The Tulane basketball team gets back on the court after a 10-day break on Wednesday night, playing Southern Miss. Tulane should win--the Golden Eagles were picked to finish second-to-last in CUSA--but the storyline is Gabe Watson facing his old team after leading USM in scoring last year and transferring to Tulane. He returned to practice Monday after missing time due to the concussion he sustained in the second half of the opener against Lamar and will come off the bench against USM.
I talked to Ron Hunter on the phone (with Tulane's COVID restrictions tighter for indoors events, I have not been to a single practice or done post-practice interviews this year) yesterday evening.
On how he feels going into the game:
"I feel pretty good. We had to get Gabe Watson back. That kind of hurt us at the end of the game the other day not having him, so now we know we'll have him back. Usually what happens is you have these games and they just keep coming. This is actually a pretty good lay-off for us because I didn't know anything about my team. After some games we were able to make some adjustments and we'll play two this week, so I feel good about where we are right now. The best part about it is that you play the games you want, so you can make corrections. It's always great to make corrections after wins."
On Watson status:
"Today is actually his first what I call contact practice. Today has been the first day we'll allow him to go full contact."
On Watson emotions facing Southern Miss:
"Yeah, I've had guys like that before, and one of the things is you try to calm them down a little bit because they get so excited. They are a well-coached, good team, but we have to do what we do and not get over-hyped about this is my former school. But I don't care what you say. Every kid will be that way. Hell, I was that way when I coached against my former school. It's just a natural part of it."
On when he knew Watson would transfer in:
"Gosh, I can't even remember. It was during that onslaught of all the transfers we were getting at the time. I remember coaching against him, and (Tulane assistant) coach (Kevin) Johnson knew him really well. At that time we were recruiting Forbes because they are both from the same hometown, so that really helped. I knew they kind of wanted to play together, so that was a great sell for us to bring them both in together."
On Watson's best asset:
"He can score. We are trying to fit his talents into our system and it's been a struggle with that, but he's a really talented kid offensively. When he sees that ball go in, he's just a natural scorer, so we're trying to make sure that we can fit his talents into what we're doing. There have been times in practice where he's absolutely just lit it up, and there are times, even our first game, where he was just trying too hard like all the rest of the guys. I wish he had had that second game. Now his second game is going to be another game he is going to be overly hyped. The good thing is I can bring him off the bench this game where he can relax. We started him the first one, and I'll bring him off the bench this time."
On improved athleticism:
"It helps a lot I told you before we had to improve our athleticism and we had to improve our 3-point shooting. Those are two things we definitely were much better at. To compete with the teams that we've got to play, we had to be, so I'm happy about that and we'll continue to get better. Our young guys just need game experience. I like this team. I think it's going to be a good team. We just now need game experience."
On Sion James:
"The scoring part will come. That will be the last piece, but if you look at his rebounding, his blocked shots, how he delivered the ball, his assists. His floor game is unbelievable. I've played him in two games and he can basically play all four positions on the floor offensively and defensively. I've never done that before with a freshman. He's smart. He just gets it. He knows how to fill up a stat sheet. He just turned 18 years old, so he's just scratching the surface with all this, but he's a talented, talented young man. The scoring part will come. I have no doubt about that. I've just been impressed with his defense and he now makes all the calls for us defensively."
On technical foul called on Jaden Coleman that sent him to the bench against Lipscomb:
"He learned a lesson because he came right out and didn't play again. That's the immaturity, That's the thing that we have to learn for our team, but he understand that. We talked afterward. That's probably the first time he's seen my intensity about something I don't like. He learned real fast how that's supposed to work. That's the thing when you have so many young guys. They are all talented, but they all want to play, so competition has really been good for us. On this team if you don't play well, there's a guy sitting there waiting to play. R.J. (McGee) was the perfect example of that."
I talked to Ron Hunter on the phone (with Tulane's COVID restrictions tighter for indoors events, I have not been to a single practice or done post-practice interviews this year) yesterday evening.
On how he feels going into the game:
"I feel pretty good. We had to get Gabe Watson back. That kind of hurt us at the end of the game the other day not having him, so now we know we'll have him back. Usually what happens is you have these games and they just keep coming. This is actually a pretty good lay-off for us because I didn't know anything about my team. After some games we were able to make some adjustments and we'll play two this week, so I feel good about where we are right now. The best part about it is that you play the games you want, so you can make corrections. It's always great to make corrections after wins."
On Watson status:
"Today is actually his first what I call contact practice. Today has been the first day we'll allow him to go full contact."
On Watson emotions facing Southern Miss:
"Yeah, I've had guys like that before, and one of the things is you try to calm them down a little bit because they get so excited. They are a well-coached, good team, but we have to do what we do and not get over-hyped about this is my former school. But I don't care what you say. Every kid will be that way. Hell, I was that way when I coached against my former school. It's just a natural part of it."
On when he knew Watson would transfer in:
"Gosh, I can't even remember. It was during that onslaught of all the transfers we were getting at the time. I remember coaching against him, and (Tulane assistant) coach (Kevin) Johnson knew him really well. At that time we were recruiting Forbes because they are both from the same hometown, so that really helped. I knew they kind of wanted to play together, so that was a great sell for us to bring them both in together."
On Watson's best asset:
"He can score. We are trying to fit his talents into our system and it's been a struggle with that, but he's a really talented kid offensively. When he sees that ball go in, he's just a natural scorer, so we're trying to make sure that we can fit his talents into what we're doing. There have been times in practice where he's absolutely just lit it up, and there are times, even our first game, where he was just trying too hard like all the rest of the guys. I wish he had had that second game. Now his second game is going to be another game he is going to be overly hyped. The good thing is I can bring him off the bench this game where he can relax. We started him the first one, and I'll bring him off the bench this time."
On improved athleticism:
"It helps a lot I told you before we had to improve our athleticism and we had to improve our 3-point shooting. Those are two things we definitely were much better at. To compete with the teams that we've got to play, we had to be, so I'm happy about that and we'll continue to get better. Our young guys just need game experience. I like this team. I think it's going to be a good team. We just now need game experience."
On Sion James:
"The scoring part will come. That will be the last piece, but if you look at his rebounding, his blocked shots, how he delivered the ball, his assists. His floor game is unbelievable. I've played him in two games and he can basically play all four positions on the floor offensively and defensively. I've never done that before with a freshman. He's smart. He just gets it. He knows how to fill up a stat sheet. He just turned 18 years old, so he's just scratching the surface with all this, but he's a talented, talented young man. The scoring part will come. I have no doubt about that. I've just been impressed with his defense and he now makes all the calls for us defensively."
On technical foul called on Jaden Coleman that sent him to the bench against Lipscomb:
"He learned a lesson because he came right out and didn't play again. That's the immaturity, That's the thing that we have to learn for our team, but he understand that. We talked afterward. That's probably the first time he's seen my intensity about something I don't like. He learned real fast how that's supposed to work. That's the thing when you have so many young guys. They are all talented, but they all want to play, so competition has really been good for us. On this team if you don't play well, there's a guy sitting there waiting to play. R.J. (McGee) was the perfect example of that."