

Semonza does not have the arm of Finley or Leary, but he already is showing good command of the offense and made all of the necessary throws today. He has been out to prove people wrong who said he as too short to be a starting college QB, and he did a pretty good job in a hopeless situation as the starter for Ball State a year ago under former Tulane assistant Mike Neu, who was on the same Curtis Johnson staff as Sumrall in 2012 and 2013.

Leary, who threw five passes against Eastern Illinois as a freshman at Illinois last year but did not have another attempt for the rest of the year, had one bad patch today when he
threw behind FAU transfer Omari Hayes, causing a deflection that was almost intercepted on the rebound, and hit the turf with a short-hop throw seconds later on a simple quick out. All three believe they can win the job and will be given ample opportunity to prove it this spring in an open competition, with redshirt freshman holdover Kellen Tasby also in the picture but a long shot.

In what is the new reality of the transfer portal era, Jon Sumrall said 33 players who arrived in January practiced today, which is more than a third of the listed spring roster of 97. There are 27 transfers and six early enrollees from the 2025 class, including walk-on long snapper Jason Arrendondo, whom I interviewed over the phone last August when his parents contacted me about his preferred walk-on status. I don't think I ever posted it here for some reason, but I will today because I still have the transcript. I kept a running list of the transfer portal guys in this thread on the site but never added No. 27, edge rusher Harvey Dyson of Texas Tech, who signed Jan. 12 after making 12 tackles with two sacks and two pass breakups as a third-year sophomore.

Receiver is an unknown quantity for Tulane this spring with the loss of Mario Williams, Dontae Fleming, Yulkeith Brown and tight end Alex Bauman, who accounted for 146 of Tulane's 209 catches last season. One of the most impressive guys out there today was Ty Thompson, who has been converted to tight end from quarterback and looked like a natural in jersey No. 13, albeit in shorts without full pads with no blocking required. As a route-runner and pass-catcher, he looked very smooth, and as you will see in the post-practice interview, he has added 20 pounds to get up to 235 and looks the part. He had a nice TD catch when he split a zone (I missed the number of the QB who threw it) and another good one on a seam route later in practice.

Early on Sidney Mbanasor, who I thought would do more after watching him in camp last fall, outfought cornerback Jaheim Johnson for a touchdown grab and celebrated wildly. The next time they were matched up, Johnson broke up the pass and received big congratulations from DBs coach JJ McCleskey. It was a good mano y mano competition.

FAU transfer wideout Omari Hayes is only 5-9, but an insider tells me he is an elite punt returner, as in hand him the job now. Tulane was very mediocre in that department last year, so he could be a difference maker there. He only had 71 yards on 13 returns a year ago for FAU but did have a 43-yarder mixed in there, but Tulane plans to take full advantage of his skills.

Shaun Nicholas made some plays today but also dropped a pass that turned into an Armani Cargo interception. Maryland tight end transfer LeRon Husbands had an early drop. Freshman running back Javin Gordon is a sturdy 5-10, 200 pounds and looked good. Wideout Bryce Bohanon, one of the only true veterans on the roster, had some good plays, as did Karr freshman Oliver Mitchell.

Justin Ibieta has stuck around as a volunteer coach.

Pro Day, which will not draw nearly as much attention as last year, will be next Tuesday at the Saints indoor practice facility.

Sumrall, the three transfer QBs and Thompson talked after practice. I will have their full quotes later today.

When Jason Arredondo committed to Tulane last fall, his mother emailed me wanting to know if I would like to interview. I did but did not transcribe it for about two months, and I don't think I ever posted it here. Now that he is on the spring roster, the interview is relevant.

JASON ARREDONDO

On why chose Tulane:

“It was influenced by several factors. Tulane obviously has top notch education. The student-athletes obviously have to excel on the field and in the classroom, and that’s something that I’ve had to do all four years at Bishop Gorman and definitely something I’m looking forward to continuing my next four years at Tulane. It’s an environment I can’t wait to be a part of as far as top education and successful football program.

On winning at Bishop Gorman:

"Obviously Gorman is known for winning and winning is behind the name. Definitely we have a target on our backs this year coming out and being national champions last year. We came out in the preseason ranked No. 2 this year, so we’re definitely hungry. I just want that same environment, and I feel like coach Jon Sumrall has obviously won previously. He’s up there with some of the coaches that win at the biggest levels. That’s just something I can’t wait to be a part of and something I’ve been a part of the past three years and definitely looking forward to continuing that at Tulane."

On when recruited:

“It was this past summer. I reached out to coach Hudspeth about attending their football camp, and we figured out a date that works because I went to probably 14 college football camps. Tulane definitely stuck with me there. I got to talk to coach Sumrall when I went down there to the camp."

On time of camp:

"Late June I believe."

On being ready for heat because he lives in Vegas:

"We’re practicing right now. I just got out of practice. We start at 3:10 and we got to 6:30. I’ve definitely been prepared at Bishop Gorman. I know humidity definitely kicks up at Tulane, but I’m looking forward to it. Similar temperature, different type of climate. Definitely looking forward to grinding in the heat and sweating it all off."

On scholarship possibility:

“I’m going into the spring with hopes of earning a scholarship by the fall. Obviously I’ll be competing for that starting spot. That’s something I’ve been trained to do so far my four years. I compete every single day. I’m getting some reps on the O-line competing with the best 5-star commits we have going to Oregon and all those guys. Competition is definitely no fear for me. I’m ready to go in and show what I’ve got for Tulane football and all the fans."

On the opening at the position:

"It was great that they wanted me coming in in the spring. They believe that I have what it takes, and I obviously believe in myself that I can get the job done. I want to work hard. I’m fully committed to doing so. I want to be able to show my skills. I definitely shine as far as accuracy and speed goes on the snaps. I give my everything every single day at Bishop Gorman and want to continue that at Tulane."

On when knew long snapping was his thing:

"I actually started snapping in eighth grade working with guy who went to Nebraska and who now plays in the USL (United Soccer League), Jordan Ober. He was the one who initially trained me to start snapping, and I’ve obviously had different coaches since then. I realized when my head coach, Brent Browner, isolated me at the position. He really wanted me to long snap for all four years. I’ve started four years."

On other schools considered:

"I held offers to Tulane and Columbia."

On height and weight:

"5-11, 240."

On camps:

"I went to 14 camps. That’s probably combined with the college camps and the ranking camps. I’m a 5-star on all services as far as long snapping goes. It was definitely tedious work but definitely worth it. All the work’s worth it."

On snapping success:

"That’s something I pride myself on. I’ve never missed a snap in my high school career. I did the numbers on it. I had four punt snaps last year against 110 field goal and extra point snaps."

On if he had been to New Orleans:

"I haven’t. I went out there and obviously a big music scene, great energy and something that I look forward to seeing in Yulman Stadium, everything like that. I can’t wait to see all the tradition. It’s definitely a tradition-packed city. Culture is very big, and it’s something that I’m excited for. Big city to big city and New Orleans is definitely a city I can’t wait to experience."

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."

Let's be honest, Pepperdine is not a good team. Still, while many of our fans treated this weekend as a sure sweep for the Wave (not the Waves), I had some concerns. Clearly, the Pepperdine team has little offense based on its season so far, but I was concerned about their best pitchers. Going into the Tulane series, their three weekend starters and two key relievers had a combined ERA of 2.97. The rest of the team compiled a 10.01 ERA. Unfortunately, we’ve only seen two of their starters and their best two relievers. They’ve dominated us and only allowed two runs in 18 innings (1.00 ERA). We’ve been unable to get to the weak part of their staff. Hopefully today will be different. Their starter has a 2.89 ERA through 9.1 innings but hasn’t gone beyond 4 innings in any of his two starts and one relief appearances. We need to knock him out early and get to their bullpen. While I think the pitching we’ve seen so far has been good, our hitting has dropped off the cliff this weekend. Gotta turn that around and also get a good pitching performance from our guys. Back to my first sentence, Pepperdine is NOT a good team. Losing two out of three to them, let alone the possibility of being swept, is totally unacceptable.

Roll Wave!!!

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."

What sports people like is a personal choice, and for a variety of reasons, basketball has almost always been a distance third to football and baseball for Tulane fans. For me, it's different. Basketball was the one sport I played well, although that's a relative term. In my sophomore year at Florida I became obsessed, spending at least two hours at Florida Gym every day after classes on the B recreational courts (the real players were on the A courts) as my GPA went down, playing pickup games to 10 with each basket counting as 1 point and the winning team staying on the floor to take on the next challengers. Then, in March of 1988, I took a ridiculous 30-foot shot while dribbling down the court and landed on someone's foot, spraining an ankle horrendously, to the point where it blew up like a balloon. I was on crutches for six weeks, having to use the crank elevator to get to the third floor of my dorm for a while and never regained the same flexibility in the ankle, which was misdiagnosed as an outside sprain at the infirmary when it was an inside sprain, which also affects the knee. Back in New Orleans that summer, I had to go to physical therapy to learn how to walk properly again, and although I returned to play basketball in the fall of my junior year, it was more of a hobby than a full-time thing from then on.

College basketball in general was my obsession back then. Florida made its first NCAA tournament in school history in my freshman year, when I was one of the only people on my dorm floor to have season tickets at the start of the year and went to games by myself through at least January. The Gators ended up reaching the Sweet 16, but when they were losing by double digits to 11 seed North Carolina State in the second half of the first round, I kicked a hole in the big chair I shared with dorm roommates. The Gators rallied to win comfortably, crushed 3 seed Purdue in the second round and had eventual national championship runner-up Syracuse on the ropes late in the second half before faltering in the Sweet 16.

College basketball is not what it used to be, and the end of games can be interminable with all of the timeouts and officiating reviews to determine how much time should be on the clock, but I still pay incredibly close attention to it even if I do not watch nearly as much as I used to during the regular season. Nothing, and I mean nothing, bothers me more than when Tulane football holds its Pro Day during the first round of the NCAA tournament, which I still watch from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. straight through on both days if my job lets me.

My point in all this rambling, if there is one, is I feel like I know basketball, and this Tulane is talented and fun to watch. My eyes tell me that, and the recruiting rankings back that up. As a group, these guys had higher high school ratings than any group since the heyday of Perry Clark, which was a different level for sure. Last night Tulane blocked nine East Carolina shots after blocking 10 Rice shots on Saturday, which has to be a school record for a two-game stretch but is not look-uppable. This team is rendering the constant carping over the years about Ron Hunter's matchup zone being unworkable as a complete falsehood. He has the right players for his system now, and they are all over the floor causing problems for opponents, ranking first in the AAC in field goal percentage defense, second in 3-point field goal percentage defense, first in blocks and second in scoring defense. The offense has been more up and down, but if Kaleb Banks explosion last night proves sustainable, this will be a dangerous team on that end of the floor, too.

Last night Tulane curb-stomped a previously hot ECU team for 32 minutes, forcing its white hot two leading scorers into inefficient games while going ahead by 18. I thought Hunter took the air out of the ball too early, and the Wave had some bad possessions down the stretch that made the game look a lot closer than it actually was, but it never reached the danger zone, and freshman Kam Williams sealed the deal with the ninth block of the night on a 3-point attempt that could have cut the deficit to 2 in the final 10 seconds.

Theres no question the AAC is the weakest it has ever been. That's fact. But it also is not like the dregs of basketball. Memphis beat NCAA tournament locks Missouri, Connecticut, Michigan State, Clemson and Ole Miss in its non-conference schedule but has struggled to put away AAC opponents in all but two of its 13 games, losing two outright. Tulane is playing well regardless of the competition, and its upside is high heading into the AAC tourney. Beating Wichita State on Sunday will be no easy task--the Shockers just beat Memphis and have won four in a row entering tonight's game at FAU--but a win would go a long way toward securing a top-four seed in the AAC tourney, which absolutely, positively is winnable for Memphis, North Texas, UAB and Tulane. If basketball's not your thing, that's fine. But this team is worth watching and paying attention to if it is.

Here is what Hunter had to say after the 86-81 win.

“We got the win, and in about two weeks or three months from now, no one is going to know whether we won or lost the game, but we have to close out games better than that. We had an 18-point game with eight minutes to go and then we just relaxed. We have to better than that if we want to get to the level we want to get to. Before we got to that time, we played really good basketball. We defended them. I think they are 19th in the country in offensive rebounding (actually they were 27th) and we did a good of that. We actually outrebounded them for the game, but then we relaxed. The last two games offensively we are really starting to come out of a slump now.”

On nine blocked shots:

“That’s why I love this team. We think we can do some special things, especially when we get in the conference tournament because we really believe in our defense. We’ve got great length. Our team D early on our frontline was really good. We were challenging shots, we were flying around. We couldn’t get our guards to do that. I thought they played a little stagnant, but our frontline was really active for the most part in this game.”

On not closing out:

“We relaxed. Our intensity went down. We got the 18-point lead and we started scoreboard watching, we started missing free throws and that’s when you have to turn it up. You can’t let a team like that back in it. We let them get back in it and were very tentative to end the game.”

On Banks bounce-back

“I think Kaleb would say the first thing we did was we won the game. We are 9-4. We know we need him. I thought the last couple of games he played well. He just didn’t have the offensive numbers. When he concentrates on just those rebounds. He has seven rebounds all in the first half, and that gets him going and he got some deflections and a couple of blocked shots and he saw the ball go in. They opened up in that zone, and he got a free look, and once he sees it go in, lights out.

On how much Banks opens up things for other guys:

“I’m not sure how much it opens up. Our backcourt’s been playing lights out. You can’t expect them to carry you the whole time, so we need this. We were struggling to get 60 (points) and all of a sudden it’s back-to-back games where we’re almost getting 90 points. We need Kaleb, he knows that, but not necessarily off his scoring. Just his activity. When he’s active like that, we’re a different team.”

On build-up last few games:

“What we love is that no one talks about us. When we watch the broadcasts they talk about everybody else and no one says anything about Tulane has a chance, so we just want to keep winning, be better the next day and see what happens at the end. I heard someone say on TV the other day there’s four or five teams that can win the tournament, and he didn’t list us. I picked that up. I appreciate him saying that. Just like he was probably the same guy who said we would finish last in this league. What we want to do is keep bringing our defense to the fight. If we bring our defense to the fight, you’ve got a problem.”

On stopping Walker and Felton:

“We’ve been doing this all year. Our guys have been shutting down the leading scorers and trying to make somebody else go win a game. We wanted them to see bodies and wanted them to be volume shooters tonight. Our length really bothered them. When you block some shots early, they started looking around to see what the other block was coming from. Those are two really good players, and we did a good job on them.”

BANKS

On slump-busting game:

“Yeah, for the most part it was seeing the ball going through the basket a couple of times. That felt good to me to get my confidence up. I just found ways to help the team win. I had a couple of good blocks tonight and my shooting was great, too.”

Tulane can tie the AAC record of 12 wins it set under Ron Hunter two years ago by winning at ECU, a place he's never won in five tries and his personal house of horrors. The double bye is still not a lock. If Tulane loses at ECU again and ECU wins at FAU on Sunday (FAU will be favored) and Tulane loses at home to UAB (UAB will be favored), the Wave would fall to the fifth seed and have to play next Thursday again the winner of the `12-13 game just to get to the quarterfinals of the tournament. But if Tulane wins both games, it will pass UAB for the No. 3 seed regardless of what UAB does tomorrow at home against FAU. That's the optimal position for the tournament because Tulane would avoid a potential semifinal against Memphis. Although North Texas is not a good matchup for Tulane either, the odds would be better of winning that game because North Texas has some days when it can't throw the ball in the ocean. Tulane has not lost two conference games in a row all year, so this would be a bad time to let it happen.

I talked to Ron Hunter, Rowan Brumbaugh and Percy Daniels today. I will transcribe the player interviews in a couple hours.

HUNTER

On what he can take from win at Tulsa:

"Well, they are going to be close and they are going to make their old coach even older, but we did find a way. We were playing so poorly early and then the light switch went off and we started defending. This group has just found a way to win and more importantly they've got confidence that they can win close games, and that's not the easiest thing to do. That's even a tough thing to do with veteran groups. They are confident they can win these close games now."

On clinching double bye with win:

"Again, we're looking forward. We think we have a chance to be the third seed. That's our deal now, and to be that third seed we've got to win this game. But again, if we don't next week's the tournament. I think we're in pretty good shape. Even if we lose the game, they have to go play at Florida Atlantic and they're playing for something also. There's a lot still to be playing. I'd rather have something to play for than have the guys thinking you just have to show up. That's not good."

On Daniels:

"What's great about Percy is Percy will give you exactly what you need, whatever that might be. If it's rebounding, if it's Gregg (Glenn)'s in foul trouble, you gotta go play. That's what's been great about Percy. Now the minutes are a big thing for him. Sustaining those kind of minutes for him is tough, but he was great. He's been like that in practice. I wasn't even surprised about the scoring because we see him do those things. Percy has sacrificed his game to make us better."

On Daniels not being frustrated with role despite being high-rated prospect three years ago:

"Absolutely. The best student-athlete and the best teammate that you can have. His leadership has been great. I haven't had a player in this program that has not liked Percy. He's just that kind of guy. At the end of the game when everybody talked about that was Percy's career high, you would have thought we'd just won a national championship. They were running and hugging him and those kinds of things. Everybody wants great things to happen for Percy."

On key against ECU:

"We've got to make shots. For probably about 35 minutes of that game defensively we were really good, and so if we bring that same defense, which we've been doing. Even in the Tulsa game, the defense wasn't there early but at some point it was able to come up and win the game. It's going to do the same thing. They've got two really good scorers, so we've got to make sure defensively we keep doing what we're doing."

On balanced offense with four guys in double figures and Kam Williams close:

"It makes it hard because you don't know who you are going to key on. For a while Kaleb (Banks) was struggling and people started worrying about what Rowan was doing. Now all of a sudden Kaleb has picked it up again and the consistency with Gregg. What's great about this year is it's been a team effort on both sides of the floor. Offensively it's been a different player each night. It's just been a great team atmosphere and a great team building in regards to winning."

On Glenn playing well with four fouls this year:

"In all aspects Gregg's just growing. He's growing up in front of our eyes. Early I played him with two fouls in the first half to get him to this. The experience of some of the things we had early, we're able to do that. And even if he gets his third early or fouls out, Percy can finish the game."

Key point here is that the ACC GoR and conference exit fee allegedly drops to below $100M in 2030, the same year the current B1G and Big 12 deals expire, setting the stage for another round of conference realignment.

The pieces at play are that the B1G and SEC are allegedly collaborating to secure four autobids each in 16 team expanded CFP. Methods of collaboration include syncing conference schedules at either eight or nine games, each creating a conference tournament play-in for the autobids on conference championship weekend, and the two conferences scheduling one or two annual cross-conference games at the beginning of the season. Ideally the SEC and B1G would be at the same number of schools, whether that is 18 or 20.

The podcast I posted at the bottom claims from a B1G source that “everyone already knows” who the ACC would take as backfill, and those schools have already been vetted and approved by ESPN. Source did not say who these schools are, but the host believes USF is the ACC’s top target should FSU leave, and Memphis and Tulane are next.

UNC is allegedly a top target for ESPN in the SEC. So much so that they’d move NC State as well, if the two cannot be separated for political reasons. B1G is interested in FSU, Miami and ND. Not interested in Clemson. ESPN has a vested interest in keeping the ACC viable, as they own and have made significant investment into the ACCNetwork and have a favorable TV deal with current members. They will not simply let schools walk to Fox/CBS/NBC and the B1G. The $100M exit fees should be enough of a deterrent to keep most of the schools to receive the financial windfall of those exit fees, but low enough where UNC, Clemson, FSU and Miami could pay it if they want to.

If Tulane is in fact one of these schools that ESPN has already approved as backfill, these next few years will be crucial building the athletic department to put us in the best position for ACC backfill.

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The Green Wave leaves for Pepperdine early tomorrow morning, so interviews were today after last night's 13-3 win at Nicholls, which is nowhere near as good as in the past two years.

This Tulane team passes the eye test for plate discipline and pitching depth through eight games, but the sample size is too small to draw concrete long-range conclusions. It should sweep Pepperdine this weekend or at least win two of three while dominating the series but coming up short once because baseball is baseball, but one early trend away from Tulane is encouraging. Despite its top two teams in the preseason poll struggling over the first two weeks, the AAC ranks fourth in conference strength behind the SEC, Big 12 and AAC and has a winning percentage of .6212. There's no way to say that will hold up, but it is a far higher ranking than last year, when it finished a dreadful 12th, and 2023, when it placed ninth. Even if the league slips a couple of spots, it would give Tulane more margin for error in conference play than last year, which is significant considering the lightness of the non-conference schedule.

The rotation this weekend will be Luc Fladda, Trey Cehajic and TBD for Sunday.

We talked to Uhlman and Cehajic today, and I also grabbed Anthony Izzio.

UHLMAN

On Nicholls win:

"They are motivated for sure. Their guy came out and threw a bunch of strikes. I'm not sure if the zone was a little wide to start and narrowed up a little bit, but our guys were having a hard time with whatever the lighting was. There was a sign in center field that had white on it, but I don' think we acclimated fast enough. We struck out a bunch, more than we have all year, but we got settled in and got rewarded for some softer contact and walks and those kind of things. We stemmed the tide. Our pitching kept us. J.D. (Rodriguez) went out and did what he did and then the bullpen came in and established itself and allowed us to settle in and run the offense."

On Cehajic moving up to Saturday and what has impressed him the most:

"It's just him taking what he did all fall and bringing it into the season. For me it's a lot like Chandler Welch last year. Chandler had good and bad results for the first couple of years, and then the kind of fall that Chandler had he was able to take that into the spring, and Trey is following suit that way. He went out in the summer and started and got another pitch. He's found the strike zone with all his pitches, and because he's doing that and he's physically imposing, his smaller misses tend to get swing and miss. He's doing a nice job of attacking the hitters, and our ability to get on the scoreboard frequently allows our staff to pin their ears back and go for it."

On fastball speed:

"He gets up to 95."

On career at McClellan JC, where he did not play at all for two years before becoming a closer in his third:

"He was an infielder by trade ironically at that height, and he moves that way. He moves like an athletic infielder even with his size 18 shoes. and when he became a pitcher, you don't just become a pitcher. There's a lot of nuances that come with that. He had to go through some things, but the thing we liked about his numbers at McClennan were his walks were low and his strikeouts were higher than his innings pitched. There were some indications this was a guy that we could use. We were coming into a season where we were super thin on pitching, so we were trying to collect bodies with his physical attributes and trying to make it better than what we had little bit by litter bit. For us and for him it's turned into the tutelage of Izz and Frankie (Niemann) to Trey and Trey taking that information and utilizing it, has kind of turned into what it is today."

On if that inexperience explains his ups and downs last year:

"You have to equate it to that. He started out at the back end of the bullpen, lost his way here and there but never really kind of regained a semblance of a traditional role. I'm just proud as heck of him and the staff that got him in a position where he's maximizing his ability."

On strikeout numbers:

"It's tremendous. He's gone out there two starts and had a no-hitter through five in the first one and gave up two hits through five in the second one. That sixth inning and getting him beyond that is kind of the next step, but the fact that our offense has been extremely efficient in providing insurance and leads for our pitching staff, it allows them to pin their ears back and not have to be perfect. Those are big recipes for successful pitching--a good offense, too. You don't always feel like you have to be perfect. You are going to give up some hits and get punched in the mouth, but for us to have the ability to extend some leads and get them some separation is part of the recipe for Trey's success, but Trey has created his own success."

On him having to work hard to be guaranteed any role as a senior:

"We brought in six guys before we started up again in January and talked to them all about, OK, here's the reality of the situation, we've got four spots pretty much, maybe a fifth every now and then, and you six guys, those that do it are going to get the opportunities. For him to not get what he wanted in the exit meetings (2024) and brush that off and go, OK, I get what I need to do, I understand the whys, I'm going to go out and do it, I'm really proud of him. If you know him at all like the makeup part of that, a loyal kid, he really works his butt off. He's coachable and great in the classroom. There are so many things that are good about him."

On Luc Fladda not being sharp in first two games:

"I would say 16 strikeouts is an improvement for him. He's struck out a lot more guys. The thing about Luc is I always say he's unflappable. He's going to give up hard contact. He's going to give up home runs. He's going to give up some runs, but the thing about him is he's going to get us at least through five in almost every outing that he has unless he just gets bombarded and we have to get him out. The fact that he's gone out and improved his strikeouts, the changeup has been a pitch that he's really improved a lot. He throws that any count. It's a swing and miss pitch, so it's been a separator for him. And Friday nights are Friday nights. Everybody is keyed up to play. You're under the lights. He's not scared of that, so when he goes out there, we feel great about what he's going to give us every time he's out there."

On Sunday starter:

"Yeah, it's the old famous TBD starting pitcher. It could be a whole combination. It could be (Will) Clements. It could be (Blaise) Wilcenski. It could be back to J.D. It could be Garrett Payne. There are some guys that go out and fill that role that we just run out there. Again, the analytics don't like going through (the lineup) three times. It's a bullpen game."

On AAC doing well in non-conference:

"It's really early so the RPI is unbalanced at this point, but the fact is the conference's wins to loss mark is probably at the best place it's been in four to five years. The thing it's creating is margin for error with several of the teams in our league to where you don't have to real off seven in a row. You can absorb stubbing your toe and still be in a really good position. I'm really pleased with how our conference has played in the early part of this non-conference slate. It's going to help us."

On averaging nearly 10 runs and what impresses him the most:

"Just the way we conduct our bats. When we get pitches in the zone, more frequently we're going to make good contact, base-hit contact. We're going to run pitch counts from the othe team up, which gets into their bullpen faster and then we see the same recycled arms come back Sunday after throwing Friday. We put stress on the opposing pitching staffs that we're not going to just chase when they throw it out of the zone. They have to pitch to us, and we have good bat-to-ball skill. We're fifth in the country right now in doubles, which doesn't surprise me. We're not going to have five guys hit 10-plus homers, but what we have been able to do is move the line, get guys in order and then bring them in with a variety of different weapons, whether it's the safety bunt or the sac fly or the base hit or the double, a walk, a hit-by-pitch. We're able to manufacture runs at a clip that's been really impressive."

With its loss at Wichita State on Saturday, Tulane continued its conference-long pattern of losing on the road to the league's upper-division teams while beating everyone else. If Las Vegas made odds today for every league game the Wave had played, it would be 9-0 in games it was favored and 0-5 in games it was the underdog. For anyone pointing out the Temple loss and where the Owls are now, that was an upper echelon AAC team when Jamal Mashburn, then the nation's second-leading scorer, was playing.

Up next are two games where Tulane will be favored--home to cellar dweller Charlotte and at slumping Tulsa. Nothing is guaranteed, and the Wave was incredibly fortunate to win at UTSA earlier, but this team should be 11-5 heading into the final week, when it will play at ECU as an underdog and host UAB as an underdog. I believe going 11-7 would earn Tulane the No, 4 seed in the AAC tournament, but it's not a sure thing. East Carolina easily could be 10-7 if it beats the Wave, with one game left at FAU. Wichita State could finish 11-7, too, but that would require the Shockers to beat UAB at home and North Texas on the road, which despite their six-game streak appears very unlikely. Both Wichita State and ECU would win tiebreakers against Tulane at 11-7 (Wichita State based on the head-to-head win and ECU based on beating UAB and Wichita State), so the key for Tulane is to get to 12-6 and take other results out of play. Charlotte and Tulsa are must wins. I do not expect to Tulane to win at ECU, but a win there would be huge. I do expect Tulane to beat UAB at home, but it would be the first win all year against a team at that level.

Ron Hunter, Rowan Brumbaugh and Gregg Glenn spoke before practice today.

HUNTER

On if he was considering lineup change with Mari Jordan starting, as he intimated after Wichita State game:

"I am going to give myself another day to think about it. I never try to overreact after a game, so I look at the big picture of everything. We'll see. If I did it, it would be something to either ignite us early or ignite a player, so I haven't really decided which way I'm going to go with that, but the minutes won't change regardless of what I do."

On what need to clean up from Wichita State loss:

"Really on the road we're just such a different team than we are at home. That's what happens when you are a young team. We've got to play more consistent basketball when we get on the road like we do here. We got off to a bad start and boy we took the lead at halftime. We got off to another slow start and then tried to fight back. That's what happens whether you're a young NBA player or a college player. When you get home you feel comfortable and play a lot better. We've got to take that same energy on the road."

On why he thinks they can clean it up:

"Because everything we've asked them to do, they've gotten better, whether it's defense, offense, taking care of the basketball. Every single aspect of the game we've asked them to, they've gotten better at. What's great about the conference tournament is it's on a neutral floor. You're not playing at Wichita Stare or Memphis or something like that. I'm excited because everything we've put ahead of them, they've done."

On Brumbaugh:

"I know CJ Haggerty gets a lot of credit, but Rowan by far outside of him is the best point guard in this league, a true point guard. He's playing really well on both sides--offensively and defensively. There are a lot of good players, but I think this kid is a player-of-the-year candidate. He's having that type of year.. He's a typical what I call a Tulane player, where he fits in the community, is a selfless kind of kid and he just continues to get better. A lot of it is just his confidence in being able to play and having the freedom to play, and that's what I'm giving him."

On his ability to score in all areas:

"He's worked on that from day 1. There has never been a point where it's hey, you need to get in the gym and get better. Sometimes we have to pull him away from himself and say enjoy it and relax a little bit. He's doing great. I can't wait until after the season when Rowan takes me fishing. I've never fished in my life before, and when I recruited him we talked about that. He promised me he's going to take me fishing. Can you imagine me sitting for three or four hours waiting on a fish. I think they eat worms, bread, what is it? I've never fished in my life. He's got a (fishing) place, so Rowan's going to take me fishing for the first time in my life."

On Charlotte the second time:

"They've had a week off. It seems like it's been six months since we played them. I think by now both teams are probably a little different. They won their last game, so they are coming in with confidence, but we've got to get back to being one of the top 20 teams defensively in the country, and we didn't do that at Wichita State. No blocked shots, guys were driving all over the place, so that's been our whole focus the last day or so."

On being good at home:

"I think this is a great home environment. When I took the job here it was the first thing I talked about it, and it has developed to that. This is just a hard place to play. People don't want to come here and play. It used to be coaches always wanted to come to Tulane and get a win, and we did. It's not just the players. It's the environment. This is a hard place to play."

On Kam Williams needing to be more aggressive:

"That's the next part of his development. He's still a teenager. He just played against eight seniors that were 24 or 25 years old. The next part of his development is being able to find different ways of being able to score."

BRUMBAUGH

On what went wrong at Wichita State:

"We played selfish. They made us play one-on-one basketball. They played deep drop coverage and they took away shooters. The crowd and the environment sped us up. Those two things."

On five assists as a team:

"When we have low assists, we usually don't play well. When we have high assists, we usually win games."

On his mindset:

"I just want to win, so if the game's calling me for to make shots then I've got to do that. My mindset's just all winning."

On his game:

"I used to be more kind of flashy, but at the end of the day the only day that will fulfill you is winning on a team like this, not your individual stats. We can't worry about next year or what anybody's saying in our ear. We just have to take it game by game and understand we have a chance to make the tournament if we really lock in and take it game by game and possession by possession."

On Gregg Glenn's game at Wichita State:

"It helps a lot. In certain games guys are going to be hot because that's what the defense gives us. They played a deep drop. They took away our shooters, so Gregg did what he had to do. We just have to take advantage of what the defense gives us."

On home advantage:

"The crowd helps a lot. I hope more students can start coming to the games. Everywhere we go it's always packed, but then here it's not that many students. Its kind of weird. I'd just say being at home, being comfortable in our gym helps a lot. Our defense throws them off because not many teams play our matchup man-to-man. It's really bizarre to see sometimes even when you scout it."

On why he plays with confidence:

"My confidence is in Jesus Christ. I have the lord's peach in me always, so that's where the confidence comes from."

GLENN

On his big game at Wichita State:

"I felt really comfortable. I'm just taking it day by day. I got fouled a lot that game and they didn't call it, but at the end of the day you've just got to keep playing."

On tough atmosphere at Wichita State:

'I actually love that type of atmosphere. It gets my hyped for games."

On importance of finishing in top four:

"It's really important for us to be in the top four so we can know what we've got to do for the first game we go into and do what we do."

Tulane men's hoops lost five scholarship players to transfer after last year. Here is how they have fared.

1) Sion James (Duke)

STATS: 8.3 points on 52.4 percent shooting and is 20 of 49 on 3-pointers with 4.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists.

COMMENT: There's nothing Tulane could have done about losing James to Duke. He ended up in the perfect situation for him because he is not capable of carrying a team but is a perfect complementary piece on a national championship-caliber roster. He loves his time at Tulane but struggled defensively when he was forced to play center on defense two years ago because Kevin Cross could not defend without fouling and was too valuable offensively to be on the bench. Collin Holloway took over that role last year and struggled as well.

2) Kolby King (Butler)

STATS: 5.4 points on 44.7 percent shooting, 4.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists

COMMENT: Just as he did at Tulane after a strong start in China and early in the 2023-24 season, King fell out of favor at Butler. He's not a point guard and he drifts during games. Butler has been a disappointment this year, and King, who started only four games and has not scored in double figures since Jan. 15, is one of the reasons.

3) Collin Holloway (Samford)

STATS: 8.9 points on 39.9 percent shooting with 5.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists.

COMMENT: I am harsher on Holloway than almost anyone I've ever covered, and it has nothing to do with his personality or work ethic. He is a good dude. It is simply that he has the worst hands of any good player I've seen. He could not catch passes and struggled to latch onto rebounds despite having good instincts on the boards, one of the reasons Tulane's rebounding was horrific last year even when compared to other years under Hunter. He had a good knack for finishing inside, although shot blockers bothered him because of his lack of height and pure athleticism, but those hands killed Tulane. I have not seen any of Samford's games, but I'm pretty sure they did not expect the precipitous drop in his shooting percentage from better than 50 percent when he was at Tulane. He hit 6 of his first 11 3s this year but could not sustain that type of success with his mediocre set shot from beyond the arc and is 21 of 70 since then. He has not scored in double figures since Feb. 1, averaging less than 4 points in his last six games. Samford expects to win the SoCon tourney for the second year in a row but is in third place after running away with the regular season title last season.

4) Jordan Wood (Stetson)

STATS: 12.3 points on 45 percent shooting with 3.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists.

COMMENT: Wood was a mistake pickup last year as a grad transfer from Howard because he could not handle the significant jump in competition, quickly falling out of the rotation and playing in only nine games. He has found his niche at lower-level Stetson, averaging a career high with 51 3s and scoring between 23 and 26 points four times. He would not have been much of a factor if he had stayed at Tulane.

5) Mier Panoam (North Dakota)

STATS: 13.2 points on 46 percent shooting with 5.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists

COMMENT: I was surprised he left because he was at Tulane only one year, had a lot of athletic ability and would have returned to a team nearly bereft of proven experience, but he probably made the right choice. Athletic as heck, he won Tulane's fan day dunk contest last year but was a total non-factor during the season. I'm not sure whether he would have developed or not in a second year, but he certainly has flourished at a lower level, starting every game for North Dakota and having a stretch of 13 games in double figures with a high of 28 at one point. North Dakota is not good, though, with an 11-18 overall record and a 5-9 conference mark.

I missed this when it came out Tuesday. Spring game is April 19, the day before Easter. Practice starts March 18. The relatively late start is good because it will not conflict with the AAC men's hoops tourney, which is increasingly looking like something I will attend. If Tulane beats North Texas Saturday, I will book my flight. Of course, if Tulane wins the AAC tourney, the second and third practices would conflict with the NCAA tourney, but that would be a nice problem to have.

practice schedule