It was another scorcher this morning as Tulane practiced at Yulman Stadium. Although a slight breeze made conditions more bearable from the shade on the sideline, I'm not sure it brought much relief to the guys running around and hitting each other on the field. And there was some hitting today during another workout in shorts and shoulder pads. At one point, the defense ran a drill where one player ran about 15 yards while a defender ran in front of him and then turned around and tried to impede his progress to cones exactly 27 yards away from the start. Some guys impeded the progress pretty well while others whiffed or came close to not touching the guy they were supposed to push. I don't think I'd ever seen that particular drill before.

As Willie Fritz intimated last week, they are double-training Kam Pedescleaux at nickelback and safety. Although nickelback is his projected spot, he worked at safety today, with Bailey moving from safety to nickelback. They also are mixing and matching their linebackers. In the first 11-on-11 session, Tyler Grubbs and Corey Platt worked with the first team and Jesus Machado and Mandel Eugene were on the second team. In the second 11-on-11 session, they flip flopped the two duos.

The starting defensive line today was Devean Deal, Eric Hicks, Patrick Jenkins and Keith Cooper. That's been the most common lineup in the first five days, but the opener is a long way away still. Adonis Friloux and Maxie Baudoin worked on the second team. Noah Taliancich is out for the moment with an unspecified injury.

The cornerback rotation has remained steady, with Jarius Monroe and Lance Robinson first team and A.J. Hampton and Kiland Harrison second team. Jai Eugene and Rayshawn Pleasant were the third-team corners.

Kentrell Webb has not been practicing. Willie Fritz shies away from talking about injury specifics, but he said he expected Webb back in a couple of days. Walk-on Rishi Rattan has been getting some reps with the second unit in the absence of Webb, who was the first-team nickel at the end of spring drills, but that is a position where some cornerbacks and many safeties can slide over and play it.

Running back Trey Cornist received a coaching lesson today after dropping a pass from a scrambling Kai Horton in 11-on-11. The throw was a little behind him, but he was not organized as he tried to make the grab and let it go right through his hands with poor technique. As assistant coach immediately went up to Cornist and explained what he had done wrong and what he needed to do the next time.

Arnold Barnes definitely looks like he is ready to make an impact at running back--he just runs with confidence and determination--but as I've said before, I don't like to judge running backs away from scrimmages because everything changes for them when drills are live.

Shaadie Clayton practiced today after cramping up pretty badly on Saturday in one of the lone instances of cramping I've seen. I actually thought he might have pulled something at the time, but that's not the case. It's a testament to Kurt Hester that more guys have not had leg issues in this brutal weather. Today, they had tents set up on the defensive side of the field for players to get some relief during practice when they are on the sideline during 11-on-11 drills. That was new. The guys on the offensive side can get in the shade if they stand close to the wall, but that is not available in the morning on the other side. When they're not doing 11-on-11, everyone stays on the shady side during breaks.

Chris Brazzell has picked up where he left off in spring drills and looks like he can be a significant factor at receiver. He was too skinny to make an impact a year and still is thin but has bulked up enough to help him with the physicality of college football. The next step is proving it in games as a potential starter along with Lawrence Keys and Jha'Quan Jackson.

Tulane will practice at the Superdome tomorrow, and the workout will be open to reporters. The Wave will return to Yulman Stadium Wednesday and then have another practice at the Dome on Thursday that will not be open to reporters. Friday is an off day, and Saturday morning will feature the first scrimmage of preseason. Hopefully the conditions will be slightly less sweltering, but it does not look like that will be the case.

Fritz, Alex Bauman, Brazzell and Slade NaglE talked after practice. I will have those quotes up in a while.

I stayed up last night to watch the chippy affair with Argentina. The first half was an offensive explosion, with Argentina going 9 for 19 on 3s and Tulane. scoring at will except when it settled for quick 3s. The Wave led 60-59 at halftime in by far the highest scoring half of the entire tournament.

When Argentina stopped hitting its 3s in the second half, Tulane pulled away and won comfortably, although Ron Hunter pulled the starters a little too early and had to put them back in for the final 49 seconds after Argentina scored seven points in two possessions to pull within 8. There were several technical fouls called, constant jawing between the two teams and a 3-point attempt by Jaylen Forbes with 3 seconds left when the shot clock was off that led to tempers flaring again and plenty more jawing between both teams after the game.

It was a solid effort by the Wave after a really poor 13-point loss to Brazil in the semifinals. Brazil lost in the gold medal game to the Czech Republic, which Tulane beat in a nailbiter during pool play, but Forbes set the tone this time with a 3-pointer on the opening possession. He had 22 of his game-high 27 points in the first half, including a 4-point play in the second quarter.

Sion James had a terrific all-around game, scoring 22 and leading the team in rebounds, assists and blocked shots.

Kolby King was the revelation of the tournament. In six games, he averaged 18.2 points on 58.1 percent shooting while hitting 25 of 35 attempts inside the 3-point line.

After an awful individual performance against Brazil, Gregg Glenn had three nice baskets inside in the second quarter against Argentina. The Wave is going to need him to be consistently effective for the team to make the jump it hopes to have this season.

Tulane concluded its first four-practice session of preseason camp with easily the hottest workout yet in a week of scorchers. The temperature is expected to go up to 99 or 100 today, and already was quite toasty when I arrived at 8:30 this morning at Yulman Stadium. The Wave is headed indoors to the Superdome for a pair of practices next week (Tuesday and Thursday) as Willie Fritz plans to alternate indoor and outdoor practices for the rest of camp, but first they had to get through the grind of another outdoor workout. That new turf had to help some because I can't even imagine how unbearable it would have been today on the old turf--this is the hottest August weather I have experienced--but it had to be tough on everyone. I was thankful this was a snoball day after practice, allowing me to cool off with a cherry snoball before interviews, and all I had done was stand in the shade watching guys run in the sun.

Michael Pratt and Lawrence Keys turned in the best offensive play of camp in the final 11-on-11 session today, Fritz had the offense start at its own 1-yard line in what I call the Ron Zook drill. When Zook took over from Steve Spurrier for a largely unsuccessful two-and-a-half year stint as head coach in 2002, he kept having the offense start from the 1 in controlled scrimmages. There's nothing really wrong with that, but it was a major change from Spurrier, who did real scrimmages with no situational stuff. Spurrier's practices simulated actual games other than having less contact, so it was jarring seeing what Zook did, although his approach was probably more the norm than what Spurrier did. I guess now I should refer to the 1-yard line work as the Patrick Jenkins drill in honor of his Cotton Bowl-changing safety in the same situation. But anyway, Pratt threw a beautiful deep ball to Keys down the sideline. I had the perfect angle as it dropped down to Keys around the 45-yard line in the only place he could catch it with cornerback Lance Robinson running stride for stride with. Keys held on to the ball as he fell to the ground, The perfection of the throw was reminiscent of the passes Pratt made on the four-play TD drive against Cincinnati last November after Tulane fell behind for the first time in the fourth quarter, but this one had a higher degree of difficulty. Keys did well, too, and I really think he is going to have a breakout year in his second season with the Wave after starting slowly last year.

I was asked on this board to look for LSU transfer linebacker Jared Small earlier this week, and I finally found him today. He hit walk-on running back Tate Jernigan as he caught a short out pass on the sideline right in front of me, then walked over to slap his hand and apologize since it was not a full-contact drill. Small is not very high on the depth chart at the moment, but he showed good athletic ability on that play. After two consecutive torn ACLs wrecked his past two years at LSU, he can at least help on special teams and maybe more. It will be interesting to watch his progress. In LSU's 2021 spring game, he had 14 tackles with an interception.

As you would expect, Justin Ibieta continues to try to wipe the rust off as he recovers from a second torn labrum in two years. His throws tend to be low, but he is getting as many reps as Pratt and Kai Horton while working with the third team in practice and has a month to get in rhythm. He did throw a nice pass to Yulkeith Brown over the middle in an earlier 11-on-11 session.

I don't put much stock in rating running backs during practices in shorts and shoulder pads, but freshman Trey Cornist was noticeable today. He won the award for most times running all the way to the end zone after a rep ended, but he looked smooth as part of what is a six-man competition at running back, with the depth chart to be determined by what happens in August.

Pratt whiffed on a shotgun snap during the first 11-on-11 session. I had not seen that from him before. Obviously Sincere Haynesworth's snap was not perfect, but it appeared to be a rare loss of concentration from Pratt. He then rolled out and hit Cotton Bowl star Alex Bauman with a short pass. Bauman is another guy headed for a big year. His Cotton Bowl was no fluke, and I predict he will catch more passes this year than any tight end in the Fritz era.

Carson Haggard made a nice throw to Trevor Evans, who is not really in the mix for playing time but continues to impress as a walk-on. He has really good hands and a knack for making plays. Separation speed is the issue.

Jalen Rogers made an incredible catch from Ibieta, although I'm not sure it would have stood up on replay review and he made the play more difficult than it needed to be. Ibieta threw behind him about 20 yards down the field, and he could not quite hold on to the ball as he tried to make a tough grab, bobbling it before grabbing just before (or after) it touched the turf. The offensive players on the sideline insisted it was a good catch, and it might have been, but it was awfully close.

After the drill from the offense's 1-yard line, which produced no other big plays after Pratt's dime to Keys and featured a near interception by Jai Eugene by a pass from fifth-string QB Darian Mensah, they reversed direction and made it a first-and-goal drill from the 1. Kai Horton had a nice scoring toss to Phat Watts on a rollout. Watts is less than 11 months removed from a torn ACL but appears to have recovered well. The day ended with an Ibieta TD toss to Dontae Fleming in the corner of the end zone.

I did not do much depth chart notation today because not much has changed in the first week of practice. The changes will come as camp moves along and particularly after the first scrimmage, which is set for next Saturday. There will be a second scrimmage the following Saturday (Aug. 19).

I talked to Fritz and intriguing running back Shedro Louis, the swift 5-8 Liberty transfer from Immokalee, Florida, which is a town in the middle of nowhere on the edge of the Everglades. It's one of the few places I never went to in my 21 years living in Florida. Louis was productive in all four years at Liberty, running back four kicks for touchdowns (two were called back by penalty), gaining 101 yards on seven carries against Ole Miss two years ago and having two 50-plus TD runs in the same game against Syracuse in 2020.

FRITZ

On drill that started from own 1-yard line:

"You've got to have a plan for every situation, and I would hope that we think about what kind of defense we're going to play versus a particular personnel and what plays we're going to run. One year I was out here, we ran a stretch when we were backed up on the minus-1. That's not a good play. It's going sideways and if you get any penetration, it's a safety, so they have to be straight ahead plays. You just have to have a Rolodex of play and also based on the score of the game, the quarter, time left, all that kind of stuff. We sit and talk about it for a while in each situation. Why did you call this? The other thing, too, is, I talked about it last night with a couple of new guys, if you hold in the end zone, what is it? It's a safety. If you are going to pass the ball, it's good to max protect and throw it there because most teams are going to try to out-populate you and you've got 1 on 1 on the perimeter, but you better play clean. It's just things like that."

On Pratt's throw from 1-yard line:

"A good ball. A good ball. He works all the time on it. We talk about throwing a 1 ball on a short pass with some steam on it when you have to fit it in a window. You've got a 2 ball that's usually up the seam or a deep comeback, and then you've got a 3 ball where you've got to put some air on it and it has to go over the top of the defender. He did a really nice job with the 3 ball on the sideline."

On getting Shedro Louis from Liberty after spring drills:

"First of all, when a guy comes in you want him to fit in. That's so important. We've got really good kids here, a great culture, and he's an outstanding young man and has fit in tremendously. He's going to be a good player for us. I think we've got some good backs. We've got four or five guys that can play at this level. We just have to shake it out and see who plays 40 snaps, who plays 20 and who plays five because you can't play six guys."

On being productive despite being 5-8:

"He's compact and he's strong. If he were 6 foot, he'd be 210 pounds. He's just not 6 foot. There's no place to hit him. I had a running back like that at Central Missouri who's the all-time leading rusher there (Kegan Coleman, who gained 3,995 yards on 688 carries from 2001-2004). He' was probably 5-foot-7 and 195 pounds. Everybody kept talking about how little he was, but he was powerful. There was just no place to hit him. But he (Louis) is a good player. He's tough and he's physical and it's hard to find a place to hit him at."

On practicing in Dome Tuesday and Thursday:

"Yeah, we wanted to come out here these practices and acclimate ourselves to the heat, and now we're going to start going outside, inside, outside, inside."

On scrimmage schedule:

"A week from today and then two weeks from today."

It was not quite as brutally hot today at Tulane's second practice, with a slight breeze modifying conditions on another sunny morning, but that's easy to say while watching from the sideline in the shade rather than practicing on the field under the sun. The coaches definitely are being cautious because of the weather, enforcing frequent breaks and limiting consecutive reps as the Green Wave works out without full pads as per NCAA rules on the first few days of preseason camp.

The defensive line is probably the deepest unit on the team, and at least four groups rolled out there today. The first-teamers at the moment are Darius Hodges, Patrick Jenkins, Eric Hicks and Keith Cooper, which is how spring drills ended. Adonis Friloux is working his way back from the torn ACL he sustained near the end of August last year on the second team along with Angelo Anderson, Kameron Hamilton and Devean Deal, with Michael Lunz rotating in at one point. Gerrod Henderson, Elijah Champaigne, Noah Taliancich and Matthew Fobbs-White got reps together, as did Parker Peterson, Maxie Baudoin, a number I did not catch (possibly Isaiah Boyd) and walk-on Austin Sybrandt, who is listed as a linebacker on the official roster. On the inside, Jenkins, Friloux, Hicks, Taliancich, Hamilton and Champaigne all figure to get action in early games before they potentially pare down the playing depth chart to four (or not). On the outside, Cooper, Hodges, Anderson and Deal are locks to play extensively, with Lunz heading the list of guys trying to make an impression. Eight of those guys already have extensive playing experience, and Hamilton logged some significant downs, too, a year ago.

Cornerback Kiland Harrison, who has struggled in limited game action over his career, turned in a terrific breakup in the end zone for the second consecutive day, ripping the ball away from Dontae Fleming in the back of the end zone during a red zone drill near the end of practice. Michael Pratt, whose legs will be an even bigger weapon this year than in the past as long as he makes sure not to take the huge hits, had a long touchdown run on a scramble. Kai Horton was impressive for the second consecutive day, throwing a strike to Jalen Rogers for a touchdown and another one to Arnold Barnes for a score. Carson Haggard threw an inteception, with Jai Eugene stepping in front of an underthrow to Luke Besh.

They are not doing extensive 11-on-11 work yet because, as you'll see in my interview with Willie Fritz, he has learned to start slowly in camp rather than throwing everything at them at once. As he said, it's a marathon, not a sprint. I'm hearing good things about Liberty transfer running back Shedro Louis but have not seen enough yet to have an opinion. Running backs are hard to judge without live drills anyway, but he definitely brings some shiftiness to the running back room after rushing for 1,404 yards over the last three years at Liberty while averaging 5.4 yards per carry.

I looked for LSU linebacker transfer Jared Small today but did not see him. Mandel Eugene was working with Jesus Machado, but I would not read anything into that. The top three linebackers are Machado, Corey Platt and Tyler Grubbs, but I did not see the latter two in the last hour of practice as youngsters like JC Joseph, Dickson Agu and Makai Williams got reps. Come to think of it, I did not notice Taylor Love, either. With practice starting at 7:30, I missed the first hour after getting up really early yesterday to watch the Tulane hoops game. That will be an issue again tomorrow as I try to stay up to watch the hoops game at 2 a.m., but once my kid starts school next Wednesday, I will be in better position to get there earlier when they start practicing in full pads.

The top four cornerbacks are Jarius Monroe, Lance Robinson, Harrison and Northwestern transfer A.J. Hampton, withe Eugene a potential riser.

Shi'Keem Laister is practicing at nickelback, and is walk-on Rishi Rattan. Kentrell Webb ended spring drills on top of the depth chart at that spot, and it will be interesting to see if he holds on to it.

I did not see many of the top safeties practicing in the final 45 minutes. Wofford transfer Tahir Annoor was out there with walk-on Gabe Liu. Freshman Kevin Adams, a Destrehan product, worked with fellow freshman Jaheim Johnson from Hammond.

I talked to Fritz, Keith Cooper and new defensive line coach Gerald Chatman after practice. After several TV people and a couple of Internet writers attended the first day, it was only me today.

FRITZ

On how practice went:

"Good. We're doing a good job of taking breaks and water breaks, resting breaks. I think most of the guys are taking advantage of those breaks. It's hot. We want to go in the morning because it's a little bit cooler, but towards the end of practice it's hot, but we're getting a lot of good work in. We've got long lines. I've learned my lesson. In the past guys wanted to have your team is 100 point We're not close to that right now. We're 32 right now, and we're going to build it up to 42 and then 52, so we're building it up with reps. This is a marathon, preseason camp, it's not a sprint, and that will help us stay away from those soft tissue injuries that you have just because of overwook."

On new surface being cooler:

"I think it's huge. What it's supposed to do is be 10 degrees cooler than it is outside, so if it's 95, it should be 85. We used to do it every practice--we're not going to do it anymore--but we put a temperature gauge down there, and it was 90 outside, it was 115 on the turf, so you're much hotter. At least now we're the same as what the heat index is or maybe a little bit cooler."

On Michael Pratt saying Keith Cooper was going to have monster year:

"Well, Michael has really got a lot of expertise on defensive line play (joking). No, I think he's right. He was really a hooper until I think his junior year of high school and started dedicating himself to football. He still played basketball. He was 235 maybe when we recruited him, maybe 230. Now he's up to 280, carries it well, good movement, he's long. I think he's a guy who can be an All-Conference type player for us."

On breakout performance against Cincinnati last year:

'It helped him out big time. He's a student of the game. The thing he was kind of lacking, he hadn't devoted himself to the weight room and football. He's done that now for a couple of years. He's got a lot of untapped potential, and a lot of that is because of the container he's in--his height and weight and length and movement. He's a good athlete."

On technique development:

'He's been real good. He plays some special teams for us. He's on our kickoff return. He's on PBR team (punt block return), he does a little extra point and field goal block. He just hadn't played a whole lot of football. He comes from a great program. Some of those high schools over there in Texas have more coaches than we got. They really do. I've got a buddy--I spoke over at there state convention a couple weeks ago and said how many guys you got on your staff, and he goes 24. Wow. All coaches. Thats a lot of guys. He's at one of those high schools, Dickinson High School. That's where Andre Ware went to high school."

On Cooper having four kickoff returns as up back last year:

"He's big enough where he's a mismatch in space with smaller guys. He's athletic enough where they're not going to avoid him. He can stay in front of them, and he's a good enough athlete where he can catch a ball. You're not going to have him take off and run away. He's a very good athlete."

On where he needs to improve:

"Just refining things. The thing he's done a good job of is we're like a lot of teams, there's a primary gap and then a secondary gap, and the huge advantage for him is playing with his length. If I'm a defensive player, I'm trying to play long. I want to keep you away from me. If I'm an offensive player, I want to play close so I can grab you. Sometimes he plays close and they grab him. We want him to use that God-given length that he's got, and he's getting better and better at that, understanding the game. He just needs to keep refining things. There's no reason he can't be good at everything because of the athletic ability that he has and how big he is. He's going to be 290 probably in another year. He's really a guy that can be an All-Conference player for us."

On re-hiring Gerald Chatman as D-line coach after he left before spring soon after being hired the first time a year ago:

"I got to know him a little bit. I'm good friends with coach Orgeron, and Ed thinks the world of him. I think Gerald's excited to be here."

On him being available after Travian Robertson left following spring practice:

"We're fortunate. There's a lot of great coaches out there, there really are, just like there's a lot of great players. The thing for me that's tough is I've just got to find the right fit. I'll be honest. I'm trying to find guys who want to live in New Orleans. I don't know why you wouldn't, but we've got coach McMahon, he's from here, and coach Roushar is from here. Those guys can coach anyplace on the planet and they want to be here at Tulane because they want to be in New Orleans. I think Gerald feels the same way. He's lived in this part of the country and he's liked it more than other parts that he's lived in, so that's the other bonus for us."

Tulane did some 11-on 11 work at the end of its third practice of the preseason today, so it was a good chance to get my first look at some accurate depth chart information. It was an OT drill with each of the top four quarterbacks operating a series from the 20-yard line and Valentino Ambrosio kicking a pre-planned field goal at the end of the possessions. He hit each one of them, as well he should have with the distance 28 yards, but plenty of Tulane kickers in the recent past were no lock from that distance.

The first-team defense had Devean Deal, Patrick Jenkins, Eric Hicks and Keith Cooper up front with Jesus Machado and Corey Platt at linebacker, Cam Pedescleaux at nickelback, Jarius Monroe and Lance Robinson at cornerback and Darius Swanson and Bailey Despanie at safety. Pedescleaux at nickelback surprised me, but Willie Fritz said that would be his best position at the next level and would be where he gets most of his work this year. Swanson was a Division II All-America at Nebraska-Kearney, but this is big step up in competition. Despanie has not proven himself in games yet, but he looked good in spring drills.

The second-team defense had Angelo Anderson, Adonis Friloux, Kam Hamilton and Darius Hodges up front, Tyler Grubbs and JC Joseph at linebacker, Shi"Keem Laister at nickelback, A.J.Hampton and Kiland Harrison at cornerback and Tahir Annoor and walk-on Gabe Liu at safety. Friloux is wearing a brace on his left knee after tearing his ACL 11 months ago.

The third-team defense had Matthew Fobbs-White, Parker Peterson, Maxie Baudoin and Jah'rie Gardner up front, Mandel Eugene and a number I did not catch at linebacker, walk-on Rishi Rattan at nickelback, Rayshawn Pleasant and Jai Eugene at cornerback and Joshua Moore and Dickson Agu at safety. I did not see Kentrell Webb or DJ Douglas but was later today than the first two days after staying up to watch Tulane lose to Brazil in the World University Games and write a story on it. They either are injured or were being held out of that particular drill.

The quarterback order was Michael Pratt, Kai Horton, Justin Ibieta and Carson Haggard. Darian Mensah is out there but did not get any reps in the overtime drill.

The first-team offensive line was the usual suspects. The third-team line had all four freshmen plus walk-on Ethan Marcus at center.

Freshman tight end Joshua Goines dropped a pass in 11-on-11 work, but that was the only drop I noticed. He later caught a short throw from a scrambling Haggard as he rolled to his right.

The first play I saw today was Joshua Moore intercepting a pass from Haggard with one hand. It was not a good throw, but it still was a heck of a catch. The running backs were doing that thing where they keep running nearly the length of the field to the end zone at the end of their carry. Arnold Barnes had the best run in live action, getting through a hole quickly.

The Bengals and Broncos had scouts at practice. Kurt Hester talked to them for a long time in the latter half of practice.

FRITZ

On the OT work at the end:

"We did some inside earlier in that first team period and then we did an overtime. The great thing about working overtime is it's also a Red Zone. It saved their legs a little bit, especially at the end of practice when they don't have to run as far."

On Pedescleaux:

"He's a huge pickup for us. He's got tremendous movement, but probably his greatest asset is his intelligence. He's got great football intelligence, knows where to get and knows where to be. He's picked things up quick. He didn't have the benefit of spring football, but you wouldn't know that by watching him."

On him playing nickelback:

"He's going to play more nickel but we'll also play him at the third level as one of those safety spots. I think (nickel) will be his spot if he plays at the next level, but he's a good blitzer, a good man cover guy, a good tackler and understands zone concepts, so we have him in the right spot."

Last year I forgot to send my ballot in on time and other years I was not asked, but I did it this year. The overall media vote will be revealed July 25 at AAC Media Days, but here is my ballot.

1) Tulane

Comment: If the Wave handles the pressure of being a favorite and adjusts to a major change at defensive coordinator, Michael Pratt will lead it to second championship in a row. The receivers will be a whole lot better as a group than in the past.

2) UTSA

Comment: I'd be lying if I pretended to be an expert on UTSA, but the 24-4 record in CUSA the past three (including 2-1 in the championship game) speaks for itself. Tulane still owes this team payback for the excruciating way it lost the last time the teams played in 2013, possibly costing the Wave a CUSA title.

3) Memphis

Comment: Most seem to have SMU in this spot. I'll buy that, but Memphis usually has more overall talent than the Mustangs in my opinion. Ryan Silverfield needs to have a good year to keep his job.

4) SMU

Comment: I'm skeptical about this team, which never even won an AAC division when the league had divisions, but possibly the the long-awaited shellacking last November is clouding my judgment.

5) East Carolina

Comment: The Pirates have not made the breakthrough many have expected under Mike Houston, but I have a simple rule assessing the AAC this year. When in doubt, go with the holdover team rather than one from weak CUSA.

6) North Texas

Comment: The drop-off starts here, I believe. At this point, we're quibbling over also-rans. Seth Littrell, fired after seven years, did some good things with the program but was not the right guy for a tougher conference. New hire Eric Morris built Incarnate Word from nothing before leaving to become an asssistant at Washington State this past year. I have no idea if he can handle the upward transition, but he is an innovator.

7) FAU

Comment: Tom Herman was overrated at Houston, but he may have found the right fit at FAU. After initially buying in to Herman with the Cougars, I never got into his sideway running game and the inconsistent performances through the years. If he brings championships to Boca Raton, I'll have to admit I was wrong about him, but I'm not holding my breath.

8) Navy

Comment: I'm one of the only people in America who loves watching the triple option, particularly at a service academy, where running it makes sense. Army is abandoning the style, but new Navy coach Brian Newberry is keeping the system long-time predecessor Ken Niumatalolo and Paul Johnson used with some tweaks to emphasize the passing game more. Navy's defense has been pretty good under Newberry, but I question whether the passing game can be upgraded without messing up what works for the triple option. I could see Navy rising or falling flat on its face.

9) Tulsa

Comment: Yet another team that fired its coach, canning Philip Montgomery after eight years. It is probably a good move, but Tulsa, a tiny private school, will have a hard time living up to its success in the past. I have a feeling Kevin Wilson may turn into that program's Bob Toledo, but a change was needed. The outlier was Tulsa reaching the AAC title game in 2020. The program won nine games total from 2017-19 and went 3-5 in the AAC last season.

10) UAB

Comment: Trent Dilfer as a head coach. He has zero experience, and out-of-the-box hires based on name recognition usually do not go well. UAB slipped significantly last season.after Bill Clark retired for health reasons two months before the opener.

11) Rice

Comment: After winning the Conference USA championship game in 2013--Tulane's last year in the league--the Owls went 5-3 in the league in 2014 but have been under .500 every year since then. There was a slight uptick last year under fifth-year coach Mike Bloomgren, but now comes a significant upgrade in competition.

12) South Florida

Comment: You could make a case for the Bulls being even lower, but maybe Alex Golesh, a former offensive coordinator at Tennessee, will begin to reverse their incredible slide. This team is 3-21 in the AAC since the middle of 2018.

13) Temple

Comment: Temple supplied fired USF coach Jeff Scott his lone league win in three years, and the score was 43-7. The Owls are 3-20 over the last three years in AAC play. I covered second-year coach Stan Drayton when he coached the running backs at Florida under Urban Meyer and liked him, but I'm not sure why he is head coaching material.

14) Charlotte

Comment: Again, when in doubt, I put the former CUSA team with all kinds of issues below the AAC teams will all kinds of issues.

This was not a typical day 1 of preseason practice for me because I watched the Tulane basketball game against South Korea, was later than normal getting to Yulman Stadium and spent some time there talking to other media members. I promise a more thorough report tomorrow, when there are no conflicts.

A year ago, Tulane's first workout was in unseasonably reasonable weather conditions with a high in the mid-80s and low humidity. That was not the case this time, but a new playing surface mitigated the effect because it plays cooler than the turf the Wave had in previous years. I did not see any cramping, which is a tribute also to strength and conditioning coordinator Kurt Hester.

Near the end of spring practice, Willie Fritz praised Kai Horton's arm talent but said he tended to drifted in practice and needed to correct that deficiency to become the great player the coaches believed he could be in college. He showed all that arm talent today, making several impressive throws in tight windows. He's certainly not going to beat out Michael Pratt, but the Wave should be in good hands if Pratt misses any time this fall. Horton has the strongest arm on the team. He threw a bullet to Yulkeith Brown in the end zone when it did not look there was any way to get the ball to him, and Brown made a tremendous catch in traffic as well.

Justin Ibieta took reps, too, less than 12 months after tearing the labrum in throwing shoulder for the second time in two years. He does not look like he has full zip on his throws, but he made a nice pass to freshman Hunter Summers on a fade with Kiland Harrison draped all over Summers. A few plays earlier, Harrison had defended the same fade to Summers beautifully when Horton threw it, ripped the ball from his grasp on the way down.

Pratt hooked up with Cotton Bowl hero Alex Bauman for a nice gain but also underthrew a ball that was picked. It was typical first-day stuff, and I was told the receivers dropped quite a few balls before I arrived, which was not reflective of what went on during the spring. Once I was there, though, the only drop was from Lawrence Keys on a dump-off. Makhi Hughes had a nice catch and run from Pratt. On one of Horton's few off target throws, Jalen Rogers could not haul in a pass that went behind him down the field.

Fritz, Greg McMahon, Pratt and Tyler Grubbs talked after day 1.

FRITZ

"I thought it went well. We get to do more things in the summer. The NCAA allows you to have a football out there and do a couple of things, so they are a little bit more ready for that first practice. You can't go against each other (during the summer), but you can get a football out there. We've got quite a bit of our offense and defense and special teams in. We're kind of breaking them in slow. They run like crazy all summer, but it's not the same as football conditioning. Putting that helmet on makes it a little tougher, too. One other thing. It was definitely cooler out there. I don't know if you asked the kids that question or not, but it felt cooler out there to me than what it normally is."

On ibieta's progress:

"Pretty good, I think. Not only is he getting out there and making some real throws with the defense and things like that, but he's probably two or three weeks away from being full speed as far as his legs and movement and dropping back. There are just a few throws right now he's got to get some confidence with."

On making sure sustain success:

"I don't change anything. I really have the same approach every single day, every single week, every single year. We talked about that last night. I put 2023 up on the board. You don't carry 2022 into 2023, and we certainly didn't carry 2021 into 2022, so this is its own season. I've got different coaches, different players. It's just different. But my preparation's the same. I approach practices the same. During the season I don't think you can tell what the outcome of the game was on Saturday based on how I behave on Monday, and this can be the same thing. It's a new week. It's new opponent. It's a new challenge."

On Arnold Barnes potential:

"I think so. He's got good size and good movement and really has tremendous change of direction, good speed. He's a bigger back. He's about 225 pounds. It's going to be interesting early. We are going to play a lot of backs, and some guys are going to separate themselves. You can't play five guys all the time. After a few weeks we'll play two or three backs. He's certainly in the running to be one of those guys."

On if could trust Barnes to protect Pratt:

"That is a good question because the protection is a lot different in college than it is in high school. Usually you have a little less rules in the high school game as far as protection is concerned. Based on the route and based on the personnel, our protection changes, so there's a lot of thinking with the running backs. A couple of those guys have told me that that's the biggest difference for them is who they are picking up, scanning. You might have seen that during practice today, working inside-out and a couple of times working outside-in, we forgot to change the protection. He'll get there. He's a smart kid."

On having no dropoff in the running game:

"Well, we've got to find out who those people are. Shaadie Clayton and Arnold we talked about, Iverson Celestine, Shedro Louis is a new guy, Mahki Hughes has done some things. I'm probably forgetting somebody (freshman Trey Cornist is the only scholarship player he did not mention). We've got some very talented backs. We'll see exactly who's going to end up playing the majority of the snaps. Someone's going to be the bell cow. It probably will take a few weeks for us to figure out who that is."

On tough to replace Spears:

"It's hard. He was a great player. We expect him to play a lot for the Tennessee Titans this year. A scout who's a buddy of mine who's there right now called me the other day and told me how impressed they were with his work ethic and his explosiveness and (said) he's better than what they anticipated. He's a great player. It's hard to replace a great player, but I think we've got some guys back there who can be excellent players in the AAC."

On what four post-spring transfers (Jared Small, Tahir Annoor, Kam Pedescleaux and Shedro Louis) are bringing to the team:

"Jared Small was going to start at LSU (in the 2021 season opener after making 14 tackles with an interception in the 2021 spring game) and then he got hurt unfortunately (torn ACL in his right knee, then he suffered another season-ending knee injury three games into 2022). We feel like we've got some guys who have been around him some. Coach McMahon in particular, he played a lot in special teams for him. The young man from Wofford (Annoor) was an All-Conference player there. Just like running back we are going to have to have some guys step up at safety. He's another guy who's in the mix. Kam (Pedescleaux), I always butcher his last name, but he was a first-team All-Conference in the Sun Belt at Louisiana-Lafayette. We expect him to be a great player for us this season. Shedro Louis has had three kickoff returns for touchdowns. I think maybe one of them got called back, I'm not sure. He's very talented, and I like his work ethic, too. He really comes to work every day."

On if he has studied film extensively of new teams in AAC:

"We really looked closely at our first four opponents. Week 1, South Alabama, they've got all their coaches and coordinators back. Ole Miss, same thing for the most part. Southern Miss, same thing. They made a change (promoting their safeties coach to defensive coordinator) but will keep the same philosophy. Nicholls, same thing, but the other coaches, we're not quite sure exactly what they are going to do. A couple of them later down the line we have an idea, but by that time you've gotten all this season's tape reviewed and analyzed and you're basically going off that. There's a lot of new teams."

Phil Steele has Tulane finishing third behind UTSA and SMU in the AAC because he thinks UTSA is better and SMU has an easier schedule, not playing UTSA or Tulane. He does have Tulane as the second-best Group of Five conference team in talent, although he contradicts himself in other spots on that topic.

Here are his ratings of draft-eligible Tulane players at their position, which clearly are based on NFL projections rather that college ability in his eyes because Michael Pratt is No. 7 on the QB list and UTSA's Frank Harris is No. 49 but Harris is his first-team AAC QB ahead of Pratt.

Lawrence Keys No. 6 kickoff returner

Michael Pratt No. 7 QB

Jha'Quan Jackson No.9 punt returner

Casey Glover No.20 punter

Sincere Haynesworth No. 35 center

Prince Pines No. 38 OG

Patrick Jenkins No. 48 DT

Cameron Wire No. 62 OT

Darius Hodges No. 69 DT (wrong position unless I'm missing something)

The Tulane players on Steele's All-AAC first team are Haynesworth, Pines, Hodges, Jenkins, Darius Monroe, Valentino Ambrosio, Jha'Quan Jackson as a punt returnr and Ethan Hudak

The Tulane players on his second team are Pratt and Keys as a kickoff returner

The lone Tulane player on his third team is Jackson as a WR

The Tulane players on his fourth team are Tyler Grubbs, AJ Hampton at nickleback, Lance Robinson and Glover

He has Tulane at No. 48 in his power poll (overall talent), below opening-week opponent South Alabama (44) and UTSA (43).

Tulane rises to No.34 in his rankings, which take schedule into account, but the Wave is still seven spots behind South Alabama and 10 spots behind UTSA and two spots behind SMU.

Practice begans Wednesday. Players report Tuesday.

Tulane has four new scholarship players who were not on the team for spring drills.

Safety Kam Pedescleaux (fifth year player from ULL)
Safety Tahir Annoor (fifth year player from Wofford, where nickelbacks coach Rob Greene coached him the past four years)
Linebacker Jared Small (seventh-year player from LSU)
Running back Shedro Louis (fifth-year player fron Liberty and an excellent kickoff returner)

Five scholarship players who made it through the end of spring drills left

Cornerback Jadan Canady
Safety Andre Sam
Cornerback T.J. Huggins
Offensive lineman Keanon McNally
Kicker Kriston Esnard

Here is the breakdown by position now. I count 39 scholarship players on offense, 43 on defense and three on special teams

QB (5)

Michael Pratt
Kai Horton
Justin Ibieta
Carson Haggard
Darian Mensah

Comment: Who will be No. 2? Is Ibieta healthy yet?

RB (6)

Shaadie Clayton-Johnson
Iverson Celestine
Arnold Barnes
Makhi Hughes
Shedro Louis
Trey Cornist

Comment: The competition will be intense. Clayton-Johnson is my frontrunner to be the starter. After that, all bets are off.

TE (5)

Alex Bauman
Reggie Brown
Blake Gunter
Chris Carter
Joshua Goines

Comment: It is a relatively thin position in experience, but Bauman proved himself in the Cotton Bowl

WR (9)

Lawrence Keys
Jha'Quan Jackson
Chris Brazzell
Phat Watts
Yulkeith Brown
Dontae Fleming
Jalen Rogers
Bryce Bohanon
Hunter Summers

Comment: Best group in the Fritz era. How will they adjust to a new receivers coach?

OL (14)

Cameron Wire
Prince Pines
Sincere Haynesworth
Josh Remetich
Rashad Green
Shadre Hurst
Caleb Thomas
Trey Tuggle
Michael Lombardi
Sully Burns
Landry Cannon
Noah Gardner
Darion Reed
Lajuan Owens

Comment: Best overall group in the Fritz era. Wire playing to his potential is key.

DT (8)

Patrick Jenkins
Adonis Friloux
Noah Taliancich
Eric Hicks
Kam Hamilton
Elijah Champaigne
Isaiah Boyd
Maxie Baudoin

Comment: Not sure if Friloux is 100 percent, but a Friloux-Jenkins duo could be fearsome

DE/Joker (10)

Darius Hodges
Keith Cooper
Devean Deal
Angelo Anderson
Michael Lunz
Parker Peterson
Gerrod Henderson
Matthew Fobbs-White
AJ Thomas
Jah'rie Garner

Comment: Pratt loves Cooper's development and predicts he will be a monster. This group will be much better than last year.

LB (9)

Jesus Machado
Corey Platt
Tyler Grubbs
Mandel Eugene
Taylor Love
Dickson Agu
Makai Williams
Jean Claude Joseph
Jared Small

Comment: Three big-time performers in Machado, Platt and Grubbs to replace the stellar tandem of Williams and Anderson. After that, not sure.

NB/CB (9)

Jarius Monroe
Lance Robinson
AJ Hampton
Kentrell Webb
Kiland Harrison
Rayshawn Pleasant
Jahiem Johnson
Kevin Adams
Jai Eugene

Comment: Starters are good.

S (7)

Kam Pedescleaux
Bailey Despanie
Darius Swanson
DJ Douglas
Shi'Keem Laister
Tahir Annoor
Joshua Moore

Comment: A lot is expected of Pedescleaux, who appears to be an upgrade on the departed Sam as graduate transfer, but some unknowns here.

ST (3)

Valentino Ambrosio
Casey Glover
Ethan Hudak

Comment: Strong trio.

These players have had jersey number changes since spring drills

Jarius Monroe to 2 from 11 in tribute to his older brother Darion

Keith Cooper to 5 from 48

Clayton Johnson to 2 from 0

Dontae Fleming to 1 from 10

Yulkeith Brown to 5 from 16

Jesus Machado to 99 from 36

Corey Platt to 9 from 45

Tyler Grubbs to 52 from 47

AJ Hampton to 11 from 10

I watched Tulane jump out to a 23-9 lead on the Czech Republic today and thought briefly it would cruise to the gold medal of the World University Games despite the history of college teams struggling mightily before winning gold the last two times.

From there, the Czech Republic locked down defensively and Tulane took a series of terrible shots, falling behind by 9 in the third quarter when it picked up a pair of questionable intentional foul calls. But Tulane rallied behind a couple of big 3s by Jaylen Forbes on a day when both teams shot poorly from outside and the Wave's ability to force turnovers. It looked like the Czech team thought it was facing Syracuse's 2-3 zone early because they keep trying to make entry passes to a guy standing at the foul line, which is how teams attack Syracuse. But Tulane's matchup was right there to deflect the ball over and over. The Czechs adjusted and got some wide open looks from outside, but Sion James forced their 23rd turnover with a deflection in the final minute that led to Kevin Cross's go-ahead basket in the lane, and the Czechs missed an open 3 from the corner the next time down the court, allowing James to hit free throws for a 3-point lead. Good defense forced a wild 3 attempt in the final seconds, and Forbes sealedit with a free throw for a 76-72 win as Tulane went on a 5-0 run in the final minute.

Tulane will clobber South Korea in the quarterfinals, but I have no idea what the quality of the top teams is at this event. I'm guessing the Wave will have to play better than it did today to win the gold. Its shooting numbers in the second half were abysmal, and there were not a ton of good looks, either.

Hunter used a seven-man rotation today, with Forbes, James, Cross, Kolby King, Collin Holloway, Gregg Glenn and Tre' Williams logging the significant minutes. No one else scored. King, who put up good numbers in the first two games, went 3 for 9 with only 1 assist but did have a big 3. Forbes hit an incredibly difficult 3 while drawing a foul and another long-range one. James clearly is the team's vocal leader this year and had four steals while struggling offensively. Holloway had some nice drives and went 5 of 6, but the issue will be can he do that against athletic size, which he could not do last season. Glenn can be a rim protector and a finisher inside. He also has a good feel for the game. His four assists were a team high. Cross's go-ahead bucket was the only one he made, but it was a huge one. Williams took a couple of wild shots but had some good moments, too. His elevation in the rotation is the biggest surprise of the tournament to me considering his invisibility last year and his poor stats in previous stops. Clearly, they like what he is providing.

We are getting more local TV coverage of the upcoming season on the various channels. As to the paper though it is still lacking way behind LSU coverage. I stopped complaining about the lack of coverage there long ago because I realized it was due to Tulane's lack of commitment and performance. However, coming off the season we just had and what we return it seems like it would have ticked up noticeably leading into this season. Guerry I know you don't control the content but do you see that things might improve in the coming weeks? Do you hear anything from the Tulane athletic department about them reaching out to the paper for more coverage?

Willie Fritz was asked only two questions when he stepped to the podium today, but I got one-on-one interviews with him along with Michael Pratt, Sincere Haynesworth, Jarius Monroe and Patrick Jenkins and a group interview with UTSA QB Frank Harris in the breakout room a little earlier. Harris, who was named 2022 Conference USA MVP and is entering his seventh year of football (he was redshirted in 2017, played sparingly in 2018 and is taking his free COVID year) and Pratt became friends at the Manning Passing Academy this summer.

Here is what they had to say:

FRITZ

On having three DB coaches:

We've got an anchor position. We called it nickel last year. Rob Greene is coaching that position. Josh Christian-Young is coaching the safeties, the two-deep guys. It's unusual, but some of that ties into recruiting. All three of them are really good recruiters, and then Josh is kind of our lead coach in tackling. Rob is our lead coach in takeaways. He just did a presentation yesterday that was outstanding, and C-Y did a presentation a couple of days ago on tackling that was outstanding. As a matter of fact, he went out with the NOLA Gold (rugby team). And J.J.'s our effort coach, so we really put a premium defensively on those three areas."

On having only one guy coaching same position as last year and six new assistants but liking the staff makeup:

"I think good. We've got an outstanding staff and an outstanding support staff. I've been impressed with our graduate assistants on the defensive side of the ball. I've been impressed with our analysts on the defensive side of the ball, and all of these guys are also really involved in special teams as well." (Editor's note: Fritz was not dissing his offensive assistants. He thought I was talking about defense only and I did not realize it until after the interview):

On adjustment of having coaches who were not there in the spring (defensive line coach Gerald Chatman, running backs coach Carter Sheridan, special teams coach Greg McMahon):

"It was really only one. Rob came in with about seven or eight practices left. Shiel was here (when Mike Mutz left early in spring drills). The thing that's good is the NCAA lets you do a lot of stuff in the summer. Ten years ago, you weren't able to do anything. Now you can do all sorts of drills with technique and fundamentals and all that stuff, so the guy gets to implement his philosophy. In the past he wouldn't have been able to do anything with these guys until the first day of (preseason) practice."

(I am not going to quote Fritz on losing McMenamin because I turned my recorder off before I asked him in case he did not want to talk about it, but there's no big secret there. McMenamin left recently to spend more time with his family, and the demands of recruiting at this level might have worn on him. Fritz did not mention any other reason. He added it was a good thing he had no hobbies because he never had to worry about needing more time to do other things.)

On being picked first:

"Every year is a new year. I tell guys you don't want to carry past success or past failures. They're going to hurt you. It's a new season. You want to be the best you can every single day. What you did yesterday isn't going to help you tomorrow. I'm very consistent. Our guys didn't hear me say a word about being picked seventh last year, and they're not going to hear a word about us being one."

On having a leader like Pratt to spread Fritz's message:

"It's very important. You want your leaders to convey the message that you're putting out there to the team. If they've got their own agenda, they are going to have issues and problems. We've been very fortunate that we had great leadership last year and we're going to have great leadership this year, but you know I've said it a million times that I thought we had outstanding leadership the year before and we were only 2-10. Most teams would have had all sorts of problems. I had next to zero."

On tough early schedule:

"South Alabama is really good. It's a tough schedule. It's going to be very challenging. This is different. There's a lot of reasons why we won a lot of games last year, but I think one of the reasons is we were able to play a lot of guys in week one (Massachusetts) and week two (Alcorn State) and figure out who to play. We knew that going into the season--we have a pretty good chance of winning these two games and we're going to play a lot of people. We did it, it worked out and we learned a lot. We don't have that option this year. We're going to have to figure it out before week one."

FRITZ ON PODIUM

"I'm very excited to be here. I appreciate everybody coming out. I've had a lot of questions about what I think as far as us being preseason No. 1. We were picked No. 7 last year, so it really doesn't mean much as far as your preparation is concerned. Our guys had an outstanding summer of preparation. We'll continue that in preseason camp. We'll report on Tuesday, Aug. 1 and have the first practice the following day. I'm looking forward to building upon what we were able to accomplish last season."

On if he tells players to forget about last year or what he brings up:

"Our preparation's always been the same. I'm very consistent with our preparation. Just like I tell our guys, regardless of the outcome on Saturday, you gotta flip the script and flush that game down the toilet and go on to the next one. I understand how to compartmentalize the season or the game or whatever the case may be. Looking back on past successes or failures, you're not going to be the very best you can. I never brought it up where we were ranked last year to our guys and I'm not going to bring it up this year."

On Tulane's season indicating the parity in the conference:

"We've got a lot of really good coaches and a lot of really good players in this league. You get on a roll, some things can happen good for you. We certainly had a lot of bad things happen two years ago and a lot of good things happen for us last year. The year before, we could have won six, seven or eight games and had misfortune. Each season is its own season. Right now everybody is undefeated and feels good about things. We certainly feel that way, too, but you have to go out and do it."

It looks like our DC will also coach LB's. Ross is going to be an analyst.
We still don't have a TE coach listed. I'd be curious to know how they will handle that important position.

There were 34 ballots submitted:

1) Tulane (20) 457

2) UTSA (9). 440

3) SMU (3) 397

4) Memphis (1) 360

5) FAU 312

6) East Carolina 303

7) North Texas 261

8) UAB (1) 209

9) Navy 199

10) Temple 182

11) Tulsa 160

12) Rice 138

13) South Florida 86

14) Charlotte 64


Comment: the one first-place vote for UAB was a doozy, but other than that, the results were pretty much as expected. The CUSA imports ranked 2, 5, 7, 8, 12 and 14. Rice was a little lower than I expected and FAU was a little higher, but neither placement was shocking. Tulane being picked first is an indication of the respect for Willie Fritz and what this team accomplished last year. No one is looking at it as fluke. UTSA returns a lot more starters and is 23-5 over the past two years, but the Wave was comfortably ahead of the Roadrunners in the voting.

Ron Hunter talked again yesterday in anticipation of Tulane representing the USA in the World University Games, with the team leaving Saturday to fly to China via Atlanta and Korea. They made Kolby King available, too.

The Wave will be under a fair amount of pressure to perform in Chengdu. Although Clemson won the gold medal in 2019, the Tigers won two of their pool games by 1 and 4 points, won their quarterfinal and semifinal by 2 points before cruising in the gold medal game. That Clemson team went on to finish 16-15 and place eighth in the AAC before COVID abruptly ended everyone's season.

HUNTER

On concerns:

"I'm more worried about just staying hydrated and making sure that we don't do too much and get acclimated to it. It's something we've never had to worry about before, but we've got smart people that have figured it out. We've brought in people from the city, we've brought experts into Tulane to talk to our kids about how to eat and how to prepare for this tournament."

On specific goal for tournament:

"A, I want them to enjoy it. These kids will never probably get an opportunity to go to China and play in an event where you represent your country. That's the first thing. And then to see how people live in other countries. We won't have a lot of down time. We play every day the first four days and then it's every other day, so there won't be tours and all the other things. We just don't have a lot of down time. Even Saturday, I don't even know if I'll get a chance to play golf, which is really something sad to me (smiling)."

On schedule:

"When we land, we are going to play China right off the bat, and then we just found out that we open up with Poland. We play them at 7:30 (on July 29 Chengdu time; 6:30 a.m. Central time), and then the next day we play Japan (11 a.m. July 30 in China, 10 p.m. Central time on the same day in the U.S. as the first game), and then we play the Czech Republic (July 31 at 7:30 p.m. in Chengdu; 6:30 a.m. Central time). We play three straight days. We've got to win at least two of those games to get out of pool play (not actually true, but close to accurate). Another thing that is a little different is that if you're tied with someone, point differential goes into it, so there's a lot of types of things that we don't ever have to worry about with college basketball that we've got to worry about. But we'll get through this. I'm excited for our kids. They are excited and a little nervous, also, about that 19 1/2-hour plane ride than anything else."

On getting used to international rules:

":We had two local scrimmages that we brought FIBA officials in and had them talk to our guys. I do want to thank Loyola and Xavier, who really came and helped us with this. We were supposed to schedule Canada and Mexico, and we couldn't work it out to get them here and we didn't want do do any more traveling than we would normally do, so I thank those two universities for helping us FIBA officials for helping us get ready for their rules. What I don't want to do is get so inundated in all the rules and then come back in a few weeks and we're back to playing American type basketball."

On this being different than other foreign trips:

"All of these kids have been on these foreign trips where you go and have fun. I've never coached on a foreign trip because I usually let my assistants do it. This time by me doing it, it amps up the intensity a little bit.I think it's really going to help us. When you're playing for your country, it's different. These kids are really excited about winning a gold medal. We know it's going to be difficult, but the opportunity to be able to do that, we're excited about it, especially with the competition that was there."

On competition:

"Our first game's going to be tough. We play Poland. Poland has six pros on their team that are playing professional basketball right now. The way the rules are set, you only have to be enrolled in a class somewhere. I'm going to call the Pelicans and see if they have a few guys that want to join us (laughing)."

On AAC:

"The conference is going to be good. One of the things about college basketball and college football right now is conference alignment doesn't really mean anything. It changes from year to year. This coming year we don't play everybody in the league twice. You take a schedule, you play it and hope for the best in that regard. We lost some good teams but boy, we brought in some good teams. UAB is a really good program. North Texas, both of them were in the NIT finals, and then you talk about an FIU team that got to the Final Four and returns everybody. Our league is going to be outstanding, but the great part of where we're at, we've built this program that we can play in any league. We're not one of those teams where you say, hey, we're going to put Tulane on the schedule and you're just going to beat us up. Those days are done and over with. I don't care what league we're in, where we go. We're going to competitive and we're going to try to win a championship."

On conference schedule of opponents that came out Thursday:

"I'm more concerned about what kind of rice I'm gong to eat because I'm strictly rice or vegetables for the next 14 days. I don't even think about what our schedule is going to be. I'm going 14 days with no meat. I'm going to eat just rice and vegetables the entire time. We're going to see what I look like when I come back."

On what wants to work on in China:

"I just want to win. I don't care if I'm playing Sisters of the Poor. I just want to win games. That's all I care about. We know this is going to be a tough tournament. We'll enjoy it until we step onto those lines. I want to win the games. That's my makeup. We're going all over the world to play. We want to learn how to win games not only in this country but any country we go to."

On Asher Woods, Jordan Wood and Sion James academic prowess (Wood was salutatorian at his high school, Woods had a 3.8)

"What I love if we've got great kids. I love coaching these kids. We've got some high academic kids. I recruit all the high academic guys. I figure if they can match my GPA in college, then they'll be fine. All of the academic guys that are 4.0s. Like I told Sion, Sion's never had a B in his life and neither have I. I've got Ds and Fs, but I've never had a B. No, we've got great kids, They graduate and are productive citizens of our city. That's important."

On how team will get better:

"By playing. When you take a group and outside of Gregg (Glenn),who won a gold medal (in 2019 as part of USA FIBA U16 team in Brazil), he's talked to the guys a little about this, but none of our other guys have made a trip like this before. They'll grow from it. They'll get closer. The other part is they'll be other Americans and other types of teams, but they won't be basketball teams. I'm looking forward to going and seeing the track and field. I'm also looking forward to seeing archery and swimming and diving. We have opening ceremonies with the torch just like they do with the Olympics. I'm excited for them. They put $27 million into this event, so I want to enjoy more than just the basketball part of it. I'm looking forward to the entire part of it, and we're going to make sure our kids enjoy that part also."

KOLBY KING

On China trip:

"It's crazy, man. When I first committed here, I wasn't thinking about China. I was just coming here to learn the system. It was a whole new system from where I came, but the China experience is going to be great. It will be good for chemistry and we will learn each other on and off the floor. We will be there for two weeks and it's a long ride there. Just learning different habits and on the court how we move and what's good and bad for us on the team."

On extra practices and games:

"China is getting us ready early. We've got new guys and we're learning how we can build around the team that was already here like Forbes, Kevin and Sion and just fill the new pieces around them to make the team better to go on a great run. Last season they came up short and this is a bounce back from where they came."

On playing against pros at World University Games:

"Yeah, that excites me. It's a whole new level, a whole new style of ball out there on that side of the world. That just helps us get ready for the next level we're going to be at. It will help way more with our game when we come back to America."

On why chose Tulane:

"I chose Tulane because coach Hunter is a great coach. It's an opportunity to come and display my talent and get to the next level and help the team win. I'm a winning person. I'll do whatever it takes to win."

On frustrating year at St. John's:

"As a competitor it was tough coming to St. John's and the first half of the season didn't really go as I expected it go. I was sitting out watching the older guys play, and when I did get my chance, I gave it all. The second half of the season I did whatever I could do to help the team win."

On skill set:

'I'm a great floor general guy and I can score. Putting that two together and playing for coach Hunter, that's what he likes. It helps the team win to get guys involved and learning how to score on my time, just making guys better around me."

On what he is most excited about on China trip:

"I'm most excited about meeting the new half of the world over there, how they learn, how they operate. I know it's a different style, how some rules we can't do over here what they do over there, so it's learning their culture and learning different people."

On long flight:

"I can't even process it. I don't like sitting down too long."

Guerry, in early June TD announced athletics had received its largest donation ever. He also said he would announce the donor and the size of the donation in later June. We are now deep into July and he still hasn't given any more information on it. You have anything on this?

My vacation ended more than a week ago, but then my mother died. She passed peacefully in her own home in her 90s, but there has been a lot going on since then.

Today, though, I am back to work and will have no more hiatuses, although my phone stopped charging after it apparently got water damage while I was walking my dog in the rain yesterday, giving me another thing I have to deal with.

I will go to the AAC Media Days in Texas July 24-25. They have been virtual the past few years but are back to a live event, so I need to be there in a year when Tulane almost certainly will be picked first in the league.

Anyone have any guidance on where I can find a recording of the Kansas State game?

Congratulations to Coach Stockton. Amazing accomplishment to be included in any HOF. Roll Wave!

From the Conference USA Website...

Lisa Stockton, Women’s Basketball Head Coach (1995-2005)
Two-time CUSA Coach of the Year (2010, 2007)
Led Tulane to four regular season CUSA Championships (2010, 2007, 1999, 1997) and five CUSA postseason tournament titles (2010, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1997)
Guided Tulane to NCAA Tournament appearances in their first eight years in CUSA (1995-96 to 2002-03) and nine total; Made five WNIT appearances
Won 20 or more games in 13 seasons in CUSA, leading all CUSA coaches with 397 victories during her time in the league
Coaches one CUSA Player of the Year, two CUSA Freshmen of the Year and six other individual award winners

That is fun to read!

Ross Massey was a freshman all-American in 2016. At the start of the 2017 season he was not the same pitcher. When Tulane came to Houston to play the Cougars I asked several parents what happened to him. It was difficult to get a straight answer, but one of the parents mentioned something about a weighted baseball. Can anyone shed some light on this?

I talked to Ron Hunter, Jaylen Forbes and Sion James with a couple of TV stations Wednesday. First, some background. Tulane will be the fifth university to represent the U.S. in this competition. In 2007, Northern Iowa finished ninth in Thailand, losing to eventual gold medalist Lithuania. In 2015, Kansas plus one guard from SMU (Nic Moore) won by beating Germany in OT in South Korea for first gold medal since 2005. In 2017, Purdue lost in gold medal game to Lithuania 85-74 in Taiwan. In 2019, Clemson beat Lithuania 85-63 for gold medal and went undefeated in tourney, beating Lithuania by 1 in pool play in Italy.

This team will be under pressure to win the gold medal and it will not be easy, so this will be different preparation than Tulane ever has had on an overseas summer trip. The team leaves for Chengdu on July 22.

RON HUNTER

On China trip:

“Well, I was on vacation and I got a call that said I will be working a little harder this summer and wanted to know if we would accept an invitation to go to China. The next thing I know, I’m getting ready for China. We’re excited to be able to wear USA Basketball across our chest and represent something more than just Tulane and the city.”

On how much it could help team:

“I think it could be really good for us. Of course the teams are really good over there. If you look at when Kansas was over there, every game was a one-possession game. Clemson, who won the gold, same thing, one-possession games, and Purdue before that won the silver medal, so we know the game will be good. I’ve got to make sure that it doesn’t linger for us and then become an extra-long year. We’ll watch how much we practice, and you know I only play seven or eight guys, but we’ll play 10 or 11 guys so we don’t get to January and just kind of fall off a cliff.”

On losing Jalen Cook but being happy with roster:

“I really am. I also knew in February that we had to change the back end of our roster for us to really get better, and we’ve done that. This is the most talented team I’ve had since I’ve been here. The portal was good to us, and our freshmen are really good. I love where we are. We now have what I call a complete, talented roster, so this is actually going to be good for us. A lot of guys are going to understand the system. We’re putting in things fairly quick here, but it’s great that we’ll have competitive games here. When we count our exhibition games once we land there, we’ll play probably a total of 10 games.”

On getting Forbes, Cross and James back from draft:

“It’s funny. All of them put their names in for the draft, and the day after they put their names in, I left for vacation. I just said when I come back we’ll see who I’m coaching. I didn’t want to know anything, but I’m really happy to have all three of those guys back. My assistants did a great job of recruiting. We’ve got some outstanding, talented young men that are here with the portal and through high school. Even when it’s time for those guys to leave, we now have what I call the next group of great Tulane basketball players. And I was really concerned about that because we didn’t have that in the program at that particular time, but we do now.”

On players testing the waters:

“To be honest with you, the way that the system’s set up for the NBA and the NCAA, you might as well do it. What’s great about our guys is they had seven, eight, nine, 10 workouts, and it wasn’t where they just put their name in and didn’t have workouts. When Cook did it a year ago, he had one workout. These guys had an average of 10 workouts. That means we’ve got pretty good players. I was really happy for them. Each of them learned something different in the process where they are. They’ll be better players this year for us.”

On the four portal guys:

“We wanted to bring a little bit more physicality, and Gregg Glenn is a really good player. He was once a five-star player, and he got buried a little bit his freshman year at Michigan, but he was the only guy that has USA basketball experience. He was on the USA Basketball team (winning a gold medal in 2019 at the 16-and-under level), so he’s been talking to our guys a lot about that. It’s good seeing him in workouts. We just haven’t had anything like him. As a matter of fact, I haven’t had anything like him since I’ve been coaching. He’s a really talented young player that’s a big inside who looks for his physicality. We usually kind of run away from that physicality, but he’s a tremendous player, and we knew we needed a point guard. We got a great point guard with Kolby King and Asher (Woods from VMI), an Atlanta kid. I’m really happy with what we got. The two freshmen have been great surprises for us. The Spencer (Elliott) kid is 6-9, 6-10, long, athletic and can shoot it. And then we wanted to get some shooting. That’s why we picked up (grad transfer) Jordan (Wood) at Howard. They played in the NCAA tournament last year, so we felt like all of our needs were met, but I knew in February that we had to change what I call the back end of our roster, and we were able to get that done with really, really quality players and people.”

On new-look AAC:

“To be honest with you I probably couldn’t even name the teams in our conference right now, so what I want to worry about is just getting us better day to day. Who knows what conference we’ll be in by the time we play. It just changes daily, so I think it’s important to continue to build your program. The recruiting landscape in college basketball has changed, and so has football. You can be getting a new roster every year the way things work now. We want to just take it year by year. I used to worry about the breakup of classes and those type of things. Those days are over now. I know we’ve got a talented roster this year, and I expect great things regardless of who’s in our league.”

On Percy Daniels:

“I think Percy can definitely take a step forward. We brought in some talented young people that he’ll have to compete with, but even the first couple of practices, you could just see he’s not the dear in the headlights. Things have really slowed down for him. This is a big opportunity for him this trip and with our freshmen. I’ll play more people, so this gives them the opportunity to say, hey, coach, I can play these type of minutes. I’m really looking forward to seeing how some of our younger guys compete. I know how Forbes and Sion and Cross will do that. We’ll get them their minutes, and we want to bring a gold medal back, there’s no question want to do that and it’s not going to be easy and we’ve talked about that, but it’s a great opportunity for me to play a lot of people.”

On the two freshmen:

“Mier (Panoam) is extremely talented. He’s probably one of the most athletic guards I’ve had. He is extremely athletic. He came from a good basketball background at Norcross in Atlanta, and so I’m really excited about him. He’s got a lot of really good guards ahead of him. And then to have a guy like Spencer at his size who can handle the basketball. We recruited him to back up Kevin Cross, but then we ended up getting Gregg Glenn, so now we’ve got two of those guys sitting in the program, and both of them (the freshmen( have been really a pleasant surprise in how much basketball they know and how well they’ve been coached in high school.”

On what he can learn about his team in China:

“It will be interesting to see. It’s a different type of competition with different rules (24-second clock, four 10-minute quarters). And the USA Basketball people are expecting us to win a gold medal, so the pressure is a little different. Usually you take these kind of trips and you go to the beach and have fun. We’re going to be watching film and trying to make sure we get in that gold medal game and win this thing, but there are some talented teams. I looked at a little tape the last couple of days, and there are some talented teams we’ve got to beat that have played a lot of basketball together. A couple of these teams have been in this event before. When we land, I just found out we are actually going to play China in the first exhibition game because China wanted to play USA Basketball, which may be the biggest crowd just in case we don’t see each other in the tournament. So as soon as we land, we are going to play China right off the airplane probably in front of 19,000 people.”

Dpes anyone know if any of our players are playing in one of the summer collegiate leagues this year?
Sure hope so.

Roll Wave!!!

Just talked to him on the phone. He has elite speed.

Cargo spotlight