Tulane has its best chance to date to win an AAC game on Thursday against Tulsa.
Tulsa's highs are much higher than Tulane's highs (16-point win over Memphis and 18-point win over Temple in its last two home games) but it has yet to win a conference road game, falling to Houston by 18, SMU by 20, UCF by 2, Cincinnati by 24 and Wichita State by 11. If Tulane shoots well, an elusive goal, and Tulsa plays like it has in all but the UCF game away from home, the Wave can avoid tying its second-worst conference start in school history.
In 1978, the first year the Metro Conference had a full schedule, Tulane started 0-11 before winning its finale against Saint Louis in a year it finished 5-22 overall.
In 1964, Tulane lost its first 13 SEC games and its first 22 overall before beating LSU 80-68 in the finale to finish 1-13 in the league and 1-22 overall.
Since those two seasons, Tulane's worst conference start was 0-8 in the first year of the regrettable Shawn Finney era in 2001. Even Perry Clark's first-year team in 1990 won its third conference game before going 1-13.
This type of pursuit of history is not what Tulane had in mind when it hired Mike Dunleavy, but I continue to hear he will be back next year. None of this comes directly from Troy Dannen, but the consensus is Dunleavy is safe. This article from ESPN.com--one of the strangest I've read on the site--agrees with that sentiment.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...4/reverse-hot-seat-why-embattled-coaches-stay
The one thing no one can say with a straight face is Tulane has been unlucky to go 0-10. In 400 minutes of AAC play, Tulane has been ahead for 45 minutes and 27 seconds by my count, trailing wire-to-wire in six games and never leading in the last four minutes.
Dunleavy said on the AAC teleconference yesterday that Ona Embo, Koka and Ajang are out for the year now. I had thought Koka would be back, but he won't be, so Tulane will have limited depth in the frontcourt the rest of the way.
Crabtree hit all four of his 3s against Wichita State after missing 15 consecutive 3s over a seven-game span. Moses Wood did not contribute a whole lot on the stat sheet in his 21 minutes, but he has very active hands and makes smart plays, something that is rare on this team. If Kevin Zhang, who has been soft as tissue paper, has one of his good games, Tulane can avoid going 0-18 in the league. But that's a lot of ifs. And it's not like Tulane will get any help from playing at home. The Wave is 5-31 at home in AAC play, which has to be the worst record for any D1 team over the last five years.
Tulsa's highs are much higher than Tulane's highs (16-point win over Memphis and 18-point win over Temple in its last two home games) but it has yet to win a conference road game, falling to Houston by 18, SMU by 20, UCF by 2, Cincinnati by 24 and Wichita State by 11. If Tulane shoots well, an elusive goal, and Tulsa plays like it has in all but the UCF game away from home, the Wave can avoid tying its second-worst conference start in school history.
In 1978, the first year the Metro Conference had a full schedule, Tulane started 0-11 before winning its finale against Saint Louis in a year it finished 5-22 overall.
In 1964, Tulane lost its first 13 SEC games and its first 22 overall before beating LSU 80-68 in the finale to finish 1-13 in the league and 1-22 overall.
Since those two seasons, Tulane's worst conference start was 0-8 in the first year of the regrettable Shawn Finney era in 2001. Even Perry Clark's first-year team in 1990 won its third conference game before going 1-13.
This type of pursuit of history is not what Tulane had in mind when it hired Mike Dunleavy, but I continue to hear he will be back next year. None of this comes directly from Troy Dannen, but the consensus is Dunleavy is safe. This article from ESPN.com--one of the strangest I've read on the site--agrees with that sentiment.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...4/reverse-hot-seat-why-embattled-coaches-stay
The one thing no one can say with a straight face is Tulane has been unlucky to go 0-10. In 400 minutes of AAC play, Tulane has been ahead for 45 minutes and 27 seconds by my count, trailing wire-to-wire in six games and never leading in the last four minutes.
Dunleavy said on the AAC teleconference yesterday that Ona Embo, Koka and Ajang are out for the year now. I had thought Koka would be back, but he won't be, so Tulane will have limited depth in the frontcourt the rest of the way.
Crabtree hit all four of his 3s against Wichita State after missing 15 consecutive 3s over a seven-game span. Moses Wood did not contribute a whole lot on the stat sheet in his 21 minutes, but he has very active hands and makes smart plays, something that is rare on this team. If Kevin Zhang, who has been soft as tissue paper, has one of his good games, Tulane can avoid going 0-18 in the league. But that's a lot of ifs. And it's not like Tulane will get any help from playing at home. The Wave is 5-31 at home in AAC play, which has to be the worst record for any D1 team over the last five years.
