The Tulane Green Wave men's basketball team suddenly has an opportunity to make their way into the league tournament if they're able to keep winning.
The saying it’s not how you start, but how you finish, couldn’t be more adept for the Tulane Green Wave basketball team right now as they enter another conference matchup against the UAB Blazers at Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Al. with tipoff at 1 pm. Should the Green Wave manage to pull that victory off on Sunday, and a win against the North Texas Mean Green on Thursday, that would put them at 16-10, 7-5 in conference play, and give them a shot at a top four seed and bye in the league tournament.
Now, after a five-game losing streak in conference play, Tulane managed to knock off the team to put them back in the conversation in the Memphis Tigers, whose loss to the Mean Green put the American men’s hoop race in a bit of chaos. It’s chaos that could work in the Green Wave’s favor, if they manage to grab momentum and not stifle it this time around.
After that upset, the Green Wave squandered their momentum, losing in their next game to the Wichita State Shockers. They then pulled it together to beat the Temple Owls 77-66. It’s impossible to predict how these next few weeks will go for Tulane, even if they are able to show more consistency than they have recently. But if they lose both contests, the Green Wave are in real danger of missing the 10-team field as they would barrel down to being in the bottom three of conference standings.
Will that make them bear down and focus? Or will there be a challenge not to make each game bigger than it is? That’ll be something for head coach Ron Hunter to have to handle these next few games. But, all things considered, with the way the year took a turn after an extremely strong start, to have the opportunity to be in play for the tournament is a bit of a surprising journey for the Wave, but it’s one they can capitalize on and take advantage of, starting this Sunday in Alabama against the Blazers. With the jumbled conference standings seeing multiple ties and teams separated by just one win or more, it makes that game against 7-5 UAB incredibly important to Tulane’s season goals.
It’ll be easy for the Green Wave to either keep things riding, or to swiftly fall out of tournament contention, really making their next two contests arguably hold their season opportunities on the line.