They released it yesterday. I took a staycation last week, mentally exhausted from the baseball sason and totally missed Tylan Pope's signing. He is not a two-time MVP pick by the New Orleans Advocate--I talked to the guy responsible for selecting the team two years ago and he did not know who he was-but the book on him is toughness and rebounding and playing hard.

I talked to Ron Hunter today along with K.J. Lawson, Ray Ona Embo and Jordan Walker. Practice started yesterday with everyone but Zhang, Nobal Days and Pope. Zhang is playing for the Chinese national team this summer and Days and Pope have not arrived from high school yet. I will post the interviews I conducted at some point this week.

Here's the roster release:

https://tulanegreenwave.com/news/20...s-eight-signees-completes-2019-20-roster.aspx

Ronell Burbank from originally from Karr? Any truth?

No team with horrid relief pitching like Tulane is a good bet to do anything in a tournament, but I really like the Green Wave's bracket in Clearwater. Travis Jewett could not have handpicked a better one than a No. 2 seed in Cincinnati, which is a sub-.500 team with an RPI above 100, a No. 7 seed in Memphis, which was picked last in the league in the preseason and also has an RPI above 100, and No. 6 UCF, which is playing its best ball of the year but lacks the top-end pitching of UConn and Houston and also got whipped by Tulane with the same pitching matchup that will take place on Tuesday night.

I'll give you two big ifs for that game, and if both of them happen, I believe Tulane will win its bracket. No matter who it would face in the championship game, it would be the underdog (Wichita State ain't winning the other bracket), but they'll cross that bridge when they come to it.

IF Kaleb Roper has his good stuff and IF the bullpen doesn't collapse, Tulane should be able to beat UCF in the opener. Roper was brilliant a few weeks ago against UCF, but he struggled in his next two starts and Jewett has voiced some concerns about his freshness. Here's the deal, though. To a man, the coaches and players have praised Roper since he arrived last year, saying he is as professional as they come, pays tremendous attention to detail and has Friday stuff. He needs to show it tomorrow night, just like he did in the tournament last year against ECU. The reality is he has a 4.90 ERA and has been mediocre this year, but a big-time performance tomorrow would change the narrative.

At least Justin Campbell will be fresh tomorrow. Although he's no sure thing, he is the only reasonably consistent guy out of the bullpen, so even if Tulane has a nice lead going into the seventh inning, it will be nail-biting time, just as was the case Saturday against UConn. Tomorrow needs to be a day when the bullpen is competent.

With the confidence of a win against the best team in its bracket, I really like Tulane's chances of taking care of Cincinnati or Memphis on Thursday. The Wave's least effective starter, Keagan Gillies, will go that day, but that's good because Cincinnati and Memphis have ERAs almost as high as Tulane's. Gillies competes every time he pitches, and as long as he does not get shelled, Tulane should be OK.

The Wave would not be a lock to win the bracket if it started 2-0, but the odds are pretty good with Chase Solesky going against another team''s midweek starter or Tuesday starter operating on short rest Saturday. Solesky looked really good against UConn.

The difference in the two brackets is pretty amazing on paper. East Carolina is a lock to host a regional and maybe get a top 8 seed. UConn and Houston are likely to get at-large bids. Those are the three teams with the best RPIs in the league, and they all are on the other side of the bracket.

Tulane outscored the three teams in its bracket 71-39. It got outscored by the four team in the other bracket 100-79.

UCF will be tough, but it's not like the Knights have been dominant down the stretch. They won a pair of one-run games against Memphis around a five-run loss, looked good in beating Tulane two out of three and beat Houston 11-10 in 11 innings at home to take that series. UCF built its solid RPI by going 13-1 in midweek games. The Knights are 21-19 on weekends.

If Tulane loses to UCF, it's sayonara. The Wave cannot win four games in four days with its pitching. The same is true if it wins the first game and loses the second one. The Wave cannot win three games in two days with its pitching.

But if it gets into the winner's bracket, a real possibility considering its draw, Tulane should reach Sunday's winner-takes-all game.

Favorites are beginning to emerge for three-star Rummel defensive ATH Donovan Kaufman. He breaks down recent trips to #Vandy + #Tulane, what stands out about the #Buffs' push and who's in the mix for official visits

➡️ https://rvls.co/2JMruZw

The list came out yesterday and Hoese was not on it. If he had been there, it would have been deserved, but the four guys on the list are very deserving, too.

Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman, the odds-on favorite, leads the nation in on-base percentage at .580 and limited opponents to 19 stolen bases (in 36 attempts) all year.

Vanderbilt outfielder JJ Bleday leads the NCAA with 26 home runs, hit .357 and had 68 RBIs, seven more than Hoese.

California first baseman Andrew Vaughn hit .387 with the third-best on-base percentage in the country at .549.

Navy pitcher Noah Song, who also was a lock, went 11-1 with a 1.44 ERA and a nation's leading 161 strikeouts in 94 innings.

Hoese hit .391 with an on-base percentage of .486 and 23 home runs and a nation's best 183 total bases. If you want to make a case for him over Vaughn, you certainly can, but it's not a slam dunk. Vaughn won the Golden Spikes Award last year, when he hit .402 with 23 home runs (he had 15 this year), but his on-base percentage was better this season.

California, by the way, did not make a regional last year, so it's not a matter of picking guys who play on top teams.

Some random thoughts:

Coach Jewett: The big question surrounding Tulane baseball in the next few days is the future of Coach Jewett. If he’s to be fired, and I think it is likely, it should occur soon. Frankly, when he was hired, I was pretty happy. He had a fine record as an assistant, a reputation as an excellent recruiter, and a history of success as a hitting instructor. Having not participated in interviews or talks to people “in the know” of college baseball, I personally would have preferred Matt Riser, but that’s “water over the bridge.” I never had the “love affair” others professed with hiring Cannizaro since his limited coaching at LSU wasn’t enough to suggest to me at least that he was the right choice. Again, much has happened since and it no longer makes any difference. Be that as it may, clearly Jewett has not succeeded in the past three years. In fact, other that hitting (which has improved markedly) we’ve seen no improvement and possibly degradation in every other facet of the game from pitching (which has been horrible) to base running, to defense. Eventually the “buck” has to stop at the top. I think we have a very good recruiting class coming in (the best in my view in a long time) and would like to see what Jewett can do with it. But, I also know from long experience that if a guy doesn’t show improvement over a three year period, he is unlikely to do so in year four and beyond. It happens; but it isn’t likely. The “buck” is now in Dannen’s court.

The Schedule: It has become fashionable of late to claim that Coach Jewett intentionally “dumbed down” our schedule this year to get a winning record. That may or may not be true. Certainly our strength of schedule which was rated as #15 in the country in 2018, fell to #67 this past season. That said, I think most “Greenies” thought the 2018 schedule was a little tougher than need be but, be that as it may, it fell off significantly this season. Of course, looking back, the SOS for 2015 and 2016 (the Pierce years) were rated at #45 and #61 respectively, while Jewett’s first two years were rated #20 and #15. Maybe a drop off was needed but why did it drop so much this year? Well for one, our Louisiana opponents winning percentage dropped from .573 in 2018 to .521 this year. And our conference opponents’ records dropped from .593 to .568. Other than replacing LSU with McNeese and Nichols (clearly a drop off) I’m not sure how much Jewett “managed” the schedule to assure success. For interest, had the Louisiana teams and AAC opponents performed at the same level as 2018, our SOS would have been #49, right in the middle of that we saw during the two Pierce years.

Incoming Players: Like I mentioned above, I think we potentially have a very good recruiting class coming in. It includes several pitchers who show promise as well as a number of position players who could contribute immediately. Perfect Game rates seven of our incoming freshmen with a 9.0 or better rating, and, while junior college ball is not at the AAC level, some of the JC’s look really good. I particularly like the recently-committed reliever who had 17 saves, a 1.08 ERA and struck out 79 in 49.2 innings while walking only 9. A half-way decent (and consistent) closer this year could have put us in the regionals.

Recruiting at Tulane: All the problems of recruiting at a high-cost private school like Tulane have been rehashed over and over. Is it an impossible problem? I don’t think so; but it is a problem. It looks like we have a good class coming in depending on the disposition of the Jewett situation. But, that’s a one year issue. Vanderbilt, arguably a more prestigious and more selective university than our school, has probably the best team and likely best baseball program in the NCAA. People speculate that their endowment and way of “stacking” scholarships allows them to sign players unavailable to Tulane with its limited finances and “hidebound” administration. Of course, I don’t really “know” how Vandy does it and have no idea how limited are our finances or how “hidebound” our administration. But that’s the claim. We used to have six or more kids on the team who attended Tulane on legislative scholarships which helped a lot. Of course, that also put a spotlight on that program which limited its use. Still, according to the Tulane website, we had three players (Ross Massey, Grant Matthews, and Connor Pellerin) who attended this year on those same scholarships. But three or four legislative scholarships may be our max in this day and age. So how do we match or approach the recruiting success of Vanderbilt? I have no idea. But if Coach Jewett doesn’t understand the difference, no one does. Has he spoken to the administration? Can we do some of the things Vandy does (whatever that is)? Unlike football or basketball, I don’t believe our baseball facilities or conference alignment are major problems in recruiting. We need better recruits and more success in “coaching them up” if we are to return to be consistent winners.

The MLB draft: I’ve seen speculation in some quarters that suggest as many as six or seven Tulane players will be drafted this year. Frankly, I don’t see it and would be surprised. Hoese, of course is a sure thing. I think Roper and Matthews have a decent shot at being drafted, and possibly even Jensen. Beyond that, it would be a shock to me. A couple of our incoming freshmen or JC’s could also get drafted but I hate to speculate on that. Anyway, in another week or so (Jun 3-5), we’ll know.

Summer Baseball: We should also hear soon on who among the Greenies will be playing summer baseball. I’d think most of our backups would look to play while many front-liners, particularly pitchers, might want to take the summer off after a long season. I’d sure like to see Collin Burns, Logan Stevens, Ethan Groff, and Aaron McKeithan get some at bats this summer and, if he’s healthy and able to return, it would be nice if Ty Johnson could get some playing time. If Bedgood is to be given a shot at third base, he could also use some summer work. On the mound, I don’t see Solesky or Gillies playing this summer but everyone else could see some action, particularly the younger guys who didn’t pitch that much. Bates and Pellerin could probably use the time to get their heads on straight since they have excellent stuff and simply (maybe not so simply) need to throw strikes. Of course,some of our players will not be returning and I’d prefer not to speculate on their futures.

Anyway, those or some thoughts I have as our season has come to an ignominious close. I doubt they agree with everyone (or anyone?) but there you have it.

Roll Wave!!!

Tulane's Best in the Boot night occurred Wednesday, and 15 top New Orleans/Louisiana prospects attended. The players included commitments Cornelius Dyson and Justin Ibieta. Here are the other 13, which include many of the top 40 players in Louisiana.

1) Connor Finuncane, a 6-4, 280-pound 3-star offensive guard from Baton Rouge Catholic

Rivals rating: 3 stars

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2) Mason Narcisse, a 6-2, 287-pound defensive tackle from St. Charles Catholic

Rivals rating: Zero stars

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3) Caleb Anderson, a 6-3, 190-pound ATHLETE from East Feliciana

Rivals rating: 3 stars

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4) Desanto Rollins, a 6-4, 285-pound defensive tackle from Parkview Baptist in Baton Rouge

Rivals rating: 3 stars

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5) Adonis Friloux, a 6-2, 270-pound defensive tackle from Hahnville

Rivals rating: 3 stars

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6) Khi Mathieu, a 5-11, 170-pound wide receiver from St. Augustine

Rivals rating: 3 stars, 86th WR nationally, 24th best prospect at any position in Louisiana

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7) Donovan Kaufman, a 5-9, 192-pound ATHLETE from Rummel

Rivals rating: 3 stars, No. 39 overall prospect in Louisiana

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8) Taiwan Berryhill, a 6-2, 205-pound outside linebacker from St. Augustine

Rivals rating: 3 stars, No. 15 overall prospect in Louisiana, No. 28 OLB nationally

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9) Khari Coleman, a 6-2, 212-pound defensive end from Carver in New Orleans

Rivals rating: 3 stars, No. 30 overall prospect in Louisiana

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10) Patrick Jenkins, a 6-2, 270-pound defensive tackle from John Ehret

Rivals rating: 3 stars, No. 34 overall prospect in Louisiana

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11) Quinton Cage, a 5-10, 185-pound safety from Rummel

Rivals rating: 3 stars (under name Pig Cage)

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2020/pig-cage-236418

12) Keilon Brown, a 6-0, 170-pound dual-threat quarterback from Zachary,

Rivals rating: 3 stars, No. 19 nationally at his position, No. 25 overall prospect in Louisiana

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13) Josh Remetich, a 6-5, 280-pound offensive guard from Holy Cross

Rivals rating: 3 stars, No. 40 overall prospect in Louisiana

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It's been a terrific couple of days for the Wave, who landed commitments from a trio of three-stars in Cornelius Dyson, Justin Ibieta and Noah Taliancich.

Dyson is an intriguing DB prospect who's physical, albeit raw. I know that the staff thinks he can be a player in the secondary down the road and Coach JJ likes his length.

Ibieta is a bit of a project at QB, but he turned heads at Rivals Camp in NOLA in March. He has great arm strength and outstanding mobility, and that should showcase itself in the Tulane offense. Kentucky was one of a few P5 schools taking a look at Ibieta, who is firmly committed to Tulane.

Taliancich is an interesting one. He gained about 30 pounds this spring and is now an athletic DT. UL took his early commitment, but he mentioned he grew up a fan of the Green Wave. Although the staff waited until he got his weight to 280 to offer, he flipped early Monday morning -- to his dream school. It's a nice story

One name to watch in the coming days is three-star John Curtis DE Angelo Anderson. Anderson holds offers from Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisville, West Virginia, but there are rumblings out of John Curtis he could wind up Uptown. It would be a mighty steal for Tulane. Although Anderson is a bit undersized, he's effective and provides a great push off the edge. He had double-digit sacks as a junior. He thought Alabama or Mississippi St would offer this spring, and because they didn't, he may be inclined to make a decision earlier than anticipated.

One other name to watch is Anderson's teammate, QB Collin Guggenheim. With a commitment from Ibieta, Guggenheim projects as an ATH for the Wave. They have been showing interest all spring and would be willing to offer/take his commitment as a RB/ATH. I could see him on some running plays and mainly special teams. If an offer is extended soon, it could lead to a commitment from two Curtis products.

No way would he be coming to Tulane without Will Hall's arrival as offensive coordinator.

The three-sport star from Country Day is listed as a pro-style QB rather than a dual-threat specialist, and it's not just racial bias. His coach in a recent article said although he could run effectively, he was not a dual-threat QB. He compared him to Tanner Lee (and he coached both of them) but added Ibieta was a better runner. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards last season and put up hellacious numbers for Country Day.

With the walk-on who previously had committed not coming, Tulane is getting Matt Smith (6-0, 215,) who walked on at South Alabama but left last summer to go to Garden City Community College. He is from Georgia but loves New Orleans and Tulane. His grandfather, Elmer Smith Jr., lettered at Tulane in football in 1963 and 64. His younger brother is a Mississippi State baseball commitment.

Smith will have three years of eligibility left.

Maybe the most shocking number to me is Tulane's home record in AAC games, which s 6-39. They've averaged basically one conference win a year at home. How much do you plan on turning that around?

"When you first said that stat, the first thing that came to my mind was the second home conference win we have this year, I'm going to celebrate and ask for a raise. Like I told the players, those are bad. I'm glad I wasn't coaching. That's all I can think because that's not going to be us, if I've got to put a uniform on and play. We're not going to allow that to happen. And these kids want to win. It's not through the lack of talent. At first I thought maybe these kids are so bad, but it's not a lack of talent. What's happened is they keep hearing these type of things, they keep hearing these numbers and all of a sudden it just grows. You know how many games I watched of Tulane playing down 4 and playing well and the next thing you know it's 20. I've watched eight games in the last seven days--4-point game, down 20 and what happens? As soon as something bad happens, they (fell apart). That's what's happening in this program. It's one of the reasons why I couldn't keep anyone on the previous staff. Everything had to be different. It's why I joked about changing the seats (where Tulane sits) and we have been.

"I have to change the whole vibe of what's happened so we don't have to worry about those things. There are going to be bad things that happen, and how we react to it is going to be the key, and that's why I want half my roster new, so the new guys can go back and say we'll just keep playing. This summer I'm going to put them in situations that are going to be bad, that they've got to react. I want to put them in bad basketball situations. Hey, we're supposed to get up at 9 and we'll get them up at 5:30. Just that quick change and we have to be able to perform at 5:30. We'll be doing a lot of those things this summer because it's just the mentality. We have to erase some of that, especially the guys that have been here more than two years, but there aren't many of them, and that's why flipping the roster as quickly as we can is important."

How many more openings do you have for players this year?

"It's a very flexible number (laughing). That number changes every day. Even today I got four calls from guys from Power 5 schools who want to transfer. It's unbelievable the number of kids that want to come here, so getting players is not (hard). Sometimes I'm hoping a guy walks in here and says, 'Coach, this is just going to be too much for me." I expect I will know my complete roster (in a week). That's my goal, and I'm pretty sure we'll get to that."

You mentioned in your press conference that this team needs to learn how to win. Is that going to influence your non-conference scheduling philosophy for your first year?

"Yes, scheduling is going to be a big part of that. Our league is tough. We have scheduling requirements from the American (to make sure teams don't load up on RPI-killing bottom feeders), but I have to teach my guys to win. Once I get my guys here, I'll play anybody, anywhere, any time, outside on a park, LSU, you want to play, let's go play. If LSU wanted to play tomorrow, I'll play tomorrow. Put this in. I want to play LSU. I want to play them anywhere. If they call right now, I will get out of a game and I will play LSU any time, anywhere. That's what I want. My goal is I want to be the best team in the state of Louisiana, and to be the best, you've got to go play the best, so that's one game I will never run away from. As long as it's fair. We are nobody's stepchild. If you play us at home, we'll play at your place."

Any plays for playing UNO?

"No because one of the things I'm trying to do is I want the best. UNO has done a great job and we'll play them, but my sights are I want LSU because of what they can do for recruiting in the state. I want to be the best team in Louisiana. We're not there yet, but while I'm here, that's a goal of mine. We want to be the best team in the state and I want to go to the NCAA tournament. Those guys my staff knows every day. That's no disrespect to the other schools in this state. They are doing a tremendous job, but the best is LSU, and that's who I'm going to get. I went to a Catholic school in the fifth grade. My mom took me out of public school and put me in a private school, and I'll never forget that. I felt like the very first day I had to go fight my way. I wanted to get the biggest bully and I said I'm going to fight the biggest bully. Then I don't have to worry about the rest of the guys. You beat up the bully, you beat up everybody else, so that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to find the bully, and if I beat the bully, then all the rest of them will fall in line. So please let them know that. I've got great respect for LSU, great respect for their program, but man, I'll play that game tomorrow with the team I've got right now. I'll play that game with last year's team if you let me play them. That's what I would like to have."

Tulane beat LSU in a preseason scrimmage on Halloween two years ago.

"Don't let me do that. Oh, there will be signs all over the city and I'll have billboards."

You are the first coach Tulane has hired in ages who has a proven track record of winning in college. How much will that help you?

"That's the thing. It's one thing that's funny. I'm not doing anything different than what we've done before. This job fits right up the alley of an urban institution in Indianapolis, an urban institution in Atlanta. You see these books I have here. Every job that I've had, I've written down the first 100 days what I've done. This is my New Orleans book. I'm doing the same thing. I've never been to a school as a head coach that has this type of foundation. I just haven't."

What got you into coaching in the first place?

"When I played in 1986, Ron Harper and I went to high school and college and we were good friends. Ron had gotten drafted (by the Cleveland Cavaliers) and we were getting ready to play in the NCAA tournament. My coach asked me I wanted to play overseas, and at that time overseas wasn't a big deal. He said what I think you should do is coach, and I'd never thought about it. He said you can be a G.A. for us next year. That conversation made me think I'm going to do this. Instead of playing overseas, and I had a job at Proctor & Gamble right in Cincinnati I could have worked at, but I decided to do that (be a G.A.) and it was the best decision of my life. I was a G.A. one year and became an assistant at Wisconsin-Milwaukee and it just kind of took off. I haven't worked a day in my life since then. It's been fun.

"I can't stop smiling at this job. It's been under-appreciated, but all those things are what happened in my life. No one expects us to win here. We're ready. I love it. The underdog role, I'm eating this up. We had our conference meetings yesterday in the American, and I'm looking around and see Kelvin Sampson and I see Penny (Hardaway) and I see all these guys and I'm listening to them, and all I'm thinking is I can't wait. I wanted the season to start right then, man. I'm just listening to all the guys sitting there and just looking at them. It's funny. I told my wife, I'm just moving into a house this weekend, and I want to put the head coaches' pictures in my bedroom so I wake up every morning and see those guys because I know that's what we've got to be. So I was excited. Everybody thought I was crazy at the meeting yesterday. They were saying why is this guy so happy? This is the perfect timing."

Tulane's bullpen and ace starter Kaleb Roper had tough weekends for the most part at Houston, but the Green Wave managed to win one of three thanks to a two-run comeback in the ninth inning of the nightcap of a brutally long doubleheader on Saturday, leading to a four-run 10th that featured an 18-minute delay when the lights went out on a timer at 1 a.m.

Although it was another disappointing result overall, winning one game was pivotal because it kept the Wave in second place. To hold on to second, Tulane will have to do something it has not done all year--win a series against a top 100 RPI team. Tulane plays host to slumping No. 31 UConn Thursday through Saturday, and if the Wave wins two of the three and Houston does not sweep UCF on the road (there's a better chance of UCF sweeping than Houston sweeping), Tulane will be the No. 2 seed in the AAC tourney.

If Tulane loses 2 of 3 to UConn, it would fall behind Cincinnati, which already has completed its conference schedule, and also would fall behind Houston if Houston wins its series at UCF. If UConn sweeps, the Huskies will pass Tulane along with Cincinnati and either Houston or UCF, but not both. Memphis technically could pass Tulane, too, but the Tigers would have to win a series at ECU and that ain't happening.

Tulane cannot afford to fall past No. 3. It needs to stay on the opposite side of the AAC tournament bracket from league power East Carolina, which will have the 4, 5 and 8 seeds in its grouping while the other half is 2,3 6 and 7. If Tulane wins the UConn series, it could end up with a dream bracket of No. 3 seed Cincinnati and No. 7 seed Memphis (along with, most likely, a tougher proposition in No. 6 UCF). A sweep would be even better, possibly making UConn fall to the No. 6 seed, but nothing that has happened this year makes a sweep believable.

Cincinnati and Memphis were picked second-to-last and last in the preseason coaches poll. Both have RPIs above 100. Tulane outscored Cincinnati 27-5 in the first two games of a road series and beat Memphis 20-5 in the second game of a doubleheader on the road. Nothing is guaranteed with Tulane's wretched pitching, but that would be an incredibly friendly draw to give the Wave the best chance possible to reach the championship game.

That said, we can officially cross off every pitcher on the roster as reliable with Justin Campbell and Brendan Cellucci coming back to earth. Cellucci has given up 10 hits and seven runs in his last four innings covering five appearances. Not good. Campbell has given up five hits and four runs while walking three and hitting two batters over three innings covering his last three appearances.

Those guys plus the entire weekend starting rotation, Trent Johnson, Krishna Raj, Ryan Green, C.J. Whelan, Robert Price and Josh Bates are capable of pitching well, so all hope is not lost, but their bad outings outnumber the good ones and a couple seem to implode every game.

The path to success in the AAC tourney involves one of Roper's good outings--he followed a terrific one against UCF by giving up seven runs to Houston but would have a favorable matchup against Memphis--in the opener next Tuesday. Gillies, who has pitched better lately, then would need to give the Wave a chance in the pivotal winner's bracket game and have the bullpen not screw it up.

At 2-0, the Wave might want to save Solesky for a potential championship game and try to piece the next game together with Trent Johnson and Raj or whoever had not thrown significant innings on the first two days. Since the only way to make an NCAA regional is to win the tournament, that gamble would make sense because Tulane's odds of beating (probably) ECU would be slim to none with its back end pitchers.

But this is just fantasizing. The reality is Tulane has only one pitcher with an ERA below Justin Campbell's 4.85, Josh Bates (2.89), and Bates has hit or walked 24 batters in 18.2 innings. Prior to 2017, Tulane's staff ERA was above 4.85 only 10 times in school history. The current 5.81 ERA is on pace for the second worst in school history. It's hard to win that way.

One other thing. Here is the list of Tulane's series wins and series loss by RPI.

Wins

USF 102
Cincinnati 104
Wichita State 105
Houston Baptist 213
George Washington 219
UC Riverside 220

Losses

East Carolina 5
UC Santa Barbara 15
Ole Miss 28
Houston 36
UCF 49

Split

Memphis 129

Tulane has not come remotely close to the NCAA tournament since Perry Clark left in 2000. Your contention is it has nothing to do with institutional issues or the ability to win?

"Yeah. It's funny. At IUPUI I heard that every time--you can't take this program to the NCAA tournament. I got to Georgia State, and they hadn't won since Lefty (Driesell). It had been 10 years of losing. We go to the NCAA tournament. I come here and people say the same, so for me, the road map, there are so many similarities, although this is the best job that I've had. I don't want to say it's an easy turnaround, but the foundation here is unbelievable. I don't understand why they haven't won here. I just don't. You've got great leadership from the president, from the AD, you've got a great foundation. You've got facilities. You've got an unbelievable city. You've got people that love Tulane in this city. It's almost to the point where I'm looking around corners for something I'm missing. I wake up every day and am so excited. I used to wake up at 9. but since I've been here I wake up at 6 every single morning and can't wait for the season to get here. I feel like I've got something to prove. I really do. The only difference between here and Georgia State, I felt like I had something to prove to myself, but when I took this job, I feel like they were doubting some things, so I have a huge chip on my shoulder. I want to prove people who were like, why take that job? My thing is why not, and now I have to prove why I took this job."

You were bold at your opening press conference about what you want to accomplish right away. Do you think those goals are realistic for year 1?

"Absolutely. I told the team and I told the staff, and I'm dead serious when I say this, if I'm not in the NCAA tournament, I personally will be disappointed. I understand expectations, but as long as I'm sitting in this year, our expectation is to get to the NCAA tournament. I'm never going to say, well, we've got to build up to that. I've never been that way, because if I start believing in that and I start settling, then the staff settles and the players settle. I don't want anybody around me to do that. I'm optimistic about everything, and I'm more optimistic now than I was in my press conference because I wasn't sure how quickly I could turn the roster at my press conference. Where I am now, even the juniors we're recruiting right now, the top 50 or top 100 kids on the wall right now, I thought that would take two years and it hasn't. That's why I'm more excited now than I was before."

I've heard grumblings from past staffs they could not get players in academically that they needed. Is that not a concern for you?

"Every kid I've recruited I've been able to get in here. I get it. College is tough. That should not have been a reason why they haven't won here. I've talked with Perry (Clark). They won with Perry and probably the standards were higher back when Perry was here. There are kids out there who are good students, and there are kids in New Orleans who are good students and can come to Tulane and make it. When you lose, you can find excuses, and I think that's what happened in the past. Every time someone's lost, they've just found an excuse not to win, and I'm not giving anyone an excuse here. If it doesn't get done, it won't be because I can't get players in school. It won't be because of recruiting, so that won't be an excuse for us."

You talked about your matchup zone at your press conference and said you'd never played man to man. How did that come about, and why did you use that philosophy?

"Well, when I took over at IUPUI, I looked around and had Bob Knight up the road, I had Gene Keady (at Purdue), I had Butler, I had the Pacers and everyone around there was doing the same thing--motion (offense) and man-to-man. I had to do something different to attract people and basically something different just to keep up because again, you're playing some really good teams. I felt like I had to do something different. There was a guy I watched all the time and I used to love hearing him speak, and it was John Chaney (Temple's coach, who also was a coach Perry Clark loved). I used to watch a lot of the John Chaney things. We'd practice in the morning like Temple practiced in the morning. They played that matchup (zone) and they didn't have top-50 kids. They were hardnose, tough kids from Philadelphia, and I kind of took that and took the amoeba (defense) they were doing at UNLV and watched what UNLV was doing and just gradually built from that and had a lot of success with it. My first year of Division I, we played Arizona with Lute Olson and they had four pros and we lost by 5 at the end of the game. I realized after then we've got something. I played Georgetown when John Thompson Sr. was coaching and we were able to stay in the games and I realized that the system was allowing us to stay in the game. We weren't as talented as they were but the system kept us in the game, and it's just grown.

"Now people want to talk about it and I don't usually do clinics. I know coaches are going to want to come because it's part of what we do, but it's a buy-in, and our kids have bought into that have played for me and I've got to get these kids to buy into it."

Nothing is totally unique, but how many other teams run what you do defensively?

"There are a lot of people that run variations of it, but in regards to our terminology and what we do. not many. If you talk to our coaches around the country, it is a little different because you can watch it and we can do something completely different on the next possession. There are only four rules in it and I won't give you those rules, but that's what I'm talking about. This is a really important summer because we want to teach. That's why Kevin not being here is going to be tough because he already has a language barrier a little bit and he's going to come in behind. The key is I've got to have enough guys on my staff who have been through it so they can teach it. I had to have that."

Who originally taught you this?

"Again, the whole John Chaney thing. I was a head coach at 30 years old. I'm so much a better coach now than when I was 30, but you think you've got it all figured out and I thought I'm going to be man-to-man, blah blah blah, and I realized we have no chance doing this. I was at a convention, and I was sitting there listening to John Chaney and started watching tapes and watching every game and then I'm going to try this and started adding more things on it. This whole amoeba thing, when UNLV really got going, so that was it, and it just grew and grew and I had to learn with it and make some adaptations. And every year and every team, I make some type of adjustment. I'll probably make an adjustment with this team. If they don't pick it up as quickly as I want, I will keep it as simple and easy as I can. We did that at Georgia State. The first year, we started off the gates 0-3 (2011-12) because it was going too fast for the kids. We made some adjustments and then we won 12 in a row (actually 11) and then won 22 games that first year (finishing 22-12 and losing in the second round of the CIT)."

How long does it take for guys to get comfortable in your system?

"It depends on the basketball I.Q, and I have to figure that out with the team. I don't know my complete roster yet. I try to recruit kids that have a high basketball I.Q. The better basketball I.Q. they might have, the easier it becomes for them. I think Samir can be great at it. I think Ray and Jordan and Caleb can actually thrive in this. We're still pressing it. We're going to still use our half-court traps and we're going to play a lot differently than what people have ever seen before here. We're going to play six, seven, eight defenses, we're going to fly around. But this summer's big because these guys will have to learn our terminology. It's kind of like coming in if you're a new coordinator because all my terminology is football related. I'm a huge Tony Dungy fan. I used to watch their practices (with the Indianapolis Colts when he was coaching IUPUI), so I took his terminology and put it toward basketball."

You mentioned John Chaney. I covered Temple's second-round NCAA tournament win over Florida in the Superdome in 2001, and I've never seen Billy Donovan angrier than after that game, when the Gators, a No. 3 seed, were blown out 75-54 and went 8 for 29 on 3s. He didn't want to give Temple's matchup zone any credit, saying the Gators had simply missed shots, but they were flummoxed that day.

"Yeah, I hope there are a lot of teams like that, that have bad shooting nights against us. I look forward to that. But again, no one in the league does this. What I hope will happen is we cause mass confusion with what we do, especially at home. You have to learn how to win at home first before you go on the road. It's important for us to win home games, really important."

It is Charlie Russell, a 6-7 small forward from Sophie Wright in New Orleans. He is not in the Rivals database but tweeted his decision today and is an official signee.

He was a second-team All-State selection by The Advocate, averaging 17.2 points as a senior. Wright lost to Madison Prep in the 3A state semifinals and finished 35-4.

I am talking to Ron Hunter tomorrow.

Any suggestions for questions, other than I obviously get straight which recruits are in the fold and which aren't since I seem to have trouble keeping up in that department?

It's Cornelius Dyson, a 3-star ATH from Kentwood. He has offers from Idaho, ULL, ULM and La Tech.

I will try to reach him tomorrow.

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I asked you this at your introductory press conference and ended up not writing anything off it, but how much was the opportunity to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament at Tulane an attraction for you since you've spent your whole career at places that had to win their conference tournament to get in? Tulane has not been in position to earn an at-large bid since the 1990s, but if you get the program where you want it to be, it's an annual possibility. At Georgia State you won 26 games in 2014 and still knew you had zero shot at the NCAA tournament when Louisiana-Lafayette beat you in OT in the Sun Belt tourney championship game.

"It's almost an eerie feeling, especially when you're one of the top two teams in the league every year. Your summers are stressed because you can do all these things right and have a great year, but if you have five bad minutes (in your conference tournament) it can cost you. We had five bad minutes (against ULL in a game Georgia State never trailed until overtime) and it cost us an NCAA tournament run, but it did propel us to what we wanted to get the next year."

Your whole team played nervous in the tournament final against Georgia Southern the next year. I think you won 38-36.

"It was brutal. It was so brutal, I tore my Achilles. Man, that was brutal, so this job will keep me healthier."

Seriously, how much of an enticement was it to go somewhere that you do not have to deal with that type of one-game pressure?

"Honestly, there wasn't much more that we could have done at Georgia State. We took a program that was really, the crazy part of it is everybody talks about it being a tough job at Tulane. I had two really bad jobs. IUPUI and Georgia State are tough jobs that we made look easy, but they are really, really hard jobs. Great people. Building it was easy. Sustaining it was unbelievably hard. Now I've got this job right here, and I don't see that. I know the league is unbelievably good, but if you had to recruit and do the things that I've done since I've been a head coach. Troy (Dannen) doesn't know this but I could have worked here for free. I'm in heaven right now. This is great. The turnaround won't be difficult for us at all."

You mentioned at your presser that you were mystified how a team could only win four games.

"You know, it's like having a great year where everything has to go right. When you go 0-18, everything has to go wrong. You've got to have bad luck, you have to have injuries, which they did with (Ona Embo). He's a good player, and if he and (transfer) Jordan Walker had played, (Mike Dunleavy) might still be the coach here, so I'm kind of glad they didn't play. We've got too really good guards, and when you've got guards that can play, you've got a chance, so that's my first excitement about it."

So you expect Ona Embo to be back?

'Oh, no question. Ray will be starting practice. June 3rd is when we'll start our workouts, and I haven't had one workout yet because you have to change the mental before you change the physical and I wanted to see who's going to be here. Also, when you lose a lot, sometimes what happens is when things get tough, you quit. I want to weed out what I call the cancer, guys that mentally aren't tough enough to do what we've got to go through. We're about 75 percent there. My goal when I got here was out of the 15 guys that will be on our roster, if over half of them did not play in a game last year, I'd be happy. That means most of the guys didn't go through the losing, and that's about where we're at."

Is Kevin Zhang staying for sure?

"Oh yeah. He left yesterday and he's playing on the (Chinese) national team. The only bad part about it is I won't have him this summer, but he'll be back. That's the only negative I've had since I've been on the job because I really love his game. He would be perfect in our system, but he won't be here for the summer. He'll get better by playing who he's going to play against, but he'll miss out this summer, so we're going to have to give him a crash course when he gets back."

Any word on Caleb Daniels' decision?

"No. Caleb is going through what he needs to go through on that part, but one of the things that is important for me is you really want to be at Tulane. This is a great place. If you're just half in, you might want to go somewhere else. I want guys who want to be here. He's going through some workouts and some of those things and he's visiting some schools. I wish him the best in what happens, but we want guys who want to be here. He's a great kid. We really, really like him and think he can really help us in that regard, but he can only help us if he wants to be here. Caleb and I have talked. I wish him the best whatever happens to him. If he wants to come back here, then I would love to have him, but if he wants to move on, it won't change what we'll be next year and the next few years."

Samir Sehic tweeted he was leaving a while back but I've seen him working out at the Hertz practice facility. What is his status?

"He would like to (go pro), but he'll be back here. He'll be back here. He's down in the weight room working out. Samir will be back and will be a huge part of what we're trying to get done. There have been some guys that have been honestly pleasant surprises for me and some kids that it's probably a good thing they're not coming back."

Is Shakwon Barrett leaving?

"No, Shak will be back. He's doing a good job of improving. Really the only two guys right now that aren't part of the roster are Moses Wood and Conner Crabtree. Those are the only two for sure. We'll see what happens with (Daniels). The most surprising player that I've had is (Buay) Koka. He's been a pleasant surprise, especially in our matchup. I've got a rim protector. I've never had a rim protector. I go home every day smiling because I've always had a 6-3 guy playing center for me. I've got a 7-foot guy with the wing span of a guy 7-6, so I think he's going to be terrific for us. We are going to spend a lot of time with him this summer."

What is the status of the two guys who signed with Dunleavy--Nobal Days and Henri Langton?

"Nobal is going to be a good player. He's a 6-9 kid, can shoot the ball and is really skilled. He has a great family, so I'm excited about him."

And Langton?

"No, we've moved on. A lot of it is just sometimes fit and our style of play. And one of the things I want to do is get guys who've won before. That's important. Did you win a state championship? It's important to get those kind of guys."

Has Charlie Russell signed?

"Yes. Charlie has signed. And as I said, it was important for me and for us to get the best available player in the city and the state. I thought that was really important. I wanted to make a statement. If I can every year, the way our scholarships are, I would want to sign at least one Louisiana kid every year."

He put up good stats for a really good team. Why was he recruited lightly?

"That's what I was trying to figure out. I watched his play the first time (in an AAU tournament) and walked back and said, OK, there's something wrong. I went back the second time and he was better than the first time. I went back the third time and he was even better than that, so I was like, OK. For our system, pressing and the things we do, he's going to be perfect. People will look back two years from now and be like, how did you get this guy? But I've had a whole lot of those guys from George Hill ( a former IUPUI star who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks) to a lot of guys, and he fits right in there. If he gets stronger, he'll have a chance to play right away."

What do you like about R.J. McGee?

"I love him. I recruited him at Georgia State. You talk about a classic Ron Hunter guard--6-5, shoot it, athletic, a tough kid from the South Side of Chicago. Love this kid absolutely. We had a kid on our team, Malik Benlevi, that played on our team (at Georgia State, where he averaged 11.9 points and 5.8 rebounds as a senior) the last four years. That's R.J. McGee. We fell in love with him, and he was going to commit to Georgia State."

Where did he play last year?

"He went to a prep school in Florida (Pensacola). He's been on our radar for a while, and we knew a lot of Atlantic 10 schools started to come in, but we were able to get him to (sign). We're flipping the roster to get in the type of kids we want--more athletic and all of them can shoot and play three or four different positions."

Will Teshaun Hightower be ineligible this year?

"We'll see. We've got about three guys who will transfer and everybody who can get immediately eligible, we're going to try based on situations and those type of things. He's a great foundation because of athleticism and what he can do. He'll be a really good player in this league. I can't talk about the (potential) transfers, but if we get them, they'll be a lot of dancing between me and Bourbon Street."

I see some of our fans are concerned that we are a “bubble team” and need to improve to ensure making the NCAA tournament as an “at large” school. I’m not sure why anyone thinks we are currently a “bubble team,” but we certainly do need to improve markedly to make the tourney.

Thirty-one schools receive automatic bids as conference champions, though historically 15-20 of those would not have received an automatic bid had they not won their conference. That means, the remaining conference champions and “at large” bids make up what “should be” roughly the best 45 or so teams in the country, by whatever criteria the committee chooses. Several factors seem to be considered for a team to get an “at large” invitation (in no particular order):

1. Overall record. At 26-14, we actually have the 50th best won/lost record in the country, not quite in the top 45, but close.

2. Strength of Schedule, whether perceived or calculated. Our calculated SOS is currently #131—not close to “good” but likely to improve into the 80 or so range by season’s end. We play in what is generally considered the 5th best baseball conference so the perception of our opposition may be a little better than the calculated SOS.

3. RPI. Although some dislike this statistic, it appears to be the one with the highest reliability when the committee chooses “at large” candidates. We’re currently at #89 and according to Boyd’s World would need to win 13 of our remaining 15 games to reach an RPI of #45—Tough putt!!!

4. Performance against top 50 teams. We’re currently 1-5, which from a winning percentage puts us in 142nd place, though we probably have nine remaining games against top 50 schools. A 7-2 record against them would result in an 8-7 overall record against Q1 schools and, if we won our other six, would also give us an RPI in the top 45.

6. Ranking in the polls. We’re unranked receiving no votes and considering the school s that have received at least one vote, puts us somewhere beyond the 60-70 range depending on the specific poll. A good final run could change all of that.

7. Speaking of “good final runs,” how a team finishes is also important. All of that is in front of us of course.

8. Politics. Who is on the selection committee, what conference is involved, personal bias, and a hundred other factors could play here and no one will ever know for sure how it affects the final selection.

So, as I see it to this point, we’re not even in the consideration for an “on the bubble” position let alone an at large bid. Our final 15 games and conference championships could change that. To me, I think we need to win 11 games in the regular season with at least 6 of those coming against “top 50” teams to get back into contention. That would give us a 36-19 record overall (not great), a probable second place finish in the AAC (good), and a 7-8 record against “top 50” teams (good). Our RPI would probably be in the 55-60 range (not good), and a solid finish to the season. We wouldn’t be “guaranteed” by any stretch of the imagination but we’d have a “chance” depending on how many conference champions without “at large” credentials “steal” a spot in the field.

ECU on the road this weekend may be our toughest test of the year. Getting swept would likely end our “at large” hopes and while going 1-2 might move our RPI up a little it would put even more pressure on the remainder of the schedule. Their Friday and Saturday starters are “lights out” left-handed pitchers (2.85 and 2.05 ERA respectively) and their Sunday starter, a righty (5.07 ERA), is 5-0 on the year and was their ace (1.70 ERA) last season, so he can also pitch. Along with that, they are the second best hitting team (after us) in the conference and own a 19-3 home record and 11-1 conference record. Still, taking two at ECU is nearly a must. Here's hoping.

Roll Wave!!!

I talked to Jewett on the phone yesterday. Here's what he had to say as Tulane prepared for its trip to Houston. The Wave left at 9 a.m. today.

Jewett joked that he was reading a book about coaching to learn how to do it again after missing the last two games due to suspension for re-entering the field of play--a definite NCAA no-no--after the umpires huddled and ruled Kody Hoese's home run a double on Friday night. Here's what he had to say:

Tulane is in a slump at the plate, having scored three or fewer runs in six of its last nine games after being in the top five nationally for scoring. Is it a big concern or something that always will occur at some point in a season?

"I think (it's something that happens), I do. Watching the game even last night certainly not a lot of runs and all that, there were still some good swings. I'm not trying to over-panic. The kids have put in data where it's OK, we've done this (hit well) for a length of time to still make believe this isn't a fluke, where we haven't done this data (the struggles recently) very much, which makes me think that it is a little bit of a quote/unquote fluke. No disrespect to the opponent, but it's a cyclical thing. Round ball, round bat, sometimes it doesn't go, and right now it's going a little bit slow.

Nicholls State's two biggest hits last night were a bouncer in front of third base that was nearly impossible to make a play on and a blooper to right field that was impossible to run down. How frustrating is that?

"Sometimes the ball just finds pockets of the field that are indefensible so to speak, and then other times your best bolt gets caught. It's all part of it, though, and the thing is, last night watching it from the TV, we've got to take the bloop and slash it and say, so what, big deal. It doesn't have to turn into a bloop and two beans. Those are just things we've got to try to contain. We're just not swinging the bats great right now. It seems like the last couple of days, too, and it's been a crutch of ours, we just have a lot of tendency to score and let score. We did it again last night. We go ahead 2-1 and then it's 2-2. We got ahead 3-2 and then all of a sudden they get it right back. We need a little bit of space there.

"The positive out of this whole thing, although the results haven't been there obviously, is we've found us a little stretch here with some pitching."

You had one walk last night.

"Imagine that. So that way, even when it's not going so good, at least we can stay in range."

Houston needs to keep winning to assure itself an at-large bid and you're playing them on the road. The Cougars are a good pitching team. What are the biggest challenges?

"Certainly they are pitching the ball well. They got a good, full rest this week because they just played two games against UNLV and got rained out today, so they'll be rip-roaring in that way. That will be a challenge and because they are a good pitching staff that will be a challenge. We're just going to have to bull-ride it. They are good, and if we want to be good, we have to get on the ride and not get bucked off. I think we have the ability to do that. Now Trevor (Jensen) has to get back in there (he missed his first game of the year because he is banged up). That was a big minus last night. It was weird writing the lineup up not using his name in there. He was pretty dinged up, but he's feeling better, so we anticipate him being ready to rock and roll on Friday night.

"We're pitching a little better and we're handling it pretty good, too. We're playing pretty good defense and our walks are decreasing. Those are going to be important. With the competition we're facing, we're going to have to win some games on pitching and timely hitting."

Justin Campbell's errant pickoff throw last night was your first error since last Tuesday, and your infielders are making every play they can make. You are first in the league in fielding percentage. How good do you feel about the defense?

"Good, and particularly the inside-the-diamond defense, from Hoese, to Sal to 'Tigues to Jensen. It's a pretty zipper-tight group. and I think our outfielders will catch the ball when it's hit to them. They probably could cover a little bit more ground. You hate to keep bringing up Ty Johnson, but you'd like to see him running around out there because he's a ball sniffer. We'll get better that way. The (Ethan) Graff kid we have in the program is going to be a talented outfielder."

Any concern about Hudson Haskin's hand? Daniel Latham said he was fine Tuesday, but he not only went 0 for 5, he had no good swings.

"When you saw him swing last night you would think that his hand was hurting because we're just so accustomed to something so different. Probably just chalk it up to a bad night. We watched some tape and he was kind of raising up to the ball all night. He wasn't really using his hands to hit it up. He was climbing up to it and pulling off. We took some time today on it. He'll be fine."

What is preventing Josh Bates from getting into the mix?

Just probably internal confidence. Just the ability to do what he does over and over again in a quality setting. I think he's getting close. He's going to be with us this weekend. You kind of made mention we're at least thinking we can get something out of some of these guys, he's getting maybe close back to getting an opportunity to show he can be one of those guys as well."

Despite his 2.16 ERA, hIs walks and hit batsmen per innings pitched this year is 19 to 16.2. Is that the dilemma?

"Yeah. It's unacceptable, and that's a little bit of it, and even some of the successes, there's a lot of free traffic and then a pitch to get them out. But he's putting his head down. I get it, why wouldn't you pitch the guy with the lowest ERA, but he's working hard with coach Latham and hopefully before this thing is all over we can get a chance to see him again."

Is Pellerin on the weekend roster?

"He is."

Guerry- Have you got any insights on what this purchase will mean for sports coverage? I hope you are safe and your ability to also run this site is not affected. You're a godsend for those of us who try to follow the Wave. Best of luck however it turns out.

Roll Wave!!

Guerry,

In you Advocate article you did not mention Nobal Days. Have you heard he is not coming to Tulane?

I posted it on the front page instead of just putting it here.

https://tulane.rivals.com/news/charlie-russell-the-biggest-steal-of-2019-class-

I talked to Daniel Latham, Hudson Haskin and Jewett yesterday

LATHAM

What can your put your finger on for the staff-wide issues with the exception of a couple of guys?

"Yeah, we've had some guys chase some bad outings the last couple of weeks. Some of it's been a little uncharacteristic. Some of that's going to flip over a little bit. Kaleb Roper really struggled at Memphis. Last week his stuff was OK, he pitched OK and he got hit, which happens, which I can live with. That's a really good club. They are really good against right-handed pitching. He made some good pitches that got hit, so I would expect him to bounce back this week. That's not going to be a rest-of-the-season thing with him. The rest of it, obviously what (Justin) Campbell's doing, what (Brendan) Cellucci's doing, that's been great. We need some other guys to step up around them. We've had some guys their last couple outings kind of make some strides that way. Ryan Green's last couple outings have been pretty strong (4.1 innings, 3 hits, two runs, seven strikeouts). I've been pleased with him. Robbie Price's last couple outings, he's making some movements forward that are going to help us down the stretch, but we have some guys just kind of in their own way right now quite honestly. They are putting in good work during the week and not allowing themselves to have success on the mound right now. They are kind of hindering their own performance, so we need some guys to snap out of it a little bit."

How do you fix that?

"For me, I told these guys I'm just going to stay relentless on that end. I'm going to coach them hard. I'm too competitive to have some letdown on that end, so I'm going to continue to coach them hard. I'm going to continue to hold them to a high standard. The expectations are not going to change on my end. They're just not going to. These guys know it's not going to change on what I expect or what coach Jewett expects or what their teammates expect of them, so that's the only way to go about it is to keep demanding certain things out of these guys. At some point they've got to look at the mirror and come to the park and do it."

There was a pitchers' meeting in the bullpen area after the UNO loss. What happened in it?

"I actually was not part of that meeting. Kaleb called that meeting last night on his own. They met for a long time. I don't know exactly what they met about. I have a pretty good idea what they met about knowing Kaleb like I know him because that kid's a warrior and cares a lot, but I had nothing to do with that. That was on their own."

Will there be changes in the rotation this weekend?

"Yeah. Me and Jewett always joke about the definition of insanity--doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. At times we all kind of fall into those traps of redundancy on that. We've spent the last week or so evaluating what needs to be what, trying to push the right buttons because we're not going to get accused of going down without trying everything we can. We keep telling these guys going into the last three weekends, with two of them being at home, we're in second place. It's been a few years since we've been in that position, so we've got some good things we can accomplish down the stretch, so we're going to push every possible button we can to try to win every series that we can down the stretch. What that's going to mean this weekend, Kaleb's going to start on Friday. That's what I've got right now. I've got a little idea behind that but I'm not fully committed in my heart for anything else.

Can Cellucci start maybe on Sunday, or will it be determined by the situation?

"No doubt. If it's a situation where we're going to win Friday because we pitch Chooch then he's going in the game. The way our offense guys, we might score 20 the next one. The Memphis weekend was such a weird weekend as far as playing the two seven-inning games (after rain forced a Saturday doubleheader, which the conference mandates the opener be seven innings. The second game turned into seven innings because of the 15-run run). We only played two that weekend and we lose one and Campbell and Cellucci didn't really pitch. At the end of it you kind of look at yourself like that can't happen but we weren't really involved in the first game until so late that it was too late to get them in the game and get it going. Had it been a nine-inning game, you probably would have seen one of them. That's what you saw us do against East Carolina. As soon as we saw things go a little bit south, we inserted those guys into the game. We put Justin in the game in the second inning on Saturday. That's uncharted territories for him, and he was a warrior about it. We put Chooch in in the fourth and he had a great one. You might see some of that if we have to (against UCF)."

What is Keagan Gillies not doing this year, with his ERA doubling from last season?

"That's the question I've had. Obviously he pitched pretty well last year in spurts and it's been a struggle for at times this year. I haven't quite been able to put my finger on it. He's made some really good adjustments on the mound. He was in the same boat as Kaleb last week. He actually did make some really good pitches. He just got hit. That's a good offense. They handle right-handed pitching really, really well, which you saw once we inserted Campbell and Cellucci what happened. Their only losses are to left-handers with their offense, especially at their place in a seven-lefty lineup. He made some good pitches and got hit. That's baseball, and that's what I try to remind him. He's got to stay the course. We'll see how he's feeling today (Wednesday). We just have to keep pressing forward because he had some really strong starts this fall and some really strong starts in the preseason and he's had a handful of strong starts in the spring that I can go back to. We'd like to get a couple of more of those down the stretch, but whatever role it is that we need to use him in to win is what we're going to do. I tell these guys all the time that they're not the Friday guy, the Saturday guy, they're pitchers and whether that means they're coming in in the first, the ninth, the 10th, the third, it doesn't matter, let's get the guy out. We might get away a little bit from defined roles and a little more into be a pitcher and get the guys out."

Is it fair to assume that either Solesky or Gillies will start Saturday?

"Yeah. It's a possibility. I haven't really committed to anything yet. I'm prepping both of those guys to be ready for it. I'm also prepping a lot of other guys to be ready for Friday and Saturday, so they are just amongst the crew that's going to be prepped for what we need. Like I said, we're going to do whatever we can to win Friday. Then once we win that game, we'll figure out what we have to win Saturday. If we get into a situation where we look up and Brendan hasn't pitched or threw one inning on Friday and he's available on Sunday, that's where you would see him inserted into a different role. We'll figure that out when we get there."

When Chase and Keagan are pitching well, what are they doing that they are not doing now?

"For Chase it's count leverage, it's strike ones. That's always his thing. When he's ahead in counts, he's really, really tough to hits. You see (UC) Riverside and Ole Miss and some of those outings, South Florida, when he's ahead in the count, he's really tough to hit. When he's behind in the count, it's pretty vanilla. Here comes your fastball, get on time, and good teams do. He knows count leverage is big for him. Keagan is always going to be around the zone with everything. It's just the quality of the strikes. His misses have to be really strong misses, down in the zone, on the edges a little bit. When he starts missing over the plate, he gets himself in trouble. He's got a little margin for error early in the games, but as the games go on he loses his margin for error a little bit. Quite honestly, if you really evaluate Keagan's seasons, he's been pretty good the first three or four inning, minus a couple of outings, and somewhere in the middle he's kind of gone awry a little bit. Hopefully we can get that cleaned up. We'll figure that out as we go a little bit on him, but I'm hoping those guys can reinsert themselves down the stretch."

1) Tulane's pitching, almost inconceivably, is now worse than it was the last two years.

We have been talking all year about what a shame it would be if Tulane's incredible hitting was wasted with no NCAA regional appearance, but it has gotten past that stage because the pitching has become historically bad. UNO, a light-hitting team that has scored 10 or more runs three times in the last 30 games, accomplished two of those three against Tulane's sorry pitching. Depth always was going to be an issue on the mound, but Tulane's weekend starters, which were supposed to be a strength, have been bad.

Defining quality starts as going at least five innings while allowing three or fewer runs (I'm altering the real formula of six innings and three runs because this is college, not the Major Leagues), Kaleb Roper has five quality starts in 11 outings, Chase Solesky four in 10 and Keagan Gillies two in 11. That won't get the job done.

Tulane's ERA has ballooned to 5.82, which is on pace for the second worst in school history behind the astronomical 6.72 in 1990 when the Wave went 19-35. Not coincidentally, that also was the last time the Wave went 0-3 against UNO in a season.

Gillies' ERA has risen from 3.36 in 2018 to 7.77 in 2019. He overachieved last year, but that rise is insane.

Roper's ERA has risen from 4.48 in 2018 to 4.99, all a result of his disastrous last two starts. That's not good enough for a guy Tulane hoped would win 10 games.

Connor Pellerin's ERA has gone from 4.30 to 8.54, and he no longer looks good at any point of his appearances. He uses to overwhelm batters before making crucial mistakes. He no longer is missing bats, but he continues to miss the plate.

Jewett admitted last night he had no idea how Tulane would get enough pitching down the stretch to turn this around. The only hope is for at least two of the weekend starters to magically find their form, allowing the Wave to go deep into games before using its bullpen and possibly allowing Brendan Cellucci to start. He was sharp in a career-long 5.1 innings against ECU on Sunday and had allowed only two runs in his previous 11 relief appearances, but without him, what would Tulane do in the bullpen after Justin Campbell? They have no idea whether anyone else they use will get an out, much less pitch an inning.

2) We're still waiting on the Caleb Daniels decision.

Ron Hunter has signed two players, one of whom probably will have to sit out the season as a transfer from Georgia, but one of his most important tasks is convincing Daniels to say. I've read all the posts elsewhere about how no one from a winless conference team is important and losing everyone would be addition by subtraction, but that is impossibly short-sighted. We're talking about a guy who scored 30-plus points in one half in the last regular season game. Daniels is a difference maker, and when I talked to his high school coach, he was emphatic that Daniels still might return. He is testing the waters in the NBA draft and also looking at other schools, but he continues to practice at Hertz, unlike Connor Crabtree, who is as good as gone. I like Crabtree's potential, but losing him is not that big a deal. Daniels is the guy who matters. Having watched Hunter's teams at the Sun Belt Conference tournament in the past, I think Daniels is an excellent fit for Hunter's system.

I have a tentative interview set up with Hunter for next Wednesday. Assuming I don't lose the file before I transcribe the tape, I will post every word here.

3) Should Tulane be the favorite in the AAC West in football?

I'm still waffling on whether I will pick Tulane to win the AAC West if I get a vote at AAC Media Days (The Advocate will not send me to the Rhode Island shindig in July, but I have been given a vote some years and not in others). It's down to Tulane or Houston in my book because Memphis lost a ton of talent on offense. Houston is the most talented team in the AAC, and Dana Holgorsen is a clear upgrade on Major Applewhile as coach although his West Virginia teams often struggled defensively.

Tulane gets Houston at home this year, and the Wave's success will hinge on improving an offense that simply has not produced consistently in Willie Fritz's first three years and laid an egg against a reeling Houston defense last season. I'm convinced that game more than any other prompted Fritz to replace Doug Ruse. Houston could not stop its shadow in the second half of the season, but it stopped Tulane. If Will Hall's offense clicks right away, I really like Tulane's chances, but there's no guarantee it will.

Whether I get a vote or not, I know Tulane will be picked third in the West behind both Houston and Memphis, likely in that order. Even though those three teams tied for the title last year, no one outside of New Orleans sees Tulane as a legitimate contender because of the Wave's long history of not being a contender. In fact, the people picking Tulane will think the Wave would be happy to finish third and go 6-6 again in the regular season. They have no idea how high this team's inner expectations are.