After a season unlike any other, the Green Wave men’s basketball team is preparing for the American Athletic Conference (AAC) tournament in Fort Worth, Texas. The team finished the regular season at 9-12 overall and 4-12 in conference play, leaving them towards the bottom of the conference standings. Tulane, the No. 10 seed for the tournament, faces off against the seventh-seeded University of Tulsa Golden Hurricanes.

After starting the season 4-0, the Green Wave narrowly lost their opening game in conference play to a tough University of Memphis Tigers team by a score of 80-74. The team, led by second-year head coach Ron Hunter, played a lot of quality games but struggled to close out, leading to some unfortunate losses. 

The team’s final regular season game was canceled, so the team now has its eyes set on tomorrow’s game against Tulsa. The teams met once in the regular season with the Green Wave securing a 58-48 victory.

Sophomore guard Jaylen Forbes led the team in scoring this season and averaged 16.5 points per game to go along with an 82.6% free throw percentage and a 37.6% success rate from behind the three-point line. Jordan Walker, a junior guard from Port Washington, New York, also contributed 12.7 points and 4.2 assists per game.

Although the team is young, Hunter is hoping that his players can find the spark they need to defeat Tulsa and advance to the tournament’s second round.

If the Olive and Blue defeat Tulsa, they’ll face the second-seeded University of Houston Cougars in the quarterfinals. The team that wins the conference tournament secures an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament which begins on Tuesday, March 18.

Tulane faces off against Tulsa today, March 11, with tipoff set at 2 p.m. central standard time The game will be aired on ESPNU.