After looking like deer in the headlights for the first 12 minutes against Memphis on Wednesday, Tulane fought back and made it anybody's game with four minutes left before falling part in the next few minutes, particularly offensively.
All in all, it was a good outing for a very young team that proved it could play good defense against a talented opponent. At some point, the Green Wave will need to start hitting a higher percentage of its outside shots--it missed its first 10 3s against Memphis--to win game like this, but the potential is there. Last year, despite the excellent all-around play of Christion Thompson, this team was not athletic enough or good enough to beat teams with a pulse without a fluke like Kevin Zhang's 5 for 5 performance on 3s against Cincinnati. This team appears capable of hanging with more opponents. Whether it beats them will be determined by the quality of its shots and the ability to knock down open looks, which has yet to be determined. Jaylen Forbes, who will finish with one of the highest free throw percentages in school history, appears capable of shooting much better than he has to this point, but Gabe Watson may not be able to hit as many difficult shots as he did against Memphis, when he scored on a variety of tough looks, the ones that make you go "No, No, hey, good shot." Tulane has zero post scoring, but a lot of teams in modern college basketball are in the same boat, and this team fights for rebounds much better than last year's group. Even though it likely will finish near the bottom of the league in rebounding margin, it won't be overwhelmed as often as last season.
Jordan Walker is the linchpin. If he plays under control, he has a lot of ability and can lead this team to good things. I talked to to him on the phone this afternoon about his volatile but mostly positive relatioship with Ron Hunter, who coaches his guys hard and does not tolerate mistakes.
How would you describe your relationship with coach Hunter?
"I would say we have like a love-hate relationship. I know at the end of the day he wants what's best for me, and I know every day outside of basketball he will be there for me no matter what in any circumstance of my life. It's hard to realize that sometimes because when you love basketball so much, sometimes you lose the bigger picture of what the coach is really asking of you. Basically coach Hunter just demands a lot of you, and in my opinion it's because he sees that I'm very talented and he sees that I can help him win. I can take hard criticism and I can take when he yells when he is emotional because I'm emotional, too. I feel like we're basically the same person, just he's a coach and I'm a player."
How has the relationship evolved since he arrived?
"I think it's evolved tremendously. It went from him not even knowing who I was to him realizing he's a good enough player but I don't think he can start to he's starting to just being a captain now and being that leader when he needs someone to be a leader. Like I say all the time, he wants a player-led team rather than a coach-led team, so he looks for me to be basically him on the floor at all times."
You had an amazing basket last night where you drove to the basket and made an acrobatic lay-up to cut the deficit to 2 in the second half. How did you develop that game?
"Where I learned how to do that, I'm from New York. I'm Jelly, too. That's just in me. I didn't plan that I was going to do it. I was in the air and I figured like I guess this is going to work, but I've worked on that move plenty of times in my life. I've missed way more than I made, but luckily I made it last night. I try to do what coach Hunter needs me to do, so if I feel like we're in the game and coach Hunter things we're not getting enough offense, then I'm going to be that person to get us some offense. If coach Hunter feels like we're not playing defense enough, I'm going to be that person to go play defense. Whatever he needs us to do at the end of the day that's what I'm going to try to do first so everyone else can follow. If I follow what he does, everyone is going to follow me because I'm the leader."
Coach Hunter says you're one of the smartest players he's coached but that sometimes you don't play like it. How do you feel like your game has evolved in that area?
"I feel like sometimes I have a lot of mental lapses. I have a lot of times where I lose sight of the game and lose my focus. My coaches preach to me to stay locked in and stay focused and just try to make the right play every single time even if it's the simple play. They always tell me like Jordan, you don't need the home run every time, like hit singles because eventually we are going to score and we are going to get on base and we are going to keep scoring. I think I'm a very smart player, and hearing him say that is just crazy to me him saying I'm one of the smartest players he's ever had. I'm definitely getting better at it, but I need to slow down more. I have to understand the speed of the game and slow my mind down so that I can make good decisions. I've been working on that a lot."
Coach Hunter said last year you were Jelly and this year you are Jordan. What does he mean by that?
"He's never really liked the Jelly focus because he wants me to be simple. He loves when you can make fancy plays and play basketball off of instinct, but at the same time in order to win at this level consistently, you have to do the simple things perfectly. If you try to do the hard things perfectly every time, it's not going to happen. He's big on fundamentals. He tries to make me slow my game down like I said."
Where did you get the nickname Jelly?
"Jelly's been like when we're not with each other, everyone calls us individually like jelly. When I'm not with everyone and we're by ourselves and with our own group of friends, we're all called jelly, but once we're together with each other, that's when we really call each other our names."
All in all, it was a good outing for a very young team that proved it could play good defense against a talented opponent. At some point, the Green Wave will need to start hitting a higher percentage of its outside shots--it missed its first 10 3s against Memphis--to win game like this, but the potential is there. Last year, despite the excellent all-around play of Christion Thompson, this team was not athletic enough or good enough to beat teams with a pulse without a fluke like Kevin Zhang's 5 for 5 performance on 3s against Cincinnati. This team appears capable of hanging with more opponents. Whether it beats them will be determined by the quality of its shots and the ability to knock down open looks, which has yet to be determined. Jaylen Forbes, who will finish with one of the highest free throw percentages in school history, appears capable of shooting much better than he has to this point, but Gabe Watson may not be able to hit as many difficult shots as he did against Memphis, when he scored on a variety of tough looks, the ones that make you go "No, No, hey, good shot." Tulane has zero post scoring, but a lot of teams in modern college basketball are in the same boat, and this team fights for rebounds much better than last year's group. Even though it likely will finish near the bottom of the league in rebounding margin, it won't be overwhelmed as often as last season.
Jordan Walker is the linchpin. If he plays under control, he has a lot of ability and can lead this team to good things. I talked to to him on the phone this afternoon about his volatile but mostly positive relatioship with Ron Hunter, who coaches his guys hard and does not tolerate mistakes.
How would you describe your relationship with coach Hunter?
"I would say we have like a love-hate relationship. I know at the end of the day he wants what's best for me, and I know every day outside of basketball he will be there for me no matter what in any circumstance of my life. It's hard to realize that sometimes because when you love basketball so much, sometimes you lose the bigger picture of what the coach is really asking of you. Basically coach Hunter just demands a lot of you, and in my opinion it's because he sees that I'm very talented and he sees that I can help him win. I can take hard criticism and I can take when he yells when he is emotional because I'm emotional, too. I feel like we're basically the same person, just he's a coach and I'm a player."
How has the relationship evolved since he arrived?
"I think it's evolved tremendously. It went from him not even knowing who I was to him realizing he's a good enough player but I don't think he can start to he's starting to just being a captain now and being that leader when he needs someone to be a leader. Like I say all the time, he wants a player-led team rather than a coach-led team, so he looks for me to be basically him on the floor at all times."
You had an amazing basket last night where you drove to the basket and made an acrobatic lay-up to cut the deficit to 2 in the second half. How did you develop that game?
"Where I learned how to do that, I'm from New York. I'm Jelly, too. That's just in me. I didn't plan that I was going to do it. I was in the air and I figured like I guess this is going to work, but I've worked on that move plenty of times in my life. I've missed way more than I made, but luckily I made it last night. I try to do what coach Hunter needs me to do, so if I feel like we're in the game and coach Hunter things we're not getting enough offense, then I'm going to be that person to get us some offense. If coach Hunter feels like we're not playing defense enough, I'm going to be that person to go play defense. Whatever he needs us to do at the end of the day that's what I'm going to try to do first so everyone else can follow. If I follow what he does, everyone is going to follow me because I'm the leader."
Coach Hunter says you're one of the smartest players he's coached but that sometimes you don't play like it. How do you feel like your game has evolved in that area?
"I feel like sometimes I have a lot of mental lapses. I have a lot of times where I lose sight of the game and lose my focus. My coaches preach to me to stay locked in and stay focused and just try to make the right play every single time even if it's the simple play. They always tell me like Jordan, you don't need the home run every time, like hit singles because eventually we are going to score and we are going to get on base and we are going to keep scoring. I think I'm a very smart player, and hearing him say that is just crazy to me him saying I'm one of the smartest players he's ever had. I'm definitely getting better at it, but I need to slow down more. I have to understand the speed of the game and slow my mind down so that I can make good decisions. I've been working on that a lot."
Coach Hunter said last year you were Jelly and this year you are Jordan. What does he mean by that?
"He's never really liked the Jelly focus because he wants me to be simple. He loves when you can make fancy plays and play basketball off of instinct, but at the same time in order to win at this level consistently, you have to do the simple things perfectly. If you try to do the hard things perfectly every time, it's not going to happen. He's big on fundamentals. He tries to make me slow my game down like I said."
Where did you get the nickname Jelly?
"Jelly's been like when we're not with each other, everyone calls us individually like jelly. When I'm not with everyone and we're by ourselves and with our own group of friends, we're all called jelly, but once we're together with each other, that's when we really call each other our names."
