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

Nice win in frigid conditions in Hammond Wednesday, with Tulane rallying from a 3-0 deficit to win 5-3 while its bullpen held Southeastern scoreless after Will Clements departed in the first inning. Not much can be gleaned from a game in weather like that, but it would have been easy to go through the motions with that early deficit, and Tulane fought back. from its first deficit of the year and is now No. 1 in the nation in RPI, which is cool but means absolutely nothing at this point.

Loyola Marymount swept Seattle 10-3, 17-11 and 12-6 over the weekend, lost to Cal Poly 9-1 on Monday and beat future Tulane opponent Long Beach State 7-4 on Tuesday, all at home. The Lions were were picked sixth out of nine teams in the preseason West Coast Conference coaches poll and last made the postseason in 2019, when thy won the WCC tourney and advanced to the championship game of a regional at UCLA. They have gone 20-29, 20-34-1, 29-24 and 24-30 in the past four years. The only time they ever made the CWS was 1986, when they beat LSU in their opening game in the Tigers' first CWS appearance.

Since I wrote a little about myself in the basketball post, I might as well do it about baseball, too. The only time I played baseball was when I 6 or 7 in the Carrolton Boosters League and before T-ball existed or coach pitch existed. Kids pitched, and the results were comical at times. I was the youngest player on my team and started off well, but after getting hit a couple of times, I became scared of the ball and did next to nothing at the plate for the rest of the year for the Cincinnati Reds (we took names of MLB teams). Then I broke a finger when a girl across the street accidentally dropped a stone on it while we were playing and missed the last third of the season. I played softball recreationally in high school and after college, but I never stepped on a baseball field to play again.

That said, I attended probably 200 Tulane baseball games from 1980 to 1986 before I went off to college. Since my father had a staff card (he was the Episcopal minister for the Tulane campus), I got in free to every game back then and would bike to the ballpark right after I got home from school on weekdays to catch the second game of the doubleheaders (which started at 1 p.m.) or the end of the single games (which started at 2). As a total sports junkie, I went to almost all of the weekend games, too and attended every game at the 1982 regional at UNO (watching Augie Schmidt and Brian DeValk hit solo homers in the top of the ninth to break a tie in the opener and watching a balk send in UNO with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth of the elimination game after the Wave tied it with a double to the right field wall in the top of the ninth, but the would-be go-ahead run was thrown out at the plate by a perfect throw and relay) and almost every game at the 1986 regional in Baton Rouge, including the Monday finish of the game suspended near the end by rain. I went to a lot of games at Florida my freshman year since the field was a two blocks walk from my dorm, but since no one wanted to go with me, I lost interest and never enjoyed them as much as the Tulane games even though Florida made the CWS for the first time ever my sophomore year. I covered the Florida baseball team for the student newspaper in 1990 and for my job the next four years before it became too much and I stuck to football and basketball for the last 13 years I was there.

Anyway, I feel like I am more familiar with and understand college baseball as much as almost anyone alive because of all that time spend at the ballpark, although my knowledge is lacking in some areas. I would be afraid to do a radio broadcast because I struggle to tell the difference between off speed pitches or recognize different types of fastballs. I've never pitched in my life.

I talked to Jay Uhlman, Anthony Izzio and Michael Lombardi yesterday.

UHLMAN

On comeback:

"I would be lying if I said I didn't have flashbacks from last year when we were down 5-0 in the first and almost came back and won, but Clem did such a nice job the weekend before, and for our guys to pick him up like he picked them up was really huge. Our bullpen had different degrees of cleanliness, but guys that maybe were teetering finished the job and then we had some really spectacular outings in there."

On Lombardi's five Ks in six batters faced while earning the save:

"He did that last year, so he kind of likes the mound there. It was coming out good and he had it all working. Benbrook was spectacular, and Montiel got balled on some pitches that were strikes and changed counts, and the old him probably would have gone south, but he did not implode and just jammed it in there and did a really nice job, so I'm really proud of those guys. Getting (Garrett) Payne out there and (Wes) Burton out there and getting Gavin Smith back out there, they were tremendous, and there was never a sense of panic. We just kind of did what we do."

On how cold it felt:

'I spent 13 years in Reno and I would tell you that's the only place on Earth I've felt like that. It was really cold."

On Lombardi's development as a pitcher rather than just a thrower:

"He would tell you that he hasn't really gotten to the point where it's just wherever he wants to throw it. Last night was like that. That's the vision you see of him. If he can do that every time, he's a Big Leaguer. He's working his way into that. When your jobs are split by two different times of the game, it's really difficult. That's the reason not a lot of people outside of Shohei Otani do it, but when we think of Mike on the good side of that, that's what we see. He's probably not thrown as many strikes as he'd want to in his career."

On his smarts helping him carry the double load (he was member of National Honor Society in high school):

"He's a special kid. Not only is he really good at school, but he's a really heady baseball player, very cerebral, thinks the game like a coach. We are grateful to have him in the program."

On bunting him to score run with 3-0 deficit:

"You had the potential for him to hit into a double play, and we needed something to break the ice, and he was able to execute that and scored one and moved one up. That was a big part of it."

On his scouting report for Loyola Marymount:

"They are going to be well coached, West Coast-style. They'll be a little different that way. They've got some runners. They'll bang it pretty good and their starting pitching is really good. They are 4-1 for a reason. It will be a fun weekend of competitive, good baseball."

Life intruded again, delaying my having time to transcribe what I promised I would do from last Tuesday, but here it is in entirety.

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

On if it would not be ready for the start of preseason camp (Harris):

"We would love to be able to get it done as close to the start of camp as possible with it being completed hopefully in August and camp starting in August. We are not sure how the exact dates will match up, but we certainly want to get it up and running as used by our sports teams and our football program as soon as possible."

On if they have the necessary permits and funding (answered by Norton and someone else):

"We have submitted the permits for approval by the city. They are in the approval process, so we're confident we'll get those back soon. Funding is enhances, so the funds are committed. We're ready to roll. We have the programing, the design and construction folks lined up. Permitting is the final (piece). We're ready to go."

Is this what Tulane envisions to be the permanent solution (Harris):

"At this point we see this as an opportunity to deal with our needs immediately, but we will continue to look at other options for permanency."

On approximate length of width and length of playing surface:

"So the width is supposed to be similar to be similar to a normal football field, but the length will be somewhere between 65 and 70 yards is what we believe we will be able to fit in that space. Given where we are building it, we have to conform it to the space, and it doesn't allow for a full-length field, but it allows us enough field that we know that our teams can have it as a useful facility, and it makes a lot of sense for us."

On if it is comparable to what other schools have, citing Missouri as specific example:

"It is. We've been many places and there are lots of programs that have these facilities and many of them are of a similar size and similar length"

On being told that people will be able to park in Diboll, but Diboll often already filled up by students and the worry that more students will park in front of neighborhood houses and what is the net loss of parking spots (Brian Johnson of campus operations)

"In the Claiborne lot there are approximately 300 spaces. One thing to know is we have two lots that are coming back on line in the fall--McAlister Avenue right in front of the new village residence halls about 25 spaces. Engineering Row 90 spaces. We continue to look at our policies around who can park on campus and potentially adjusting which students can park on campus. We will be pulling juniors who live off campus on to campus and adjusting hopefully some of that pressure that you might feel as a neighbor by them moving on campus, and that's modifying our policies in how we handle on-campus parking. We have some assets downtown that we can put into play as well, so we're hopeful that we can ease your burden."

On if that means they will be losing approximately 190 parking spaces and again about Diboll being full during the week:

"It will take on average, a recent parking study we had between 120 and 175 open spaces per day. Another key element is a lot of our faculty come to school when they have to teach a course. A lot of remote work continues with a lot of our staff, so we have an average of around 150 spots. We do see some increase in that pressure now because of the construction activity on campus wrapping up a few projects. We have a lot of construction parking utilizing the Diboll Garage. We anticipate as that wraps up this summer--two major projects, Richardson and then also the Village Part II as the residence halls come online in the fall, that will help ease some of our pressure in the fall."

On who parks on the Claiborne lot now:

"Predominantly Claiborne now we have 60 fleet vehicles, and it is not a premier spot for any of our students and faculty and staff. To put that more clearly, our university parking committee considers Claiborne out of bounds for faculty to park there, so they will not park there because it's outside of the 10-minute walk zone to get to some of the key academic areas on campus. Now we have some athletes who practice early in the morning who park there, some of the coaches park their cars there and then a lot of fleet vehicles, some TV pieces of equipment, facilities pieces of equipment, but it is not considered by us an active spot for our students to park there because they don't like to walk that far."

On where the fleet vehicles will go:

"We are going to relocate the fleet vehicles through this process. We've been working to identify where we can put the 60 fleet vehicles that are currently in Claiborne so we can determine how many spaces we can have for general parking in Claiborne once we get going. But we have two spots identified, and we're working through that now. We've got a lot of moving pieces with that project."

On what percentage of the campus will be dedicated to football and baseball facilities:

(This was a weird question that provoked some debate about the definition of what constituted space, but they settled on 20 percent).

On what kind of variances they need to handle parking and the setback requirements for the facility:

"In terms of the permitting process we haven't had to apply for any variances at this point."

On if adding a building of that size does not require a variance for the reduction of parking:

"We're not building a football stadium with a parking lot. We're building a practice facility that largely the parking is going to be accounted for in other buildings. I don't think we need to address any parking for this project."

On if comprehensive parking plan was included in project:

"It's not required."

On if trucks involved in construction project will travel down residential streets and whether or not there will be landscaping to make it less visible:

"Yes, we would do that in the project."

On if project would mess up the easement next to the houses on one side of the Claiborne lot:

"We wouldn't be encroaching upon the easements with this facility.

On the plan for cleaning the facility after it is up because white building get dirty:

(my recorder did not catch exactly what was said in the answer, but the gist was it would not be a problem)

On the timeline for when to take the sides and covering down in event of hurricane:

(the answer was 72 hours)

On where workers will park for this project and if the facility will be available for club sports in the area:

"There will be spots available in the Claiborne lot. It's a pretty modest construction project, so the first pass is the Claiborne lot itself for parking."

HARRIS answered the second part: "We plan to have the facility available for our student-athletes and at request from Tulane students. We are not planning to open this facility up for public usage. The idea is it is for our 17 sports in the athletic program and then when we have space available for the students. I'd say save for special events like the Super Bowl, on a daily basis this will not be used as a public facility."

On how the process will work for taking it down:

"The practice facility itself is pressurized. It's dis-inflatable."

On economic impact Tulane has on community:

"It's tremendous. The impact on our city and our state is huge. We have 7,000 employees and have grown our employee base by 1,200 employees over the past decade on our campuses. Between jobs and financial impact both direct and indirect, we're the largest private employer in Orleans."

On if Tulane owns the land:

"We own it."

I believe tonight is the game that will determine whether Tulane gets a double bye in the AAC tournament. The Wave has the tiebreaker on FAU and an easier schedule down the stretch, but it easily could have gone 1-3 in its last four games while actually going 3-1 and is facing a surging ECU that has won six of its last eight and has two players who are scorchingly hot. Sixth-year forward C.J. Walker, who transferred after four seasons at UCF, had an OK game the other night but in the four games before that, he went 41 of 66 from the floor and averaged 28.3 points. Guard R.J. Felton, the rare player who has been at the same AAC school for four years, went 7 of 9 on 3-pointers against Charlotte on Sunday and is 16 of 27 from long range over the past three games after going a 47 of 148 (31.8) up until then.

I'd like to say Tulane will have to play better than it has in its previous four games to win, but one of ECU's two losses in its hot stretch was by 13 at home to Rice, so it is capable of a clunker. I also felt Tulane played pretty well against Rice despite almost losing, unlike the lucky victory against UTSA when the Wave played like crap for 38 minutes. The Owls, despite not passing the eye test, were tied with North Texas with a minute left in the game before facing Tulane and have been outscored 11-0 in the final minute of the past two games or they might have won both. But if ECU's two best players stay hot, it will be a tough assignment. Tulane will need to be sharper defensively than it was against Rice, although it still blocked a season-high-tying 10 shots and is so much better athletically on the interior than it was in past years under Ron Hunter.

After covering the point spread in six of its first seven games, Tulane has failed to cover in the the past five and is favored by 2.5 points tonight. Rowan Brumbaugh is playing at a ridiculously high level, and Asher Woods has enjoyed by far the best three-game stretch of his two-year Tulane stint. Gregg Glenn has a nice bounce-back game Saturday after a few rough ones, but the Wave has gotten nothing offensively out of Kaleb Banks in the past four games (save for one huge 3 in the final minute against UTSA), when he has gone for 4, 6, 2 and 2 point. He no longer is even looking for his shot. Maybe tonight he will get going again because he still is rebounding pretty well and playing mostly good defense.

After ECU comes a road game at Wichita State, which has won four in a row including Sunday's victory over Memphis, a home game against Charlotte (the only virtual lock win left), a trip to Tulsa (which is bad but gave Tulane problems at Devlin), a trip to ECU (Hunter is 0-5 there) and a home game with UAB. As you well know, I really like the way Tulane has played in conference and believe this team is legitimately good now, but its only win all year against a top 180 team in the NET was against FAU in January. Its next best wins in the NET were the sweep of No. 185 Rice, and four of the final six games are against opponents with better NET ratings than Rice. Tulane has won with defense (third in field goal percentage D, 2nd in 3-point field goal percentage D in league games) while its offense has slid (with a better showing against Rice). It must maintain that defensive intensity to finish strong. Tulane can win all six remaining games and it could go 2-4. It's up to them.

I talked to Ron Hunter and Asher Woods yesterday, along with a TV reporter:

HUNTER

On where he sees the team right now:

"We've got six regular season games to go and every possession means something, In our league records don't mean anything. Wichita beating Memphis gives us an outside shot of still winning this league, so as I told them, when you're in a race running track, you never want to look back, so we just want to keep looking ahead and worry about the game ahead of us. We've got a good East Carolina team coming in here and we've got to find a way to win that game. That's the only thing that matters right now."

On ECU being hot:

"They are an experienced basketball team. Their two best players have been around this league and are older. They are one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country (27th), and so we have to do a job on the glass, and we have to limit them in transition. If we can do that, we feel pretty good about it, but we know we've got our work cut out for us. They're playing good basketball right now."

On taking Asher Woods' game-winning shot against Rice and running with it:

"Well we want to enjoy it, but at the end of the day that's over. Now what's got to happen with these last six games is our leadership has to be great. This is a confident team right now. We're still one of the youngest teams in the country, but we've got is a lot of confidence right now. These kids believe that they can win any game, so as long as you have that and you can bring that to the table, especially like we've been playing defense, we have a chance to win each game every night."

On 24-hour rule:

"Yeah, it was a great shot and we had a lot of great things to happen to make sure it happened, and we were on the other side of it earlier this year it didn't happen for us, so we understand you just have to get ready. East Carolina can care less about that, so we just have to get ready to play East Carolina."

On what R.J. Hunter brings to staff:

"He knows a little bit about last-second shots, but again, what he does is he's been a guy that's been in One Shining Moment, March Madness, the Cinderella story, the whole thing, but he's also been a first-round draft pick. All of our guys would love to have what he's done before, so he brings that to them, he brings the work ethic, and it's great whenever you can work with your son and see his happiness. I just gotta teach him the cool moments of when a coach sees a buzzer-beater, there's a cool way of doing it. I tried to explain that to him, but he looked at me and said yeah, yours was real cool, falling off a stool (when R.J. hit a 30-footer to beat Baylor from a 1-point deficit with 2.6 seconds left against Baylor in the 2015 NCAA tourney). So it's do as dad says, not as he does."

On how conversation went when R.J. decided to join the staff:

"It was interesting. He brought it to my attention. He said I want to try this out, it's family business. I said, listen, it's a hard business to do it, but let's see how we can do it, but let's see how we can do it, an boy he's been great at it, he really has. The players have just adapted to him, and it's really helped us. He spends an enormous amount of time with them on their shooting, so of course he's going to take credit when they're shooting well but not when they're shooting bad."

On Rowan Brumbaugh:

"Probably the biggest thing is his defense is what's really surprised me, but I still think he's probably the most underrated guard in the country. The numbers he's putting up right now are absolutely incredibly, playing about 38, 39 minutes a game, not resting him at all. The guy never gets tired. I absolutely love the guy, and I just think nationally he's not getting the attention he deserves."

On Brumbaugh making two clutch free throws when they were absolutely needed in wins against UTSA and Rice:

"It's his confidence. He's a very confident player right now and he loves playing with his teammates in that regard, and again, one of the things I always look at really good players whether it's at the college level or the pro level, do they make others better around them, and he definitely does that."

ASHER WOODS

On key to beating ECU:

"Focus. Just focus. It's about the next game, the next day, moving on from the last game. It doesn't matter if we're 8-4. Nobody cares in this league. It's about protecting home court. We've got come out with intensity and we've got to prepare. I think we've been doing that the right way each and every day, and if we do that, we put ourselves in a good spot to come out with the Dub."

On having already put big shot past him:

"Yeah, after the game you've gotta enjoy the little moments and be thankful. I always want to show gratitude to God. I'm always thankful for my Lord and savior. It kind of keeps you where you feet are and keeps your perspective. You've got to drop it and move on to the next game, whether you win by 30 or you win by 3 as we did."

On what went through his mind on the game-winning shot:

"On defense the time was running down. Honestly I thought they went a little late, so the kid drove on Rowan. Gregg made an amazing play, one of the best plays I've seen defensively on TV and in person. Kudos to Gregg. It was a big-time play by a big-time player. He got the block, he got the rebound. We made eye contact. I looked up at the clock, and from that point on it was kind of muscle memory. I'm thankful, man, that God gave me the ability to put that time in and execute in that moment and we got a Dub."

On if it was out-of-body experience:

"Somewhat. It was a pretty, a shot that you work on. It wasn't a step-back 3, behind the back. It was a shot that you can replicate over and over and over again."

On momentum from that type of victory:

"When you get a win like that, collectively it brings you together, and I think it did that with us there. It made us hungry. When you get a win like that, you also realize it didn't have to be that close. There's a lot of things we could have cleaned up and we're focusing on cleaning them up to not put ourselves in that situation."

On winning a bunch of tight games:

"It's a testament to the group. We fight, and we don't care about the excuses of we're young or the age. At the end of the day nobody cares how old you are. It's about wins and losses and it's about coming together at the right time and linking arms and getting the job done."





"

Guerry there will be a public meeting on Tuesday about an IPF on the Rosen lot:


Any chance you will be attending so we can know what is going on with it?

With the last stragglers finally releasing their preseason polls this week, I finally was able to chart where every non-conference team Tulane is facing is predicted to finish in their leagues. It's amazing that the Wave plays exactly one home game against an opponent that reached a regional last year--Nicholls State.

WEEKEND OPPONENTS

1) OMAHA--third of six teams in the Summit League with 1 first-place vote

Comment: Terrible league, but Omaha was the No. 1 seed in the conference tourney last year (finished second, but No. 1 St. Thomas was ineligible) before going two and barbecue

2) LOYOLA MARYMOUNT--Picked 6th out of nine in the West Coast Conference

Comment: made CWS in 1986 and beat LSU in opener when Tigers were making their first appearance

3) PEPPERDINE-- picked 7th of nine in West Coast Conference

Comment: Used to be good but that was a while ago. Won CWS in 1992 with Andy Lopez as coach. Covered him later at Florida and could not stand him.

4) NORTH DAKOTA STATE--picked 4th out of six in Summit league with one first-place vote

Comment: No team from North Dakota can be good at baseball. Playing two weekend series against an obscure league is odd

5) XAVIER--picked 2nd out of eight in the Big East

Comment: Solid team and the only non-conference weekend opponent that finished above .500. Still, Big East is usually a one-bid league.

MIDWEEK OPPONENTS

1) UNO--picked 6th out of 11 in Southland

Comment: Likely would be strong contender if Blake Dean had not quit. Got 2023 Southland Player of Year back after he left for Houston last year

2) SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA--Picked 2nd of 11 teams in the Southland

Comment: The Southland is underrated but it also is a crap shoot. There's no telling where this team will end up in the standings.

3) LONG BEACH STATE--picked tied for 8th in Big West along with Cal St. Fullerton

Comment: My, how the mighty have fallen. Dirtbags (program nickname) used to be really good but now they are bottom feeders along with former annual juggernaut Fullerton

4) NICHOLLS--picked 5th out of 11 in Southland

Comment: Now that outstanding coach Mike Silva left for Arkansas State, Colonels should fall considerably. Silva will be a coach in the SEC some day.

5) JACKSON STATE--picked third in the SWAC with no first-place votes

Comment: This is traditionally the league's best program, for whatever that is worth (not much).

6) LAMAR--picked first in the Southland

Comment: This program bottomed out around the COVID era but is on the rise and has returned to the Southland after stupidly joining WAC.

7) SOUTHERN MISS--picked first out of 14 in the Sun Belt

Comment: Along with ECU the best program on the schedule. Not sure why both midweek games are in Hattiesburg but keep forgetting to ask why.

8) NORTHWESTERN STATE--picked 8th out of 11 in the Southland

Comment: I like seeing Tulane play a different Louisiana school than normal.

After getting incredibly fortunate to beat UTSA when Tulane played by far its worst game in the AAC. the Wave was much better against North Texas on Saturday but ran into a better team that shot lights out uncharacteristically. As someone commented on my twitter feed, it resembled a lot of the games last year where a team had unlikely guys get hot from outside and dominated Tulane in rebounding. The similarity was not coincidental. Tulane was less active defensively than earlier in the conference schedule, allowing North Texas to corral the loose balls and get confident when it knocked down some open looks early. Tulane was playing its fourth game in 10 days and second in a row on the road while North Texas, which is really good at home, had not played since Monday.

With that loss, Tulane will not have a Quad 1 or Quad 2 win entering the AAC tournament unless UAB rises from 115 to inside the top 75 by the time the teams meet (and the Blazers likely would drop right out of the top 75 if it dropped that game), but none of that matters since any postseason possibility went down the drain with the abysmal non-conference performance unless the Wave wins the AAC tourney. A top four seed and a double bye to the quarterfinals is very much in play, Tulane has a half-game on on fifth-place FAU along with the tiebreaker advantage and a full-game lead (but not the tiebreaker) on Temple, which has played its past two games without Jamal Mashburn Jr, the nation's second-leading scorer. Tulane's next six games are against teams with losing records in the AAC, and it is 7-0 so far against anyone outside of the top five. Wins in five of those games, which is doable but not certain, would make Tulane 12-5 entering the UAB game and a virtual lock for the double bye.

After a much needed break, Tulane hosts No. 185 Rice (in the NET) this Saturday and No. 184 East Carolina the following Wednesday. It travels to No. 150 Wichita State on Feb. 23, hosts No. 258 Charlotte on Feb. 26, travels to No. 287 Tulsa on March 1 , plays at ECU in Ron Hunter's personal house of horrors (he is 0-5 there) on March 6 and hosts UAB on March 9.

The way Tulane was playing last month, it would have an excellent chance to win the first six games on that list, but the offense is hurting right now and every game has become a grind. Leading scorer Kaleb Banks has scored 4, 6 and 2 points in the past three games, totally losing confidence in his shot except for one massive 3 during the last-minute comeback at UTSA. Teams are guarding Kam Williams tightly, daring him to beat them off the dribble, which definitely is not his strength as a freshman, and he has stopped connecting on the long-range 3s he was hitting earlier in the year. At least Gregg Glenn snapped out of his three-game funk against North Texas because Tulane is going to need the good Glenn the rest of the way. I think Banks will find his game again because he has the right attitude, works hard and is too good to be this bad offensively. He was done after his first two free throws were not even close against North Texas, but he will not face a defense as good as that for the rest of the regular season. Mari Jordan, Tulane's best player off the bench, also has totally lost confidence in his ability to put the ball in the basket. That's too many guys slumping to make consistent winning sustainable no matter how hard Tulane plays on defense or how weak the schedule is. You can't count on Asher Woods replicating his 18- and 20-point back-to-back games from last week, although he is definitely better than I thought and one of the few guys on the team who will consistently hunt his shot. Rowan Brumbaugh is playing at an elite level but needs help offensively from everyone else. Like I wrote in my last basketball post, this team is a shooter short to win comfortably against anyone in this league, but it can overcome that issue with defensive effort and Banks regaining his form. Certainly Tulane should beat Rice at home after a week's rest. Then we will see if it can continue beating the beatable teams. It would be an underdog by point spread at Wichita State and ECU right now.

Again, it is all about Tulane getting that double bye and then playing its best basketball in Fort Worth. Hunter's two good teams played well in the quarterfinals, beating Temple in 2022 without an injured Jalen Cook before having the impossible task of playing Houston in the semifinals and beating a streaking Wichita State team that had given it all sorts of trouble in the regular season in 2023 before turning in a pathetic effort against a motivated Memphis team it had swept in the regular season in a 40-point semifinal loss. That group was not playing well entering the tournament despite its 12-6 conference record, nearly ending the regular season with a five-skid skid (pulling out two close ones at home to finish it) and entering the tournament exhausted after playing three games in five days because of having to make up a postponed contest against East Carolina.

Hunter's starters are not playing nearly as many minutes as his past teams (Brumbaugh at No. 8 is the only player in the top 10), and the bench goes four deep, so this team should be fresher entering the tournament. The next few weeks will determine whether it has a realistic chance to do something in Fort Worth or is too limited offensively to win more than one game (if that). No one in the AAC is unbeatable, but Memphis and UAB (because of their offensive prowess) and North Texas (because of the way it defends) have higher ceilings. And FAU bears watching. After getting defenestrated at home by Memphis, losing by 15 by Tulane and getting outscored by 24 in the second half at North Texas, FAU has won three in a row by more than 20 points. It was picked third in the preseason poll and appears to have found its groove. I expect Tulane and FAU to be the 4 and 5 seeds and meet in the quarterfinals, so the likely path would be beating FAU, then No. 1 seed Memphis (although UAB has an outside shot at the top spot), then either UAB or North Texas (or maybe Temple if Mashburn gets over his foot issue) in the final.

Technically football season is not over yet with the Super Bowl coming up in four days, but I apologize for waiting this long to put up the final standings. At least 10 times I went to bed over the last month thinking I would do it in the morning, and not once did I remember until today, when a Super Bowl assignment for AP delayed me another few hours.

But here, finally, are the results, and for the first time ever, we have a repeat winner. Winwave did it again, running his all-time total to four (2015, 2018, 2023, 2024) in the 13 editions I have posted here. Well done. The six-point margin of victory is the second largest, behind the preposterous 11 dew99 won by in 2014 when there were only 12 weeks, although charlamange8, the only contestant not to have fewer than 4 points in any week he entered, could have made it much tighter if he had made picks in week 11.

FINAL STANDINGS 2024

1) winwave 77

2) charlamange8 (missed 1 week) 71
tacklethemanwiththefootball 71

4) roll wave 70

5) paliii 68
Wavetime 68

7) diverdo 66
chigoboy 66
Guerry 66

10) GretnaGreen (missed 1 week) 64
MNAlum 64
DrBox 64

13) LSU Law Greenie (missed 1 week). 61

14) WaveON (missed 1 week) 58

15) p8kpev 57

Yesterday I talked to Tulane's Hawaiian connection--USC shortstop transfer Kaikea Harrison and freshman center fielder Tanner Chun--for an upcoming feature on NOLA.com. Both are going to start at the beginning of the year. Can anyone tell me the last player Tulane has had from Hawaii? These two played against each other in high school in Hawaii, as you'll see in the Harrison interview.

I also talked to Jay Uhlman, and he said no one has a serious injury 10 days before the opener against Omaha.

CHUN

On how comfortable he feels:

""I feel really comfortable just being out here with my teammates and my coaches. They really helped me be comfortable and find my groove."

On why he chose Tulane:

"Just the atmosphere they have here and the coaches. They made me feel like family. They made me feel welcome when I took my visit and all that stuff. They are all real with me, like they'll be coaches at times but they'll also be boys and parents when we need them. They're just the best."

On excited that season is almost here:

"I'm very excited season to get to the season. I can't wait for Feb. 14 to play with my teammates instead of against them because we've been doing that for so long."

On how good team can be:

"We can be really good. We haven't arrived yet, so we have a high ceiling for ourselves. If we just continue to do what we do and stay focused on the process instead of the end result, we'll be great."

On why he has excelled so far:

"Probably just not trying to do too much and just staying in my lane and trying to take it every day, trying to learn from all the players and the coaches and just having a good time."

On what makes him effective as a hitter:

"For me I feel like it's just sticking to my approach. Talking with my coaches before every at-bat, figuring out what a good game plan is and just sticking to it."

On if he thinks he will lead off in lineup:

"I'm not sure. I will leave that up to all the coaches. Wherever they put me, I'm happy with."

On what other schools he considered:

"I was considering some west coast schools, maybe staying home, but ultimately Tulane all the way."

On where he can get better:

"Everything. I feel I can get better in everything I do on the field and off the field."

HARRISON

On how he ended up at Tulane:

"I hit the portal at the end of my season. I decided I wanted to have a starting spot. I was kind of tired of starting only part time. You've got to compete everywhere, but I hit the portal and found my way here with a great coaching staff."

On other schools considered:

"There were a pretty good amount. It was U Dub (Washington), Oregon, small West Coast schools like Long Beach State and Nevada. I'm blessed to be here. I love it here."

On connection to Uhlman:

"It's kind of funny. He recruited one of my older brothers when he was at Oregon, and he recruited my oldest brother, so we kind of had a relationship already. My oldest brother went to Oregon State and my brother right above me went to Texas A&M and NC State, so I knew Jay."

(his older brother, KJ Harrison, was Pac 12 Freshman of the Year in 2015 and a first-team all-Pac 12 pick the following two seasons and was part of the Oregon State team that was the No. 1 overall seed in the CWS in 2017 but lost twice in a row to LSU to miss out on the championship round).

On being comfortable at Tulane:

"It's like riding a bike. I love shortstop. I love everywhere. At SC I learned to play every position and played outfield, too."

On why could not crack starting lineup regularly at USC (he started 4 games as a freshman and 17 last year despite hitting .323.):

"It's just baseball. Coaches have to feed their family, so they did what they did and went with their gut, so that was just really it."

On biggest strength defensively:

"My biggest strength is I have really good hands. Especially since we're on a turf field, I'd be pretty mad if I made a lot of errors, but I don't think I will. Defensively my footwork has gotten a lot better."

On good enough to get at-large bid:

"Absolutely. I've been around my older brother's teams and my dad lived baseball and I've been around a lot of good baseball, and I've never been around a team like this from top to bottom, the pitching staff. I think the best thing is our culture. We've got great culture here. I've never seen it before. I've never been so close to a group of freshmen, especially Tanner, he's one of my boys, but also there's a big stigma at other schools between pitchers and position players and they don't really mesh well. Over here it's awesome. I room with two pitchers. It's awesome."

On USC coming within an inning of winning the Pac-12 tourney a year ago:

"That was a heartbreaker. I was sitting on the bench, so it was even more heartbreaking."

On what team success what mean for him:

"It would mean a lot. Both of my brothers have been to a College World Series (the other brother, Kailea, made it at Texas A&M in 2022, although he did not play in Omaha), so hopefully I can do the same. That would be awesome."

On his best strength as a hitter:

"I think my bat to ball is really good. JB (hitting coach Justin Bridgman) saved my life, man. I felt like I was really good already baseball wise, but he's been helping me out so much. He's the man. He knows all about mechanics and is also a really good players' coach. He's one of the boys. Not everything's cookie cutter. I love that a lot."

On Chun:

"He's the man. I played against him back at home in high school. He's two years younger than me, and he was a sophomore, and he was still competing. I think he will play a big role this year. Coach Jay loves the Hawaii kids."

On good mix on team:

"Absolutely. There's a lot of veterans and a lot of newcomers and each one's going to make a big impact. Some of these freshmen look like veterans. It's awesome. We'll have a lot of freshmen playing. It's good for the morale and all around."

The 15 people who stuck with the contest all year made bowl picks, too, and although no one ever had a perfect week, paliii came close this time with seven correct picks, missing only the Tennessee-Ohio State game.

BOWL PREDICTION RESULTS

8

paliii

7

diverdo

6

roll wave
chigoyboy

5

GretnaGreen
charlamange8
winwave
DrBox

4

p8kpev
tacklethemanwiththefootball
Wavetime

3

LSU Law Greenie
MNAlum
Guerry
WaveOn


GAME-BY-GAME-RESULTS

Florida over Tulane 4 of 15
Notre Dame over Indiana 11
Penn State over SMU 9
Texas over Clemson 10
Ohio State over Tennessee 8
Navy over Oklahoma 8
BYU over Colorado 5
LSU over Baylor 12

I'm two days late and two dollars short on this commitment, but what the heck, my family and I were enjoying the once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm.

Helmke profile

Freshmen kickers don't always pan out even if they are 5 stars, as Helmke is, but this was a huge addition considering Tulane's disastrous field goal operation at the end of 2024.

If Helmke is ready, Tulane will win at least one more game and maybe two than it would have without a reliable kicker. It's not just the missed kicks. It's the uncertainty for the coach as to what to do in critical situations when he cannot trust his kicking game, and the demoralizing effect is has on the team. Willie Fritz made some bad choices when he felt hamstrung by kicking issues during his tenure. And with Sumrall, Tulane might have beaten Army, though probably not the way it lost the battle of the line of scrimmage, if it had converted those two early field goals.

I went to Saturday's scrimmage and watched the first eight innings, and the revelation was freshman center fielder Tanner Chun. I usually refrain from making bold statements after one viewing, but he looks like he will be a big-time producer this year. Batting leadoff for the blue team, he went 4 of 5 with two runs scored, icluding two doubles. He got his first two hits off Michael Lombardi, who pitched well, his next one off of Kross Howarth, a freshman who struggled, and his last one off of Logan Hurd. More than the four hits, he just looks the part and could be a huge addition to the lineup.

The batting order for the blue team was Chun, freshman second baseman Nate Johnson, freshman third baseman William Good, DH Matthias Haas, catcher Andrew McKenna, shortstop James Agabedis, left fielder Brock Slaton and freshman right fielder Grant Wilson. They had eight guys batting because the first baseman was either Brennan Lambert or another coach who were manning the position without obviously getting at-bats. I did not do interviews, so I'm not sure what the reason for that was.

The green team had Lombardi leading off, following by freshman center fielder Jason Wachs, second baseman Connor Rasmussen, third baseman Gavin Schulz, left fielder Jackson Linn, right fielder Tracy Mitchem and catcher Hugh Pinckney. It was a seven-man lineup without a DH or a hitting first baseman.

Lombardi showed his athleticism in the first inning after giving up a single to Chun and walking Johnson, first fielding a bunt by Good and forcing out Chun at third and then catching a soft liner right before it hit the ground even though Haas's bat was heading his way. Johnson thought the ball had hit the ground, so Lombardi trotted to second base to double him off to end the inning. I liked Lombardi's stuff. He proceeded to retire five in a row in the second and third before Chun singled off him again and he walked and hit the next two batters. He struck out Haas to get out of trouble and had a clean fourth to end his day on the mound after about 50 pitches. He was not done, though, Leading off the bottom of the fourth, he hit a home run over the left field wall.

Overall, I felt the defensive fundamentals were better than in the last several preseason or fall scrimmages I attended over several years (no more than 1 or 2 per year). This was a pretty good defensive team last year that was much more fundamentally sound than it ever was under Jewett. Gavin Schulz tried reach for hard grounder instead of blocking it and it got past him, and Wachs dropped a sinking fly ball in left center field, but I would not given either player an error, and I'm usually a harder judge than the official scorekeeper in real games. I did not get to see presumed starting shortstop Kaikea Harrison, who got the day off but is not hurt.

I was not particularly impressed with the pitchers other than Lombardi, but it is hard to judge on one or two innings. Blaise Wilcenski, who likely will be one of the weekend starters (Saturday or Sunday), gave up seven hits in four innings by m count, including Lombardi's homer (the scoreboard was not operational). Other than Luc Fladda, there are question marks with the rotation in my book.

J.D. Rodriguez, a transfer from Golden West College in Calfornia, pitched two innings and gave up an RBI single to Schulz. Freshman Michale DeVenney showed some promise, getting three fly-ball outs, but it was a short sample size. Julius Ejike-Charles, who I saw hit a mammoth home run off Lombardi in the fall but probably has a better chance of a role at pitcher than as a hitter, pitched a scoreless eighth.

For the green team, Howarth replaced Lombardi and got hit hard, allowing at least four hits and three doubles in the sixth inning and a run in the fifth as well. Chun turned on a pitch to double down the left field line off him, and Johnson turned on a pitch to double down the right field line immediately afterward. Hurd had a clean seventh but ran into trouble in the eighth, giving up four hits.

Rasmussen lined out to right field for a sacrifice fly in the first but went 0 for 3 with a walk after that. Jackson Linn went 0 for 3 with a walk, including a warning track fly ball to straightaway center field.

Chun, Johnson and Wachs are the freshmen who I hear are ready to play immediately, and I saw with my own eyes about Chun. Jay Uhlman is high on this freshman class after the near washout from last year's group.

The new pitchers I hear have made the best impression are Ejike-Charles, Devenney, Rodriguez and John-Paul Sauer, who did not pitch while I was there. They really think the bullpen will be championship material--I am wait and see on that--so the key will be finding starters who can get threw an order twice.

Tulane gutted out an ugly win against Tulsa yesterday thanks to its defense and Rowan Brumbaugh's continued scoring ability when none of his teammates were playing well offensively, giving the Green Wave a 6-3 record halfway through the AAC schedule. I can't say enough about how the Wave won despite getting a season-low four points from Kaleb Banks, its leading scorer, 7 points from Kam Williams, who is struggling offensively now that opponents force him to beat them off the dribble, and eight points from Gregg Glenn, who was in foul trouble all day.

This team is a shooter short from being a championship team in my view, and that lack of outside punch forces it to win the hard way on most days, with defensive activity, the athletic ability to win 50-50 balls and mental toughness. Brumbaugh is 8 for 17 on 3s in his last two games, but his teammates are a miserable 2 of 29. Kam Williams has a pure shot, but he does not have a quick release and needs to be stationary on the catch. They don't have anyone who can run around a pick, catch a bullet pass from Brumbaugh and consistently knock down an open 3.

Still, Tulane is playing hard enough that it can beat everyone left on its schedule. The most important thing is finishing in the top four of the standings and guaranteeing a double bye to the quarterfinals of the AAC tournament, placing it three wins away from the NCAA tournament, and this week will go a long way in determining whether Tulane can be a top 4 seed. First is a rematch on Wednesday with UTSA, which looked awful when the Wave routed it in early January but has improved significantly under a good coach in Austin Claunch, beating Temple comfortably at home, barely losing on the road to UAB and handing North Texas its first home loss of the season in three of its past four games (a 20-point clunker against FAU broke up that stretch, so I'm not trying to elevate the Roadrunners to world-beaters). Tulane, which deflected about 30 passes in the first meeting, needs to be just as active defensively on the road as it was at home. Next is a trip to North Texas, which plays suffocating defense but managed only 13 first-half points against UTSA in an incomprehensible performance on Saturday before nearly stealing the game at the end. The way Tulane's offense is struggling at the moment, that will be a real test, but Tulane's defense should give it a chance.

After that, the schedule lightens up significantly. The next six opponents have losing conference records before Tulane ends the regular season at home against UAB. The Wave is tied with Temple for fourth at the moment but loses the tiebreaker because it dropped their only meeting, but the Owls was incredibly fortunate to win either of their home games this week, rallying to beat a bad Charlotte team in OT and making up a six-point deficit in the final two minutes of regulation before beating ECU in OT. Jamal Mashburn is the best player in the AAC, but that team is shaky overall and could fall off the pace.

UAB plays North Texas at home tonight in the game that should determine which of the two teams has a chance to challenge Memphis at the top. For everyone who discounted Tulane's win at Rice as the product of playing a rotten team, Memphis escaped Houston with a three-point win over the Owls yesterday. The Tigers are the most talented team in the league,sssss but most of their games have been really close and something is missing there. If UAB beats North Texas and Tulane beats UTSA (neither is guaranteed), the Wave would be tied with North Texas entering Saturday's game, which is their only meeting.

Tulane is shaping up as one of the top teams in the league. The Wave is second in field goal percentage during conference games despite slumping badly at the moment--Kaleb Banks figures to come out of his offensive funk soon--and third in field goal percentage defense. Its three losses are to teams with a combined conference record of 21-6, and two of them were on the road.

One other thought: Yesterday's game played out very similarly to the game at UTSA last year after Tulane's court-storming win against Memphis. The Wave made mistakes down the stretch and missed free throws that could have clinched it, leading to a 3-point shot that would have given Tulsa a 1-point lead with seven seconds left like the one UTSA drained at the buzzer to send the Wave into a tailspin it never got out of. This time, though, the shot did not fall, and I don't think the difference was random. Tulane's defense does not allow teams to get into a shooting rhythm this year, so the reserve who took the would-be go-ahead 3 did not shoot it with confidence, and it was off to the right from the start. Tulane also grabbed the rebound, which would have been highly questionable last season or really any previous year under Hunter.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out the key to tomorrow night's game between Tulane and Memphis, which the Wave needs to win to establish itself as a contender for the AAC title rather than a middle-of-the-pack type team. It's turnovers. Memphis gets very careless with the ball on its bad days, and Tulane generally limits its miscues. The Wave has lost the turnover battle only four times this year and is 0-4 in those games. Memphis has won the turnover battle only eight times and is 7-1 in those games.

Tulane turnovers , which are not always costly against the run-of-the-mill AAC team, will lead to points almost every time against Memphis. The Wave has not committed more than 15 in any game, while the Tigers have gone over that total eight times with a high of 20 on two occasions.

Ron Hunter, Gregg Glenn and Asher Woods spoke before practice today.

HUNTER

On what sticks out most about Memphis on video:

"They are a talented team. They are one of those teams I think you'll see in the Sweet 16. They defend. They shoot the 3 really well, something they haven't done in the last few years, but we've got a good defense. We've got to make sure that our defense holds in this game. The key is we just can't turn the ball over. When they get turnovers, it just feeds into what they do, so that's a big key for us. But like I've told the guys, we've earned the right not to be in this game, but we've earned the right to win this game. If we want to fight for a championship, we gotta defend it here at home. They are coming into our place, and we hope to see a raucous atmosphere and give ourselves a chance to not only win this game, but get into the last week of the season and see what happens."

On PJ Haggerty, a Tulsa transfer who is second nationally in scoring:

"He's a good player. He was a good player at Tulsa and a good player at Memphis. He gets to the line and is one of the top 20 players in the country right now the way he's playing. But again, that's our league. We've got good players also. We want our good players to play well."

On difference for Tulane in conference play compared to non-conference:

"Basically when you're whole team is new and they're young, you're not going to come out the gate and win no matter who you are. If that was the case, we wouldn't need coaching. We knew the light switch at some point was going to come on, and we haven't even hit our peak yet. I can't wait to see when we get to our peak, that's when we're really going to be scary, but it just takes time. I have four freshmen in my eight-man rotation. You're not going to win early with that. What happens is instead of taking them out, we just kept playing them and playing them and playing them and all of a sudden that experience has helped us get to where we are right now."

On history meaning nothing (Tulane has won three in a row v. Memphis at home, but almost no one on either team participated even in last year's win):

"It really doesn't. I hope the result is the same. We'll take the same result, but most of their guys are gone and the guys I had are gone. These are two different teams. I think both are headed in the right direction."

On his excitement about the game:

'I'm always excited. My excitement never goes below a 9 and it stays between 9 and 10. When we win it's at a 10, but I'm always excited. I woke up excited. I'm having so much fun with these young guys."

On turnovers being the key:

"That's the difference in the game. When we're really good, we turn it (the other team) over, and when they're really good, the same thing. it's who takes care of the ball the best in this environment. We need this environment to make them play sometimes even faster so they can turn that ball over. I'm really looking forward to that."

On matchup:

"A key player in this game for us is going to be Gregg Glenn. There's no matchup for Gregg Glenn in our entire league, so when Gregg plays well and you can't put the pressure on us because he has it, that's the big difference. That's no pressure on Gregg. Teams know that, we know that and Gregg knows that. If Gregg is good, then we've got a great chance of winning the game."

On Glenn's evolution:

"I love how Gregg is playing. Speaking of playing the best basketball of your life right now, that's what he's doing. When he plays within himself and doesn't get sped up, he's really a good player. He's listened to everything that I've said except for getting a haircut. He still hasn't gotten a haircut yet, but he's listened to everything I've asked him to do and he's done it well. I'm still working on the haircut thing. Trust me."

On crowd he hopes for:

"I don't care if there's one person in here or it's sold out, it just needs to be loud. When we go play at Memphis, trust me, it's loud. When we go play at North Texas, it's loud, so it will be nice to come into our place and that crowd's cheering for us instead of us having to fight that crowd."

I apologize for not getting these up over the weekend, but I caught a pretty bad cold from my son that was accompanied by a nasty headache.

Gavin Schulz, Jackson Linn, Michael Lombardi, Luc Fladda and Connor Rasmussen spoke before Friday's opening practice.

SCHULZ

On surreal scene of watching vehicle clear ice and snow off the turf so they could practice:

"Growing up I've never even held snow in my hand. Me and one of my teammates had a $10 bet that it wouldn't even snow. For it to wind up snowing 10 inches is crazy, so it was surreal."

On whom he bet and which side he was on:

"William Good. A younger guy here. He's one of my roommates. He's from New Orleans, too, and he bet that there would be snow."

On what step up he wants to take in his game:

"There are different roles each year. I'm just excited to be out here with the guys and compete to have another good year, another successful year. I'm very excited about this team. Our coaches have done a great job to bring guys in. They work their tails off for us. We've worked hard in the weight room. We've worked hard at practice. We're just excited to have another good year."

On replacing Colin Tuff, Teo Banks and Brady Marget:

"Losing key guys like that, it's good and bad. Those guys are now playing in professional baseball, living their dream. We'll be fine. We'll be good. We've re-amped, brought in some talent. We're just looking forward."

On what they are building at Tulane:

"We're getting the program to where it needs to be. We have a message that coach gives us, keep raising the standards. Last year we had a good year, but we want to keep taking steps forward and build this program to where it's a consistent, winning program, and that consistent winning helps bring in more talent, helps get better players. We're just super excited."

On pieces being in place for at-large bid if needed:

"Yes, I feel like the pieces are in place. We have a great bullpen. We have great position guys. Definitely we want to win the tournament again, but our eyes on our conference (regular season title). It's been a few years since we've won the conference (last time was 2016 and the time before that was 2005), so we're going for that and we want the tournament, but words are words and we have to show up every day and leave it all out there on the field."

On if back-to-back tourney appearances create more pressure to produce:

"Pressure is more self created. You look around, you don't see pressure. Pressure's all in your head. There can be pressure from fans, but we're not worried about the program. We're worried about what happens in the locker room, worried about winning each day, and when that times comes for winning the conference and winning the tournament, we're here stacking days trying to win."

On excitement for opening day:

"I'm so excited. Last opening day here (for him). I'm just very excited to go out there with some of the guys that have been with me and some new guys to go out there and compete and leave it all out there."

On his feeling about his final year as a local guy on the team:

"It's a dream come true. That dream's not over yet, but it's a dream come true. Getting here, there it was, we hadn't been to a regional. We've gone to back-to-back regionals. We've won the tournament twice, but the message in the locker room is we haven't arrived. We've done what we've done in the past, but we're trying to keep raising that standard and trying to get our cleats dug in to Omaha"

LINN

On getting in position to earn at-large bid:

"Similar to what Gavin said, we've got an older team, a more experienced team, a team that knows how to win. This was my fourth fall ball here, and this team is the most well-rounded, most put-together team that I've been on, which is saying something because we've had some pretty good teams. That's going to give us the best chance to go out and win a ton of games in conference play and hopefully before conference play. That's the goal."

On why this is the most well-rounded team:

"We've had a lot of good guys in the portal, a lot of older guys, people with a lot of in-game success in the past. We've had talented guys come through, but this team has the most tangible numbers put up that are going to say this team's going to go out and have a good year."

On replacing Tuft, Banks and Marget:

"You can never tell exactly how it's going to shake out. By the end of the year we'll probably have a different lineup than what I think it's going to be right now because guys always step up. Some guys will struggle, some guys will succeed and that's just how it goes. We're so deep. We've got so many good talented players that somebody's going to step up and we'll have a good lineup by the end of the year."

On having a lot of pitchers back:

"I'm a hitter, so I focus on hitting, but pitching is key to winning games. We've got a really talented group of guys this year and I've faced all of them at this point, so I know that we've got some good stuff. I'm excited to see what they can do. I think It's going to be impressive."

On not having to worry about health:

"After having two surgeries done and fully recovered through that, I feel really just grateful to be out here. I attribute a lot of success that I've had to just being freed mentally, just able to go out and play hard and play my best without any physical limitations."

On making more progress as a team in the postseason this year:

"Yeah, we beat Nicholls, which we beat during the year. It felt like we were supposed to win that game. We did what we were supposed to do, but now we've got our eyes set for something bigger. Like Gavin said, we feel like there's more to give. There's a lot more on the table and we can go take what's ours this year."

On Omaha as a tangible goal:

"For sure. Going to a regional two years in a row feels like we've got a taste of postseason play. This coaching staff was new my sophomore year, and now it feels like everyone's got there foot in where they know they need to be, including us, the players. We really want it more this year, and we know what we need to do to get it."

On walk-off homer than won AAC tourney never getting old:

"I mean, it's definitely the highlight of my career. It made all of the hard work worth it to some degree, but my career's not over. I've got more to do this year, so eyes are looking forward right now."

I haven't engaged with anyone about Ron Hunter or the basketball team in a long time because most fans have already made their decision about him and nothing I say will change anyone's mind.

There's no defending what happened last year, when an unwanted trip to China over the summer to represent the U.S. in the World University Games ended up hurting more than helping because no one appeared to enjoy the experience other than Sion James and the team was worn out from that venture by the time the season started. Jaylon Forbes and Kevin Cross, the latter of which played well for the season, did not want to be in college anymore, and the entire team vibe was bad, a problem Hunter never came close to solving. It was bad. Really bad.

BUT, and there's always a but when it comes to Hunter in my view, there have been far too many misconceptions and falsehoods about him as a coach during his Tulane tenure. Let's start with the universally accepted idea his matchup zone is a failure that cannot work at this level and should be abandoned. Hmm. Tulane's defense has been off-the-charts good this year. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes when you have athletic defenders who compete every night. Temple won for years with its matchup zone under John Chaney. Tulane's problem was having poor defenders rather than the system.

The other is Hunter's record itself. His teams in 2021-22 and 2022-23 were Tulane's best this century if you consider 1999-2000 as part of the last century. Tulane finished fifth and third in the AAC before Houston and Cincinnati left, advancing to the AAC tourney semis both years. Heck, even last year's embarrassing 5-13 group played better than all of Finney's, Dickerson's, Conroy's and Dunleavy's teams, which never, ever beat anyone good or were even competitive with the top teams in their leagues. This group beat Memphis for its first win against a top-25 opponent since 1999 and was a fluke shot away from beating tourney-bound FAU.

Hunter can coach. He was demonstrably more successful as his previous two stops than his predecessors and successors, and although the bar was set incredibly low, he has been better than his four most recent predecessors at Tulane. Where he has fallen short is talent evaluation--running off Jordan Walker, thinking Oton Jankovic could be a difference-maker and misfiring on several transfers he thought would be better than they were to supplement the core guys who were successful--and recruiting guys who wanted to and were capable of playing defense, until this year.

I don't know what will happen in the rest of the season, but if Tulane wins at Temple Sunday, I would not put winning the conference out of play. This team has to prove it can take its act on the road, but good defense usually travels and the schedule in the weak AAC is watered down even more by the fact Tulane was not considered a contender by the schedule-makers, so it faces Memphis and North Texas only once. South Florida took advantage of its easy schedule a year ago to win the league's regular-season championship going away. If you consider that a pipe dream, a top four seed in the conference tournament definitely is possible, which would guarantee a double bye into the quarterfinals,

Even winning the regular-season title, though, would not put Tulane anywhere close to an NCAA bid after its abysmal non-conference performance against a very soft schedule. The only path there is winning the league tourney. But after two blowout wins of awful Charlotte and bad UTSA, I could tell this team was different even considering the lack of quality of the opponent. This team competes for rebounds, plays excellent defense, has a willing go-to scorer in Kaleb Banks, a real point guard in Rowan Brumbaugh, a talented freshman with a pure shot in Kam Williams and a very versatile post player in Gregg Glenn. They play hard, too. Asher Woods is not the most talented guy in the world, but he does not let guards get by him and plays with confidence on offense even though he has a limited game.

It is hard to win at Tulane in basketball because of Devlin Fieldhouse and the negative reaction it produces with recruits. I'd love to say this Tulane team is built to win big next year regardless of what happens this season, but who the heck knows which players will stay or transfer in the era of buy-a-player? All I can say is this team will be fun to watch the rest of the year, which has only been the case twice since I moved back to New Orleans in January of 2008. Both of those times came under Hunter.

Maybe, just maybe, I will start getting as many replies to my tweets when Tulane is winning as I do when Tulane is losing. At the moment it's not even close.