This, I believe, is the biggest two-game stretch of the century for the Tulane basketball team. To reach its preseason goal of making the NCAA tournament, it absolutely must beat UCF tomorrow and probably needs to beat No. 1 Houston on Tuesday (a road win against the Cougars would allow the Wave to lose the home game, but I'm being realistic here). UCF is the highest rated AAC team in the NET outside of63 p Houston, and Tulane does not get a return trip to Orlando, so this is a rare shot at a quality win (at Memphis and the two games against Houston are the others left).
Coming off an AAC-record (for a conference game) 63-point half against SMU in a game in which it did not play well in the first half, Tulane is incredibly confident offensively. UCF (13-4, 4-1) has played well this year, losing two games by two points, another by 3 and at Houston by 6 while playing a ton of close games, going 3-1 in overtimes games, including Wednesday's 107-104 double-OT victory against Memphis. The Knights have had almost a complete roster turnover from a year ago and will be down two players (starting guard Darius Johnson and reserve 7-0 center C.J. Walker). The only player who will get in the game tomorrow who played against Tulane last year is reserve guard Tyem Freeman, who did not score in the teams' first meeting and went 1 for 9 with three points in the second meeting at Devlin Fieldhouse. UCF leads the AAC in 3-point shooting, which has been a defensive issue for the Wave, but Tulane is the more talented, more cohesive team. We will learn a lot about these guys' commitment and focus tomorrow. They got away with some sketchy play at SMU because they are so good offensively, but they cannot afford the same lapses against UCF.
I talked to Ron Hunter, Jaylen Forbes and Collin Holloway today. Here is what they said
RON HUNTER
On how confident this team is offensively:
"I keep using those two words--confidence and healthy. Earlier in the year we were shooting 29 percent from the 3, and we put way too much time and energy over an entire year with our shooting for it not to pay off, and it's starting to pay off for us a little bit. We are still determining what are good shots and bad shots, but when we get in that role when we see the ball go in as a team, it becomes very hard to guard."
On Forbes' efficiency:
"He's playing his best basketball of his career right now. The game has really slowed down for him. He doesn't feel like he has to carry everything on his shoulders right now, and it's made him a better basketball player on both ends of the floor. He's playing outstanding right now, whether it's the free throw line, defensively, shooting the 3, putting the ball on the floor, he's playing like an All-Conference guy."
On Cross excelling down stretch of SMU game while playing with four fouls:
"We're getting more consistent minutes from Kev without the foul trouble. We're doing a few things to change that a little bit, but that's starting to help him defensively. But all the guys, sometimes you get a team when you don't know when they are going to start clicking. The great part about this is I don't think we've played our best game yet, and that's what I'm really excited about and can't wait to see. Hopefully it will be in these next two games."
On lapses against SMU:
"No question, but as I told them, in this league winning road games is huge. There are some really tough places to play. I thought SMU was much better than their record showed, and their physicality inside bothered us a little bit. There's no easy game where you can just show up in this league to play. We have a tough game with Central Florida, and that's the only thing that matters right now."
On roster turnover at UCF:
"That's college basketball. That's what makes it so tricky. All of a sudden things can change in an instant, good or bad, and so you just don't know. That's why you need to have your kids ready to play and why we only worry about what we do, and that helps us, so you don't have to worry about all the coming in and out."
On how much having stable roster benefits Tulane:
"It can, but now that you're in the season this far, you are who you are, and Johnny (Dawkins)'s done a great job with it because they have bought in defensively."
JAYLEN FORBES
On hitting dagger 3-point shot from way out for 9-point lead in final two minutes against SMU:
"Well to start the play off Cook had the ball and I was trying to tell them to run a specific play to Cook, but Cook threw it to Kev (Kevin Cross). But we can run the same thing with Kev. My intention was for Kev to go score actually, but once I turned it around he threw it to me and I realized I had the big on me (6-9 forward Efie Odigie) and he wasn't up. I was alway taught I'm a shooter, so hand down, man down, so that's really what it was."
On his own efficiency:
"Not only just me but it's coming from the whole team. We've started gaining confidence game by game. Cook's playing great. Kev's playing great. Sion (James) is playing great. That just opens the floor up for me even more, so I give all the credit to those guys."
On offense being hard to stop:
"It's very tough. As you can see, I hit three 3s in a row (actually two an then three free throws after being fouled on a 3), then Cook went on his run by himself. It's just a matter of when teams start to focus on one player, we have five guys on the floor that can score from three different levels, so that's very tough for other teams to guard."
On Holloway's two flailing, high degree of difficulty and-one lay-ups that went in:
"That helps a lot. With Collin being undersized, he finishes great at the rim. Me and Kev was getting read to check in the game actually when he made one of those lay-ups, and we just laughed about it. It was like how are you making those lay-ups spinning and falling to the ground. I've seen him do it plenty of times, so it was no surprise."
On UCF game:
"Just come out defending. Keep the same thing we have these past few wins, but we've got to come out and keep sharing the ball and we have to guard and we have to rebound. They are a top team in this league, and we feel like we're a top team in this league also, so then it comes down to protect the home court and we always want to protect the home court, so that will be a big deal."
No panic against SMU:
"That's where we have grown more as a team. Basketball is a game of runs. Early in the season we may have gotten away from each other, but as you've seen recently. when teams go on their run we've come together even more as a team. I give the credit to the guys once again, knowing that we are going to need every last person. It's going to take all of us to win."
COLLIN HOLLOWAY
On how he became such a good finisher around the basket:
"I worked on it a little bit. The thing that put me over the top was my first year at Georgetown. Coming as a freshman I wasn't super athletic, and I was playing the 4 or 5 over there, so I had to finish over bigger dudes, so I learned it, kept working on it and got better at it. It showed my sophomore year in the Big East, and I'm showing it right now. I've learned different ways to put it off the glass, different ways to finish, when to jump, when to not jump, when to go into the body and when to not, all different types of things."
On being equally good finishing with left or right hand:
"It helps a lot to be ambidextrous of course. Being able to go both ways is definitely a big help in what I do. It's great."
On two flailing lay-ups against SMU:
"Man, I really just worked on it for a long time. I don't want to say I've mastered it yet because there's ways to improve, but I've gotten a lot better at it."
On left knee bothering him earlier in the year:
"It was bad for a little minute, but I've been working on it rehabbing a lot. It's honestly worlds better than what it was. It's not really a factor right now."
On team being tough to defend:
"When we move that ball, I don't see anyone in the country that can really guard us in a half or a full-court setting, so it's obviously a blessing to be able to play with dudes like this. It's going to be nice."
On key to beating UCF:
"Probably defending and rebounding. We're a little bit outsized, so obviously we have to guard. They shoot a lot of 3s, so we have to guard the 3-point line and make them take 2s, go out and play hard and win a home game."
Coming off an AAC-record (for a conference game) 63-point half against SMU in a game in which it did not play well in the first half, Tulane is incredibly confident offensively. UCF (13-4, 4-1) has played well this year, losing two games by two points, another by 3 and at Houston by 6 while playing a ton of close games, going 3-1 in overtimes games, including Wednesday's 107-104 double-OT victory against Memphis. The Knights have had almost a complete roster turnover from a year ago and will be down two players (starting guard Darius Johnson and reserve 7-0 center C.J. Walker). The only player who will get in the game tomorrow who played against Tulane last year is reserve guard Tyem Freeman, who did not score in the teams' first meeting and went 1 for 9 with three points in the second meeting at Devlin Fieldhouse. UCF leads the AAC in 3-point shooting, which has been a defensive issue for the Wave, but Tulane is the more talented, more cohesive team. We will learn a lot about these guys' commitment and focus tomorrow. They got away with some sketchy play at SMU because they are so good offensively, but they cannot afford the same lapses against UCF.
I talked to Ron Hunter, Jaylen Forbes and Collin Holloway today. Here is what they said
RON HUNTER
On how confident this team is offensively:
"I keep using those two words--confidence and healthy. Earlier in the year we were shooting 29 percent from the 3, and we put way too much time and energy over an entire year with our shooting for it not to pay off, and it's starting to pay off for us a little bit. We are still determining what are good shots and bad shots, but when we get in that role when we see the ball go in as a team, it becomes very hard to guard."
On Forbes' efficiency:
"He's playing his best basketball of his career right now. The game has really slowed down for him. He doesn't feel like he has to carry everything on his shoulders right now, and it's made him a better basketball player on both ends of the floor. He's playing outstanding right now, whether it's the free throw line, defensively, shooting the 3, putting the ball on the floor, he's playing like an All-Conference guy."
On Cross excelling down stretch of SMU game while playing with four fouls:
"We're getting more consistent minutes from Kev without the foul trouble. We're doing a few things to change that a little bit, but that's starting to help him defensively. But all the guys, sometimes you get a team when you don't know when they are going to start clicking. The great part about this is I don't think we've played our best game yet, and that's what I'm really excited about and can't wait to see. Hopefully it will be in these next two games."
On lapses against SMU:
"No question, but as I told them, in this league winning road games is huge. There are some really tough places to play. I thought SMU was much better than their record showed, and their physicality inside bothered us a little bit. There's no easy game where you can just show up in this league to play. We have a tough game with Central Florida, and that's the only thing that matters right now."
On roster turnover at UCF:
"That's college basketball. That's what makes it so tricky. All of a sudden things can change in an instant, good or bad, and so you just don't know. That's why you need to have your kids ready to play and why we only worry about what we do, and that helps us, so you don't have to worry about all the coming in and out."
On how much having stable roster benefits Tulane:
"It can, but now that you're in the season this far, you are who you are, and Johnny (Dawkins)'s done a great job with it because they have bought in defensively."
JAYLEN FORBES
On hitting dagger 3-point shot from way out for 9-point lead in final two minutes against SMU:
"Well to start the play off Cook had the ball and I was trying to tell them to run a specific play to Cook, but Cook threw it to Kev (Kevin Cross). But we can run the same thing with Kev. My intention was for Kev to go score actually, but once I turned it around he threw it to me and I realized I had the big on me (6-9 forward Efie Odigie) and he wasn't up. I was alway taught I'm a shooter, so hand down, man down, so that's really what it was."
On his own efficiency:
"Not only just me but it's coming from the whole team. We've started gaining confidence game by game. Cook's playing great. Kev's playing great. Sion (James) is playing great. That just opens the floor up for me even more, so I give all the credit to those guys."
On offense being hard to stop:
"It's very tough. As you can see, I hit three 3s in a row (actually two an then three free throws after being fouled on a 3), then Cook went on his run by himself. It's just a matter of when teams start to focus on one player, we have five guys on the floor that can score from three different levels, so that's very tough for other teams to guard."
On Holloway's two flailing, high degree of difficulty and-one lay-ups that went in:
"That helps a lot. With Collin being undersized, he finishes great at the rim. Me and Kev was getting read to check in the game actually when he made one of those lay-ups, and we just laughed about it. It was like how are you making those lay-ups spinning and falling to the ground. I've seen him do it plenty of times, so it was no surprise."
On UCF game:
"Just come out defending. Keep the same thing we have these past few wins, but we've got to come out and keep sharing the ball and we have to guard and we have to rebound. They are a top team in this league, and we feel like we're a top team in this league also, so then it comes down to protect the home court and we always want to protect the home court, so that will be a big deal."
No panic against SMU:
"That's where we have grown more as a team. Basketball is a game of runs. Early in the season we may have gotten away from each other, but as you've seen recently. when teams go on their run we've come together even more as a team. I give the credit to the guys once again, knowing that we are going to need every last person. It's going to take all of us to win."
COLLIN HOLLOWAY
On how he became such a good finisher around the basket:
"I worked on it a little bit. The thing that put me over the top was my first year at Georgetown. Coming as a freshman I wasn't super athletic, and I was playing the 4 or 5 over there, so I had to finish over bigger dudes, so I learned it, kept working on it and got better at it. It showed my sophomore year in the Big East, and I'm showing it right now. I've learned different ways to put it off the glass, different ways to finish, when to jump, when to not jump, when to go into the body and when to not, all different types of things."
On being equally good finishing with left or right hand:
"It helps a lot to be ambidextrous of course. Being able to go both ways is definitely a big help in what I do. It's great."
On two flailing lay-ups against SMU:
"Man, I really just worked on it for a long time. I don't want to say I've mastered it yet because there's ways to improve, but I've gotten a lot better at it."
On left knee bothering him earlier in the year:
"It was bad for a little minute, but I've been working on it rehabbing a lot. It's honestly worlds better than what it was. It's not really a factor right now."
On team being tough to defend:
"When we move that ball, I don't see anyone in the country that can really guard us in a half or a full-court setting, so it's obviously a blessing to be able to play with dudes like this. It's going to be nice."
On key to beating UCF:
"Probably defending and rebounding. We're a little bit outsized, so obviously we have to guard. They shoot a lot of 3s, so we have to guard the 3-point line and make them take 2s, go out and play hard and win a home game."
