Tulane Failed To Match Desperation of Wichita State in Tough Loss

The Tulane Green Wave entered their matchup against the Wichita State Shockers over the weekend as one of the hottest teams in the American Athletic Conference.

They had won two in a row and four out of their last five, doing their best to remain in the top four of the standings to earn a double-bye in the AAC Tournament in March.

However, the Shockers are the hottest team in the conference and were able to keep their positive momentum going with a 78-67 victory on their home court.

After starting their AAC schedule 1-7, Wichita State is now 7-7 in the conference, picking up victories over the Memphis Tigers and Florida Atlantic Owls before defeating the Green Wave at Koch Arena.

Tulane has shown improvement in several areas throughout the campaign with a young roster growing up along the way, but some environments, especially on the road, still give them problems.

“They played desperate and we didn’t play desperate,” head coach Ron Hunter said, via Guerry Smith of NOLA.com. “They played like a team that’s trying to catch us. Some of our guys got rocked by the crowd and got hit in the mouth and didn’t respond.”

A normally stout Green Wave defense, especially on the interior, was steamrolled by the Shockers on Sunday afternoon.

They surrendered 49 points in the second half, as Wichita State shot 16-of-24 and overwhelmed Tulane in the paint by scoring 24 points.

Following an impressive amount of rim protection the last two games, blocking 19 shots in total, the Green Wave recorded zero blocks against the Shockers for the first time in a game this campaign.

“We haven’t had teams do that all year,” Hunter said. “They just kind of put their heads down and drove to the basket. We didn’t get the resistance like we had been doing. Give them credit. They played with a lot of confidence, but I just didn’t think we responded very well. We looked more uptight than we normally do.”

The head coach knew that growing pains were going to be a part of this season since his roster has zero seniors and very few players with extensive Division I experience coming in.

Luckily for Tulane, the loss to Wichita State didn’t cost them the No. 4 spot in the AAC standings since Florida Atlantic was defeated by Memphis.

But, they know better execution is needed on both ends of the floor to lock up that seed.

Next up for the Green Wave are two teams, the Charlotte 49ers and Tulsa Golden Hurricanes, that are both under .500 in AAC play.

Picking up victories there will be imperative since they close out the regular season with massive matchups against the East Carolina Pirates, who are only 1.5 games behind them in the standings, and the UAB Blazers, who are two games ahead.

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