The Green Wave was listed as a No. 13 seed in Michael DeCourcy's latest bracket forecast for Fox Sports.
It's only January, but it's hard to deny the absolute tear that the Tulane Green Wave men's basketball program has been on.
The Green Wave currently sits in first place in American Conference standings, with a perfect 3-0 mark in league play and a conference-leading 12-4 overall record. The team has notched a pair of strong road victories against the East Carolina Pirates and UTSA Roadrunners and picked up a gritty win over the Florida Atlantic Owls at home.
Now, Tulane is receiving some much-deserved recognition for the season that it has put together so far. Michael DeCourcy, a college basketball columnist for the Sporting News and Big Ten Network studio analyst, recently released his latest bracket forecast for Fox Sports. In it, he projected that the Green Wave would be the No. 13 seed in the East, paired up with the 4th-seeded Texas Tech Red Raiders.
This shows that DeCourcy has some confidence that Tulane can ultimately win the American Conference Tournament for the first time in program history and secure that automatic spot in the NCAA Tournament; typically, only the league's tournament winner earns a spot as there are rarely enough at-large bids to go around.
The Green Wave has made the NCAA Tournament three times in program history, but its been over 30 years since the last appearance.
The program played in March Madness for the first time back in 1992 as a No. 10 seed. Tulane would go on to win its first round game against the 7th-seeded St. John's Red Storm before falling in the Round of 32 to the No. 2 seed Oklahoma State Cowboys.
Looking to capitalize off of a historic season, the Green Wave earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament once again in 1993. There, the program played upset again as a No. 11 seed, taking down the 6th-seeded Kansas State Wildcats in the Round of 64. Once again, Tulane met its match in the second round of action: this time, it fell to the 3rd-seeded Florida State Seminoles.
The Green Wave received its highest-ever postseason seeding in 1995, entering the tournament as a No. 9 seed. The team took down the No. 8-seeded BYU Cougars in the first round, before falling out of the second round for the third time in four seasons. It was a loss to the top-seeded Kentucky Wildcats that ended another big year in Uptown.
Plenty could change between now and when things heat up in March, and even if Tulane ends up having an incredible regular season, it might not matter much if the team can't win its conference tournament. Regardless, the fact that the Green Wave is turning heads on a national level is a great sign, and there's hope that the program can finally overcome the hump and make it back to one of the nation's most highly-anticipated postseason events.