After a strong display throughout conference play this season, the Tulane University Green Wave men’s basketball team is set to begin play in the American Athletic Conference Tournament. The Wave’s strong 12-6 record in conference play earned them the No.4 seed in the tournament, and the top four seeds are rewarded a double bye to start the season. This gives Tulane a huge advantage entering the season, as they only need to win two games to reach the championship game, and three wins get them the conference championship and an automatic bid into the prestigious NCAA Tournament, otherwise known as “March Madness.”
An NCAA Tournament bid is the ultimate reward for mid-major programs like Tulane, as it signifies their dominance in the conference tournament and gives them an opportunity to match up with some of the best programs across the country for a chance to win a national championship. March Madness is also considered one of the greatest sporting events in the world as a bracket of 68 teams battles it out in a single-elimination tournament where just about anything can happen, hence the “madness.”
Tulane has never won the AAC tournament and hasn’t appeared in the NCAA Tournament since 1995. To put that into perspective, no players on Tulane’s roster were alive to see the Wave’s 1995 NCAA Tournament appearance, and assistant coach RJ Hunter, head coach Ron Hunter’s son, was a one-year-old baby in diapers.
While it would be an incredible feat for Tulane to win the conference championship and end the 30-year NCAA Tournament drought, the road won’t be easy. Ahead of the Wave in the seedings are the No. 16 University of Memphis Tigers, the 23-7 University of North Texas Mean Green and defending conference champion University of Alabama at Birmingham Blazers. All three of these teams have tons of conference tournament experience and a slew of seniors. Tulane’s roster has the talent to compete with any of these teams but lacks a single senior on the roster, and outside of returners Asher Woods and Gregg Glenn III, none of the major contributors have played in the AAC tournament.
While the lack of senior leadership and AAC tournament experience may be good reasons to temper expectations for most teams, this Tulane squad should not be counted out. A team that took brutal losses in non-conference play early in the season to neighbor University of New Orleans Privateers and the Southeastern Louisiana University Lions still found a way to turn it around and finish in the top third of the conference and avoid losses to the bottom five teams in the conference that finished with under .500 records for the season. Arguably the youngest, most inexperienced team was surprisingly one of the most consistent and has multiple players who can get hot and take over a game with their talent.
Tulane’s success in the tournament will start and end with the play of point guard Rowan Brumbaugh. The Wave’s leading scorer and recently awarded first team all-conference recipient, Brumbaugh is the glue of this Tulane team and truly does it all on both ends. Of Tulane players who play 10 or more minutes per game, Brumbaugh not only leads the team in scoring per game but also leads in assists, is tied for first in steals and is second in 3-point shooting percentage. The Wave will go as far as Brumbaugh can take them, and the redshirt sophomore is poised for a huge tournament.
The Wave will also rely on star forward Kaleb Banks, freshman sensation Kam Williams and veterans Asher Woods and Gregg Glenn III to contribute big games if they want to be able to compete with the elite programs in the American. While this squad is certainly young and lacks depth, nobody is going to want to see them this week.
After a well-deserved double bye to open the conference tournament, the Wave will take on the second-round winner between No. 5 seed Florida Atlantic University and No. 13 seed University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Tulane defeated Charlotte in both their home and away meetings this season and defeated FAU at home, boding well for the Wave’s chances to reach the conference semifinals.
You can catch Tulane’s first conference tournament game in Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday, March 14 at 2 p.m. CST on ESPN2 and ESPN+.
