Things were quite ugly in the Green Wave's latest loss to the South Florida Bulls, as the team fell by a score of 97-83.
Any hope that the Tulane Green Wave could restore what was a promising start to American Conference play on the hardwood is pretty much gone by now.
Tulane took its fifth loss in a row on Wednesday night in a lopsided 97-83 loss to the South Florida Bulls. It marked the Green Wave's first home loss to USF since 2020.
All in all, the home team was slightly more balanced on offense than it has in weeks, though there was still much to be desired. Tyler Ringgold and Asher Woods led the way with 14 points apiece, while Rowan Brumbaugh finished with 12 points and added a team-high six rebounds and five assists on the night. Curtis Williams Jr. added 12 points of his own, and Luke Rasmussen fared well in his first start, playing nearly the entire game and adding 11 points.
Scotty Middleton added nine points off the bench, while JoJo Moore, KJ Greene and Percy Daniels combined for 11 points. Greene also dished out five assists. Additionally, Tulane's offense as a whole made 13 three-pointers, and the team outdid the Bulls with 19 assists.
Now... let's get to that abysmal defensive showing.
South Florida is a good shooting team, but the Bulls took it to a whole new level on Wednesday night. The team was able to bully its way around near the basket, with 42 points in the paint and 15 offensive rebounds. For comparison, Tulane had 28 points in the paint and just six offensive rebounds. Whatever USF wanted, it seemed to get.
The Green Wave also continued to struggle on the boards with just 20 defensive rebounds. That's been an issue that has plagued the program nearly all season, and there has been little effort to fix it. There was a lone bright spot on the defensive side of the matchup for the home team: it had nine steals and six blocks on the night.
Some might argue there was some symbolism in the air at Devlin Fieldhouse. With the home team trailing by 20, the lights quite literally went out. Though the reason for this is unclear, the lights were brought back on fairly quickly, much to the dismay of fans.
Is all hope lost for this Tulane basketball season? Right now, it sure seems that way. There are still plenty of games left on the schedule, and there could always be a miraculous turnaround in the conference tournament, but all the momentum has been sucked out of the program. There's a glaring answer as to what could be wrong, but that hasn't been directly addressed yet.
Can the Green Wave's losing skid stop at five games? We'll see about that. In the meantime, the team will head north on Sunday, February 1st, for a date with the Memphis Tigers. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m., and the game will air on ESPN2.