1) Willie Fritz and company did a really nice job filling holes with their last five signees.
Never mind that Tulane's recruiting ranking for the 2020 class is higher than for any since 2004. We already knew Willie Fritz was on the the right track in building a consistent winner at a program that has consistently lost for nearly 40 years save the two-year Tommy Bowden/RichRod nirvana.
What I really like is the quality and position of the last five gets--linebacker Jesus Machado, who committed and signed on the day of the earlier period, grad transfer linebacker Kevin Henry from Oklahoma State, grad transfer wide receiver Mykel Jones from Oklahoma, defensive tackle Adonis Frilous, who flipped from Houston, and offensive tackle Trey Tuggle.
Tulane really needed linebackers with only three scholarship guys returning to fill two spots, and by all accounts, Machado might be good enough to play as a freshman. And if he is not ready, Henry certainly is, giving the Wave a solid two deep along with Marvin Moody, Nick Anderson, Dorian Williams. Before those additions, lack of depth at linebacker was looking like it might be a killer for 2020. No more. I don't expect Henry to be a dominant linebacker--he rarely cracked the starting lineup at Oklahoma State--but at the very least he can contribute like Malik Lawal did on the defensive line this year and will be part of the rotation. It also helps that Machado and Henry will participate in spring practice. They need to be ready to play at the start of the season.
Jones could be a big-time receiver. I'm not 100-percent sure because I will fall back on what basketball coach Ron Hunter recently said about transfers, that all of them were broken in some way and need to be fixed. Jones had two catches last year, barely getting on the field at Oklahoma. Obviously the Sooners are incredibly talented at receiver, but his playing time went down rather than up in his final year there. Still, Jones looks the part, talks the part and could be a godsend for a receiving corps that lacks any proven performer. Maybe Sorrell Brown will stay healthy and show everyone why insiders were so excited about him two years ago. Maybe Jaetavian Toles makes a huge leap with the opportunity in front of him after not doing a whole heck of a lot last year. Maybe Jacob Robertson, who came on a bit at the end of the season, can become a solid role player. Maybe the Watts brothers, who put up small numbers at a run-first JUCO, will explode when given the opportunity under Will Hall. But there is a ton of uncertainty at the position. Jones appears to be the best bet to excel, and he is fast.
A team can never have enough good defensive linemen, and I really like the potential of Friloux. If he were a little taller, everyone would have been after him. His dominant high school numbers speak for themselves. He could be an impact player on the interior as a freshman and surely will be an impact player down the road even if he is not ready immediately. Guys like him are the difference between competing for championships and going 6-6.
As for Tuggle, my reservations about guys who waffle about signing already have been noted, but he completes an outstanding group of offensive lineman. Poor line play has hampered the program for the last 10 years, and offensive line coach Cody Kennedy set out to upgrade the unit dramatically in recruiting. He succeeded, bringing in five guys with the headliners likely being Josh Remetich, Rashad Green and Tuggle. Down the road, Tulane won't have to do it with smoke and mirrors up front, Kennedy and Hall were forced to camouflage a myriad of blocking weaknesses last year.
2) The basketball team absolutely, positively needs more from Jordan Walker and Teshaun Hightower
I look stupid for posting Tulane could go 10-8 in the AAC in a post here after its 2-2 start. Clearly, I did not see the crash and burn coming, and neither did Ron Hunter, who was talking about being maybe two games out of first place by mid-February and then making a push for the top as his team jelled. He is an excellent coach, as his track record and the much inferior track record of his successors at IUPUI and predecessors at Georgia State proved, but Tulane simply cannot put the ball in the basket or get quality possessions on offense.
So what happened? Obviously, there are a whole host of issues, but the biggest factors have been the disappearance of point guard Jordan Walker and the ineffectiveness of Teshaun Hightower. When Ray Ona Embo left the team early in the season, I naively thought it would not be a big deal because I never liked his game. I also thought Walker had proven himself as a clutch player who hit big shots late and could run the team. But since scoring 17 in the win against Temple, he has not reached double figures again, averaging 5.6 points and a little less than two assists. He played only eight minutes against ECU on Saturday as Tulane went without a point guard for most of the game. I expected long periods of dormancy from Kevin Zhang, but not Walker. A couple of weeks ago Hunter compared Walker to Zhang in terms of inconsistency, which was not a good sign.
Hightower, meanwhile, looked like he would be a second-team caliber All-AAC performer early in the year. Instead, he has struggled to overcome adversity, losing confidence in his outside shot as opponents played him for the drive and getting out of control as he tried to penetrate against tight defense anyway. Since the Temple game, he is shooting 33 percent, with 1 of 6, 1 of 7 and 1 of 9 clunkers in the mix. He has twice as many turnovers (26) as assists (13) in that span, although nine of the assists have come in the last two games as he has started passing more to combat all of the attention he is receiving. To win, Tulane needed Hightower to be great. Instead, we are seeing why he struggled to get consistent playing time at Georgia last season despite his ability.
Tulane always was going to struggle rebounding the ball this year. It always was going to struggle against big post players. It needed to overcome those deficiencies with an efficient offense and the ability to score in transition as it forced turnovers (in one positive sign, the Wave has forced more turnovers than it has allowed in 22 of 23 games). Neither happened, and Tulane is far too limited offensively while getting next to nothing from Walker and repeated rough shooting nights from Hightower.
3) To reach a regional this year, Tulane needs Daniel Latham to be a savior
The Advocate's lack of baseball coverage was ripped on another message board this week. That's fair criticism, and I am the one responsible. I do the weekly budgets for Tulane content and elected not to write much about the team, although I will have a notebook later today and we will have a full Tulane preview page Friday rather than the Wave sharing a page with UNO as happened last year.
I love baseball. From 1980 to 1986, before I went off to Florida for college, I attended almost every Tulane home game because I got in free on my father's faculty card. I would head straight to the diamond from middle school and high school on weekdays to catch the end of 2 p.m. single games and 1 p.m. doubleheaders (there were no lights at the stadium). I went to the Saturday and Sunday games religiously.
But with this Tulane baseball team, I'm not sure what to write in the preseason. Obviously, the pitching needs to be vastly improved, and on paper it isn't. That's where Latham comes in. The buzz has been good about Tulane's juco imports even though their numbers were not particularly impressive before they arrived. Positive buzz in recent years has not amounted to anything, but let's see if Latham can turn these guys into solid D1 pitchers. His numbers were outstanding as a pitching coach at Southeastern, and he was not exactly working with blue chip talent there, either. He'd never experienced anything remotely like the disaster that was Tulane pitching last year, when the ERA of 5.74 was higher than in the terrible two years under former pitching coach Tighe Dickinson. Unless the team ERA drops by more than a run per game, the Wave will go nowhere regardless of what it does at the plate. I'm taking a wait-and-see approach, but I do like Latham's history.
Never mind that Tulane's recruiting ranking for the 2020 class is higher than for any since 2004. We already knew Willie Fritz was on the the right track in building a consistent winner at a program that has consistently lost for nearly 40 years save the two-year Tommy Bowden/RichRod nirvana.
What I really like is the quality and position of the last five gets--linebacker Jesus Machado, who committed and signed on the day of the earlier period, grad transfer linebacker Kevin Henry from Oklahoma State, grad transfer wide receiver Mykel Jones from Oklahoma, defensive tackle Adonis Frilous, who flipped from Houston, and offensive tackle Trey Tuggle.
Tulane really needed linebackers with only three scholarship guys returning to fill two spots, and by all accounts, Machado might be good enough to play as a freshman. And if he is not ready, Henry certainly is, giving the Wave a solid two deep along with Marvin Moody, Nick Anderson, Dorian Williams. Before those additions, lack of depth at linebacker was looking like it might be a killer for 2020. No more. I don't expect Henry to be a dominant linebacker--he rarely cracked the starting lineup at Oklahoma State--but at the very least he can contribute like Malik Lawal did on the defensive line this year and will be part of the rotation. It also helps that Machado and Henry will participate in spring practice. They need to be ready to play at the start of the season.
Jones could be a big-time receiver. I'm not 100-percent sure because I will fall back on what basketball coach Ron Hunter recently said about transfers, that all of them were broken in some way and need to be fixed. Jones had two catches last year, barely getting on the field at Oklahoma. Obviously the Sooners are incredibly talented at receiver, but his playing time went down rather than up in his final year there. Still, Jones looks the part, talks the part and could be a godsend for a receiving corps that lacks any proven performer. Maybe Sorrell Brown will stay healthy and show everyone why insiders were so excited about him two years ago. Maybe Jaetavian Toles makes a huge leap with the opportunity in front of him after not doing a whole heck of a lot last year. Maybe Jacob Robertson, who came on a bit at the end of the season, can become a solid role player. Maybe the Watts brothers, who put up small numbers at a run-first JUCO, will explode when given the opportunity under Will Hall. But there is a ton of uncertainty at the position. Jones appears to be the best bet to excel, and he is fast.
A team can never have enough good defensive linemen, and I really like the potential of Friloux. If he were a little taller, everyone would have been after him. His dominant high school numbers speak for themselves. He could be an impact player on the interior as a freshman and surely will be an impact player down the road even if he is not ready immediately. Guys like him are the difference between competing for championships and going 6-6.
As for Tuggle, my reservations about guys who waffle about signing already have been noted, but he completes an outstanding group of offensive lineman. Poor line play has hampered the program for the last 10 years, and offensive line coach Cody Kennedy set out to upgrade the unit dramatically in recruiting. He succeeded, bringing in five guys with the headliners likely being Josh Remetich, Rashad Green and Tuggle. Down the road, Tulane won't have to do it with smoke and mirrors up front, Kennedy and Hall were forced to camouflage a myriad of blocking weaknesses last year.
2) The basketball team absolutely, positively needs more from Jordan Walker and Teshaun Hightower
I look stupid for posting Tulane could go 10-8 in the AAC in a post here after its 2-2 start. Clearly, I did not see the crash and burn coming, and neither did Ron Hunter, who was talking about being maybe two games out of first place by mid-February and then making a push for the top as his team jelled. He is an excellent coach, as his track record and the much inferior track record of his successors at IUPUI and predecessors at Georgia State proved, but Tulane simply cannot put the ball in the basket or get quality possessions on offense.
So what happened? Obviously, there are a whole host of issues, but the biggest factors have been the disappearance of point guard Jordan Walker and the ineffectiveness of Teshaun Hightower. When Ray Ona Embo left the team early in the season, I naively thought it would not be a big deal because I never liked his game. I also thought Walker had proven himself as a clutch player who hit big shots late and could run the team. But since scoring 17 in the win against Temple, he has not reached double figures again, averaging 5.6 points and a little less than two assists. He played only eight minutes against ECU on Saturday as Tulane went without a point guard for most of the game. I expected long periods of dormancy from Kevin Zhang, but not Walker. A couple of weeks ago Hunter compared Walker to Zhang in terms of inconsistency, which was not a good sign.
Hightower, meanwhile, looked like he would be a second-team caliber All-AAC performer early in the year. Instead, he has struggled to overcome adversity, losing confidence in his outside shot as opponents played him for the drive and getting out of control as he tried to penetrate against tight defense anyway. Since the Temple game, he is shooting 33 percent, with 1 of 6, 1 of 7 and 1 of 9 clunkers in the mix. He has twice as many turnovers (26) as assists (13) in that span, although nine of the assists have come in the last two games as he has started passing more to combat all of the attention he is receiving. To win, Tulane needed Hightower to be great. Instead, we are seeing why he struggled to get consistent playing time at Georgia last season despite his ability.
Tulane always was going to struggle rebounding the ball this year. It always was going to struggle against big post players. It needed to overcome those deficiencies with an efficient offense and the ability to score in transition as it forced turnovers (in one positive sign, the Wave has forced more turnovers than it has allowed in 22 of 23 games). Neither happened, and Tulane is far too limited offensively while getting next to nothing from Walker and repeated rough shooting nights from Hightower.
3) To reach a regional this year, Tulane needs Daniel Latham to be a savior
The Advocate's lack of baseball coverage was ripped on another message board this week. That's fair criticism, and I am the one responsible. I do the weekly budgets for Tulane content and elected not to write much about the team, although I will have a notebook later today and we will have a full Tulane preview page Friday rather than the Wave sharing a page with UNO as happened last year.
I love baseball. From 1980 to 1986, before I went off to Florida for college, I attended almost every Tulane home game because I got in free on my father's faculty card. I would head straight to the diamond from middle school and high school on weekdays to catch the end of 2 p.m. single games and 1 p.m. doubleheaders (there were no lights at the stadium). I went to the Saturday and Sunday games religiously.
But with this Tulane baseball team, I'm not sure what to write in the preseason. Obviously, the pitching needs to be vastly improved, and on paper it isn't. That's where Latham comes in. The buzz has been good about Tulane's juco imports even though their numbers were not particularly impressive before they arrived. Positive buzz in recent years has not amounted to anything, but let's see if Latham can turn these guys into solid D1 pitchers. His numbers were outstanding as a pitching coach at Southeastern, and he was not exactly working with blue chip talent there, either. He'd never experienced anything remotely like the disaster that was Tulane pitching last year, when the ERA of 5.74 was higher than in the terrible two years under former pitching coach Tighe Dickinson. Unless the team ERA drops by more than a run per game, the Wave will go nowhere regardless of what it does at the plate. I'm taking a wait-and-see approach, but I do like Latham's history.