Tulane Men Prep for UNT in Midst of Point Shaving Scandal News
In this story:
As the Tulane men's basketball team attempts to bounce back from their 82-69 loss at home against UAB earlier this week, the Green Wave was hit with some news that went sideways fast for Ron Hunter's crew.
On Thursday, former Tulane forward Kevin Cross was named as one of twenty-six people that comprised college basketball players and those labeled as "fixers" who have been named in a multi-count indictment by the United States Department of Justice. Cross and the other players named are accused of point-shaving schemes. The players were allegedly paid to tank games purposefully.
The wide-ranging indictments states that more than 39 college basketball players on at least 17 Division I teams "fixed and attempted to fix" over 29 games.
Already having to figure a way to overcome the sudden death of their star Gregg Glenn III in a swimming accident over the Summer, now Hunter is tasked with helping his team to get past news that rocked the Tulane athletic department.
"(As I told the team) As in everything in life, you can learn lesson in doing the right thing," Hunter shared this weekend. "The most important thing is they (his team) had nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do with what you're doing (on this team). Let's not let it affect you. Ninety percent of the people sitting in there (the locker room) didn't even know who he is.
"This group has been through a lot this year," Hunter said, referring to his team responding to Glenn's death. "It's important that I let them know it has nothing to do with us. I don't know if they can take much more, emotionally. I want to focus on it being about these kids here (now). They're having a heck of a year right now. They've been through a lot. That's the part that's got me. It's just one more thing. Sometimes I try to deflect and hold things back from them, but this group is really special. This is one of my favorite groups to coach in my career."
On Wednesday, Tulane had issues finding the basket and the boards in their 13-point loss to Alabama-Birmingham. Center Percy Daniels saw limited action in the contest because of a nagging knee injury, something that won't go away soon.
"It's one of those injuries that will (affect him) the rest of the season," Hunter acknowledged. "If you know anything about Percy, he's going to play. The other night (against UAB) I wanted to sit him out, and he looked at me like I was crazy."
Daniels leads the team in blocked shots, averaging almost two per game, while the senior from Baton Rouge pulling down two rebounds a contest. The Green Wave should have him back in the lineup, even if it's for a limited time.
This afternoon, the Wave will face a North Texas team that hasn't won a conference road game this season. No matter, Hunter says. Tulane has to get back to what they do best.
"We've just got to get to playing Tulane basketball," Hunter told us. "We just didn't do that defensively the other day (against UAB). I think the guys understand that. I just don't think we gave the same effort we have given over the last few weeks. We missed some shots we had been making and went into panic mode defensively. We talk about a formula to win. Well, there's also a formula to lose, and that was it."
Game time has moved back an hour to accommodate television. Tulane and North Texas tip off at 4:00 this afternoon at Fogelman Arena.
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.