| |
LOCATION: New Orleans, LA
CONFERENCE: Conference USA (National)
LAST SEASON: 12-15 (.444)
CONFERENCE RECORD: 6-10 (5th)
STARTERS LOST/RETURNING: 1/4
NICKNAME: Green Wave
COLORS: Olive Green & Sky Blue
HOMECOURT: New Orleans Sports Arena (17,832)
COACH: Perry Clark
record at school 165-134 (10 years)
career record 165-134 (10 years)
|
ASSISTANTS: Greg Gary (Tulane '92)
Anthony Anderson (McNeese State '95)
Brock Kantrow (LSU-Shreveport '92)
TEAM WINS: (last 5 years) 23-22-20-7-12
RPI (last 5 years) 35-38-66-220-141
1998-99 FINISH: Lost in conference first round.
ESPN.com Clubhouse
|
If there is one coach in Conference USA who is positioned to win all the coach-of-the-year awards, it's Perry Clark. He also may be positioned to end the season less gloriously, if you get the drift. Clark and the Green Wave will make the choice by what they accomplish in the 1999-2000 season. They can move forward, or perhaps Tulane may be moving in another direction. It's hard not to pick the Wave to crash at the bottom of this league, because every other team at least seems to have some idea of its future. Tulane went through a few rudderless years with the Honeycutt-Allen class failing to reach its potential in its final two years. Then the great class of 1997 (including Chris Owens and Byron Mouton) fell apart within two years. When Mouton transferred last spring after a second straight losing season, it seemed Tulane really had reached the breaking point. And maybe it has. What did the Wave lose when he left, though? Maryland and Connecticut both eagerly recruited him after he announced his transfer Maryland got him but it makes sense to wonder if they watched him play since leaving high school. Mouton became one-dimensional, and it wasn't much of a dimension at that. He took more than half his shots from three-point range as a sophomore and he wasn't a killer shooter from long distance (.365). He couldn't or wouldn't attack the goal, shooting only .405 on two-point attempts. He didn't rebound (3.5 rpg). He didn't pass (26 assists). He couldn't hang onto the ball (54 turnovers).
|
Blue Ribbon Analysis |
|
Backcourt B- Bench/Depth C+
FrontcourtC+ Intangibles C+
The Green Wave will have a new home for many of its games the brand-new New Orleans Sports Arena, which is a long way from the creaking Fogelman Arena. The question is whether there'll be anybody in the stands. Tulane hasn't even filled Fogelman lately, and that seats only 3,000. It's obvious Tulane perceived the need for new blood. The coaching staff is two-thirds new, with Julius Smith and his familiar bow tie moving on to Southeastern Louisiana and former Wave star Kim Lewis also gone. Tulane has one of the youngest staff of assistants in high-major ball. If Tulane is to improve, it cannot turn over the ball as regularly as it has and it cannot play such soft defense along the baseline. There must be a tougher approach to the game, which is one huge reason it may not hurt so much to move on from Byron Mouton. There is room to climb in this division. South Florida is the only team that combines depth, strength, scoring ability and a proven defensive approach. Every other team in the National is lacking in one or more of those categories. Clark said there is a hunger at Tulane to return to postseason play. That certainly is something that has been missing in recent seasons. Green Wave basketball has typically been sloppy and dispassionate. There will be no revival if those two problems are not addressed. |
He might not be that badly missed. The Wave has plenty of experience left, although there is a dearth of inside power. Sterling Davis was recruited as a shooting guard out of Duncanville (Texas) High. A 6-7 senior, he is now a big forward, having beefed up to 240 pounds. He and 6-7, 250-pound junior Ledaryl Billingsley are the starting forwards. Their positions are largely interchangeable. Neither is much of a perimeter threat, but each is a competitor who does not easily surrender. Tulane needs more of that attitude. "Ledaryl played like one of the best, if not the best, players in the conference," Clark said. "At times he was spectacular. That is the kind of play we need from Ledaryl all year." Billingsley (11.0 ppg, 6.8 rpg) shot .491 from the field, a dramatic improvement from his .441 shooting as a freshman. In the final seven games, he averaged 16.1 points and 10.6 rebounds, which included a streak of four consecutive 20-point games. He is a rugged player who can score on put-backs but has not been a true low-post threat. Billingsley has a nice touch from the short corner and could become an all-conference candidate this season. Davis has become a workhorse for the Green Wave. He is like a football player who entered school as a tailback and ended up playing offensive guard. His first two years, when he was supposed to be a finesse player, Billingsley was not quick enough to get playing time and was not even a 20-minute-per-game player. Last season, emphasizing his reliability, Davis (9.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg, .492 FG) rose to the status of full-time starter. Davis opened the season with six double-figure scoring games, including a season-high 21 against Nicholls State, then closed by shooting .610 from the floor and averaging 13.6 points in his final five games. The Wave was 8-7 in his 15 games as a double-figure scorer, which doesn't sound so great until one remembers that Tulane ended last season three games under .500. He scored 14 in a surprising victory against UNC Charlotte and 13 in an upset at UAB. He is a plugger as much as anything. He still retains some of the skills that made him a guard in high school, hitting 13-of-35 from three-point range. The two forwards surround Tulane's enigmatic center, 6-11 senior Morris Jordan, who made a quantum leap from his freshman to sophomore season and last year seemed to stall or regress. After scoring 7.0 ppg and shooting .490 as a sophomore and claiming a starting job, Jordan shot .422 last season and increased to just 7.4 ppg, although he started five more games and took 30 more shots. He started the year in near-dazzling fashion, averaging 13 points and 5.0 rebounds and blocking 12 shots in the first nine games. He blocked only five more the rest of the year. He had one more double-figure scoring game. "Both Sterling and Morris showed how much maturity and ability they have at times last year," Clark said. "For us to be successful, it is absolutely critical for them to really show what they can do night-in and night-out. We have to get a consistent effort throughout the season. Their maturity will help us." Tulane worked toward building its frontcourt depth in recruiting. Johnson averaged just 1.7 ppg and 1.9 rpg in 8.2 minutes per game as a freshman. At 6-8, 195, he is an effective offensive rebounder but needs more strength. He may struggle to keep his share of playing time with 6-7, 220-pound freshman Trello Galloway coming in. Galloway is a native of Myrtle Beach, S.C., who last season averaged 14.0 points and 10.0 rebounds for Fork Union (Va.) Military Academy. Clark said Galloway "is really going to help us on the boards. Trello does all of the tough stuff." Long-time Fork Union coach Fletcher Arritt calls Galloway the best offensive rebounder he's ever coached. That statement takes in a lot of ground. Along with Galloway, Tulane added 6-8, 225-pound freshman Brandon Brown up front. That should make this the deepest Tulane team along the front line in recent memory. He averaged 21.4 points and 11.3 rebounds at Terrebonne High in Houma, La., and was chosen second-team all-state. Clark compares him to former Wave star Anthony Reed, praising Brown's shooting touch around the goal and his hard-charging style. Whatever reason there exists for optimism with the Green Wave likely results from the presence of guards Waitari Marsh, Marlo Miles and Wade Mason. Neither shot all that well last season, and neither produced big numbers, but Marsh was a pretty fair point guard for a freshman and Mason provides a solid backup at both guard spots. Marsh is a 6-2 sophomore and a native of Chicago. On a better team, he might have been the most productive assist man in Conference USA. He averaged 3.4 assists in 25 minutes a game for the Wave, along with 6.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.1 steals. He also came within a couple turnovers of having a break-even assist/turnover ratio. Marsh needs to add the three-point shot to his game. He was only 3-of-15 his first year. And somebody who does not shoot a lot from long distance ought to be hitting better than .381 from the field. But he has good quickness, is creative and could make this a more dynamic team. Mason, a 6-2 senior, teams with Miles (4.9 ppg, .417 FG) to back up the two guard spots. Miles, a 6-1 senior, started the first 14 games last year after transferring from Kennedy-King (Ill.) Junior College but was withheld from much of the spring semester because of academic problems. His departure opened things up for Marsh, which was a long-term positive for this team. After his return from exile, Miles played better in the season's final few weeks. "Marlo is a very mature player," Clark said. "He has a calming influence on the team. It's no secret we cut our turnovers in half with him on the floor. His maturity was really missed." Mason (6.2 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 2.6 apg) produced three double-figure games in the first seven of his junior season but was wildly inconsistent and was shut out twice in that stretch. More telling, he passed for just one assist four times. He is not a great shooter, either, hitting .269 from three-point range and .364 from the field. However, the three of them give Tulane the kind of quickness in the backcourt it needs to employ a pressing style of defense. As unsound as the Green Wave tends to be as a defensive team (opponents shot .441 a year ago), there is a need to force turnovers and create havoc. Tulane forced an average of 18 turnovers per game last season but was not efficient enough on offense to turn that into a windfall. "Waitari Marsh will be an outstanding basketball player, but it's difficult to be successful with just one pure point guard," Clark said. "Having Marlo back gives us a lot more flexibility at the point and allows us to move Wade to the two guard, where he will be able to defend better and help us with rebounding." Tulane has been starting 6-4 senior shooting guard Dylan Osean for much of his career, to no great effect. He improved as a three-point shooter last season, to .385 (35-of-91), but at 8.4 points and 2.2 rebounds per game, the Wave does not get enough out of him. He slumped at the end of last season, scoring only 12 points in the final four games. He seemed to struggle against some of the more athletic teams: 1-of-4 against Cincinnati, 0-of-4 against Memphis, 2-of-5 against N.C. State, a combined 2-of-10 against South Florida. It will be interesting to see whether he can maintain his playing time with the three small guards ready to go and with 6-1, 185-pound freshman Brandon Spann entering from Jesuit High in New Orleans. Spann averaged 21.9 points for a team that went 29-5 and was chosen first-team all-state. He is considered more of a point guard, but he will need to make shots to move immediately into the rotation.
 | The 19th edition of Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook is on sale now. To order, call 800-828-HOOP (4667), or visit their web site at
http://www.collegebaskets.com
|
| |
Conferences
America East
ACC
Atlantic 10
Big East
Big Sky
Big South
Big Ten
Big 12
Big West
Colonial
Conference USA
Independents
Ivy League
MAAC
Mid-American
Mid-Continent
Mid-Eastern Athletic
MCC
Missouri Valley
Mountain West
Northeast
Ohio Valley
Pac-10
Patriot
SEC
Southern
Southland
Sun Belt
SWAC
TAAC
WAC
West Coast
|
