It’s been no secret as of late that the Tulane basketball team is struggling. It hasn’t won a conference game since Jan. 12 when it defeated South Florida — its only win against American Athletic Conference competition to date.
It also comes to no surprise what the main culprits have been in Tulane’s recent tailspin. Turnovers and poor free throw shooting have been heavy contributors to the sinking ship that is Green Wave basketball.
Thursday night, these struggles were once again put on display in yet another ugly loss, this time to UCF. The 70-62 defeat to the Knights pointed the fingers to the same stories Tulane fans have cringed at all season long. As a team, the Wave shot only 40 percent from the floor making only 24 of 60 shots. Eight turnovers piled on with 15 fouls made for a long day for the boys from Louisiana.
This game is very reminiscent of past defeats for Tulane. Although the team as a whole failed to produce, individuals stepped up and gave a noble attempt in the losing effort. Senior Louis Dabney led the team with 18 points while freshman forward Blake Paul came off the bench with a team-high eight rebounds. Performances like this make it clear that the problem with Tulane is not lack of talent, but instead lack of putting all that talent together at one time.
Tulane is seeking a win of any sort in the worst kind of way, for confidence if nothing else. Another opportunity comes Wednesday evening when the team travels to East Carolina to take on the Pirates. If the Green Wave can notch a much-needed victory here, then it makes looking towards the final stretch of their schedule at least a little more bearable.
AAC tournament positioning will be something else on the mind of the team as March nears. With seven more conference games slotted for Tulane, the notion of improving its standing before heading to Orlando next month is quite possible.
The tournament has higher seeds squaring off against the lower ones and thus Tulane will look to leapfrog a few of its AAC rivals over the course of the month in hopes of acquiring a more favorable matchup. In order to do so, the Wave must keep their eye on those teams right ahead of it.
USF and ECU will be the focus moving forward, but if these teams can’t be reached, then the Green Wave and their fans will need to buckle in for a long haul and, perhaps a short-lived conference tournament like the one a year ago.
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