Ron Hunter, Jaylen Forbes and Sion James talked today. Hunter was at his bombastic best.
This is a very confident team, and the confidence is not fake. They do not believe they have to be incredible to win tomorrow night. I like their chances, but I admit I barely have seen Houston play this year after watching the Cougars play a lot by this time last year, so I don't really know. The thing is, you have to have a lot of scorers to beat Houston's tenacious defense, and Tulane can be brilliant offensively. My biggest concern other than the obvious rebounding disparity is the 3 to 5 minute lapses this team has in most games. A bad one against Houston could be fatal.
This still clearly is not basketball country. The only people who asked questions before the biggest game of the century were me, Ed Daniels and my colleague Advocate columnist Rod Walker, who will write a column from the game. There were three TV stations represented, which is an improvement, but all of them should have been there.
HUNTER
"We've got the No. 1 team in the country coming here to play tomorrow, which is not the big news for me. The big news is we're playing for first place. We could be in ninth place and playing them and it didn't matter, but we put ourselves in this position. I'm happy for our kids because we put ourselves in this position. We've been building this program to play meaningful games like this. That's what's really important. I'm excited about it. Sometimes I've got to get the guys hyped up, but I'm going to have to bring them down a little bit. This environment will be incredible tomorrow, but again, win, lose, whatever, this is about us maintaining and being one of the top teams in this league. That's something I wanted to do when I first took this job."
On biggest difference in last month:
"We're healthy. The thing is, I took over the job and there was COVID, then the hurricane, then we get injured, so this hasn't been easy, but it's been rewarding because of all the things we've gone through to get to this point. We're as healthy as we've ever been. The kids are enjoying it, but more importantly, coming off of what happened with football, our university's enjoying it. That's what's exciting. Saturday's game against Central Florida to see the students like that and embracing it and wearing Tulane shirts. When I first got here and I walked through campus, there weren't many people walking around in Tulane shirts. Now they're walking around not only in Tulane shirts, but football and basketball shirts, so that's exciting for me. We've still got a long way to go to build this program, but we're headed in the right direction, so I'm excited about it. The only negative about any of this to be honest with you is after the Central Florida game, Willie Fritz called me and said, hey, let me take you to dinner, so I go to dinner with him and am excited about the win and an hour later I'm trying to pay the bill and I couldn't find Willie. Willie left. So how could Willie-he gets a 12-year contract, he's making $15 million a year, and he makes his poor basketball coach making no money pay the bill. I haven't seen Willie since.I don't know if you guys have seen him, but if we get this one, Willie, you are buying dinner, buddy. I'm not buying dinner any more."
On calling himself poor:
"I am very poor. I am so poor right now. I'm not a Willie Fritz guy. I don't have your kind of money (talking to Ed Daniels), but I can super size my meals right now."
On expected atmosphere:
"It's going to be loud. One of the things that I wanted to do when I built this was not only when the No. 1 team comes, but this would be like this all the time. You guys were here when Tulane was really rolling back when I was 2 or 3 years old, but we've got to get it back to that point now where every game's like that, and not only here but in all our sports in that regard. I'm excited for our kids. When you go play at Houston and at Cincinnati and at Wichita State and there are 10-11,000 every night, these kids are going to be excited when we come home and now they have to go against our crowd, and we haven't had that, and that's why I'm excited, because we haven't had that when we go to Houston. It's sold out. We know what's going to happen when we go to Cincinnati, like we did this year. That's what's exciting is our kids get this opportunity now."
On what he said to students when he walked over to their section and congratulated them after UCF win:
"If you heard me, I was saying thank you for coming back.The students are back on campus now. That's really important. The students really helped us in that Central Florida game. We were kind of fading toward the end there, and they really helped us and gave us a lot of energy. I know there will be a lot of students here tomorrow night, and we're excited about that."
On last Tulane win against Houston being five years ago to the day when the teams play:
"I don't know. We've had a lot of firsts. Winning this many league games in a row is a first (Tulane had never won three AAC games in a row until its current streak of five). Those things that happened before, I'm excited about what's going on right now, and not just for us but for all of Tulane."
On how far program has come since getting getting clobbered by Houston early in his tenure:
"I've been at places where we had to build programs, and you can't put a time on it because you don't know how bad or how good things are when you get in here, but this has been the most rewarding job I had. I know how bad it was when I took over this job, and it's rewarding to see, walking through campus is just a different feeling now than when I first got here. Athletics actually means something at Tulane. Athletics actually means something in the city of New Orleans now. This morning I stopped to get gas and someone said, 'Go get 'em, coach.' I'm looking around thinking who are they talking to, but they are talking to me. That's one thing I've loved about this town. This town will support a winner."
On Cotton Bowl victory spilling over to basketball:
"I think it started last year when we were winning and we started to pack this arena, and then the season ended and football kind of took over and ended in the Cotton Bowl, and since that Cotton Bowl look what we've done here at this particular time. I've always said everything athletic program in the country has a window of opportunity. What you do in that window is up to you. We're taking advantage of our window right now, and I think the window is going to stay open for a while because we need athletics at Tulane. It's the living room to every university in this country, and we've got good kids in this program, whether it's football or basketball."
On Houston having eight guys who average 6 points:
"They are just good. You're not No. 1 in the country just for anything. They are a really good team. Kelvin (Sampson) is one of the best coaches in the country. I think they are a Final Four team. I really do. They are going to be really good, but we're also good. This is the best team I had to go against them in that regard. I love the fact we're going to have this environment. I don't think we have to go out and play the best game of our lives, but I do think we have to play one of the smartest games of our lives."
On what smart means:
'Playing our way. We've got to score. When I've coached against them before I just tried to keep the game close until the last media (timeout) to give ourselves a chance, but we're talented enough offensively now that we can go play. Letting our guys have the freedom to go play a little bit and not trying to overcoach this game. When I was a younger coach I'd try to overcoach a game like this and not try to do that and let our kids go play."
On Kevin Cross:
"I don't know if there's a guy in the country that can guard him. He plays our point if your 5 comes out to guard him, and if you want to switch and go smaller, we'll post you up inside. He's a difference maker in that regard. When he's handling the ball and we're coming down on a break, or even when we needed that big basket on Saturday, we put the ball in Kevin's hands and he hits his romomate (Forbes) with a backdoor cut. He's a stud."
J
This is a very confident team, and the confidence is not fake. They do not believe they have to be incredible to win tomorrow night. I like their chances, but I admit I barely have seen Houston play this year after watching the Cougars play a lot by this time last year, so I don't really know. The thing is, you have to have a lot of scorers to beat Houston's tenacious defense, and Tulane can be brilliant offensively. My biggest concern other than the obvious rebounding disparity is the 3 to 5 minute lapses this team has in most games. A bad one against Houston could be fatal.
This still clearly is not basketball country. The only people who asked questions before the biggest game of the century were me, Ed Daniels and my colleague Advocate columnist Rod Walker, who will write a column from the game. There were three TV stations represented, which is an improvement, but all of them should have been there.
HUNTER
"We've got the No. 1 team in the country coming here to play tomorrow, which is not the big news for me. The big news is we're playing for first place. We could be in ninth place and playing them and it didn't matter, but we put ourselves in this position. I'm happy for our kids because we put ourselves in this position. We've been building this program to play meaningful games like this. That's what's really important. I'm excited about it. Sometimes I've got to get the guys hyped up, but I'm going to have to bring them down a little bit. This environment will be incredible tomorrow, but again, win, lose, whatever, this is about us maintaining and being one of the top teams in this league. That's something I wanted to do when I first took this job."
On biggest difference in last month:
"We're healthy. The thing is, I took over the job and there was COVID, then the hurricane, then we get injured, so this hasn't been easy, but it's been rewarding because of all the things we've gone through to get to this point. We're as healthy as we've ever been. The kids are enjoying it, but more importantly, coming off of what happened with football, our university's enjoying it. That's what's exciting. Saturday's game against Central Florida to see the students like that and embracing it and wearing Tulane shirts. When I first got here and I walked through campus, there weren't many people walking around in Tulane shirts. Now they're walking around not only in Tulane shirts, but football and basketball shirts, so that's exciting for me. We've still got a long way to go to build this program, but we're headed in the right direction, so I'm excited about it. The only negative about any of this to be honest with you is after the Central Florida game, Willie Fritz called me and said, hey, let me take you to dinner, so I go to dinner with him and am excited about the win and an hour later I'm trying to pay the bill and I couldn't find Willie. Willie left. So how could Willie-he gets a 12-year contract, he's making $15 million a year, and he makes his poor basketball coach making no money pay the bill. I haven't seen Willie since.I don't know if you guys have seen him, but if we get this one, Willie, you are buying dinner, buddy. I'm not buying dinner any more."
On calling himself poor:
"I am very poor. I am so poor right now. I'm not a Willie Fritz guy. I don't have your kind of money (talking to Ed Daniels), but I can super size my meals right now."
On expected atmosphere:
"It's going to be loud. One of the things that I wanted to do when I built this was not only when the No. 1 team comes, but this would be like this all the time. You guys were here when Tulane was really rolling back when I was 2 or 3 years old, but we've got to get it back to that point now where every game's like that, and not only here but in all our sports in that regard. I'm excited for our kids. When you go play at Houston and at Cincinnati and at Wichita State and there are 10-11,000 every night, these kids are going to be excited when we come home and now they have to go against our crowd, and we haven't had that, and that's why I'm excited, because we haven't had that when we go to Houston. It's sold out. We know what's going to happen when we go to Cincinnati, like we did this year. That's what's exciting is our kids get this opportunity now."
On what he said to students when he walked over to their section and congratulated them after UCF win:
"If you heard me, I was saying thank you for coming back.The students are back on campus now. That's really important. The students really helped us in that Central Florida game. We were kind of fading toward the end there, and they really helped us and gave us a lot of energy. I know there will be a lot of students here tomorrow night, and we're excited about that."
On last Tulane win against Houston being five years ago to the day when the teams play:
"I don't know. We've had a lot of firsts. Winning this many league games in a row is a first (Tulane had never won three AAC games in a row until its current streak of five). Those things that happened before, I'm excited about what's going on right now, and not just for us but for all of Tulane."
On how far program has come since getting getting clobbered by Houston early in his tenure:
"I've been at places where we had to build programs, and you can't put a time on it because you don't know how bad or how good things are when you get in here, but this has been the most rewarding job I had. I know how bad it was when I took over this job, and it's rewarding to see, walking through campus is just a different feeling now than when I first got here. Athletics actually means something at Tulane. Athletics actually means something in the city of New Orleans now. This morning I stopped to get gas and someone said, 'Go get 'em, coach.' I'm looking around thinking who are they talking to, but they are talking to me. That's one thing I've loved about this town. This town will support a winner."
On Cotton Bowl victory spilling over to basketball:
"I think it started last year when we were winning and we started to pack this arena, and then the season ended and football kind of took over and ended in the Cotton Bowl, and since that Cotton Bowl look what we've done here at this particular time. I've always said everything athletic program in the country has a window of opportunity. What you do in that window is up to you. We're taking advantage of our window right now, and I think the window is going to stay open for a while because we need athletics at Tulane. It's the living room to every university in this country, and we've got good kids in this program, whether it's football or basketball."
On Houston having eight guys who average 6 points:
"They are just good. You're not No. 1 in the country just for anything. They are a really good team. Kelvin (Sampson) is one of the best coaches in the country. I think they are a Final Four team. I really do. They are going to be really good, but we're also good. This is the best team I had to go against them in that regard. I love the fact we're going to have this environment. I don't think we have to go out and play the best game of our lives, but I do think we have to play one of the smartest games of our lives."
On what smart means:
'Playing our way. We've got to score. When I've coached against them before I just tried to keep the game close until the last media (timeout) to give ourselves a chance, but we're talented enough offensively now that we can go play. Letting our guys have the freedom to go play a little bit and not trying to overcoach this game. When I was a younger coach I'd try to overcoach a game like this and not try to do that and let our kids go play."
On Kevin Cross:
"I don't know if there's a guy in the country that can guard him. He plays our point if your 5 comes out to guard him, and if you want to switch and go smaller, we'll post you up inside. He's a difference maker in that regard. When he's handling the ball and we're coming down on a break, or even when we needed that big basket on Saturday, we put the ball in Kevin's hands and he hits his romomate (Forbes) with a backdoor cut. He's a stud."
J