After enjoying a double-bye to begin the AAC Tournament, the Green Wave men’s basketball team got off to a fast start, beating Florida Atlantic University 83-76 to advance to the semifinals against the No. 1 seeded Memphis Tigers.
A team led by NBA legend Penny Hardaway, Memphis entered the game against Tulane in a strong position to earn a bid into the NCAA Tournament regardless of the outcome due to their strong play throughout the season. Wins against Tulane and in the conference championship would improve their seeding, though, giving the Tigers plenty to play for. Tulane, however, needed to win the conference tournament to advance to the NCAA Tournament as their struggles in non-conference play, weak strength of schedule and fourth-place regular season finish in the AAC left them with a weaker resume than many other more prominent basketball programs.
Memphis had a bad habit in conference play of keeping games close against inferior competition, but their ability to win those close games was evident all season. Unfortunately for the Wave, the Tigers kept to that game script yet again, going back and forth all game with Tulane before crushing their NCAA tournament dreams in the closing seconds. Tulane fans weren’t just disappointed as the final horn sounded though, as the referees’ controversial calls in the final minute left many frustrated and angry.
The first contentious call came on a goaltend by Memphis center Moussa Cisse after Tulane guard Rowan Brumbaugh drove in for a layup. The call on the floor was a goaltend, meaning there would have to be indisputable evidence to overturn that call. Indisputable is definitely not the word I would use to describe the replay evidence I saw, and many fans seemed to agree, but the refs still decided that Cisse got the block before the ball hit the backboard and Brumbaugh’s 2 points were taken off the board.
The second call came after Tulane inbounded the ball from the baseline. Tulane wing Kaleb Banks handed the ball off to Rowan Brumbaugh who was seemingly fouled by Memphis guard PJ Haggerty before losing the ball briefly and diving back on top of it. While Brumbaugh was on the ground, Haggerty reached over him from behind to try and grab the basketball, which could have also been ruled a foul, before Brumbaugh lost the ball and Haggerty dove over him to get it, another foul. To make matters worse, it appears Haggerty’s hair touched out of bounds before he got the whistle for a timeout. There were four legitimate calls in Tulane’s favor on that play that were never made, and Memphis ultimately got their timeout before going on to win the game 78-77.
A brutal blow for a program that exceeded all preseason expectations, as their young, seniorless team that was tied for second-to-last in the AAC preseason poll ended up finishing fourth and had the best team in the conference on the ropes for all 40 minutes. While the team is understandably disappointed with the result of that game, their efforts ever since the turn of the year have been nothing short of inspiring and if head coach Ron Hunter can get this team to return, they would have a good chance to compete for the conference tournament and a NCAA tournament berth again.
Another reason to be excited is that Tulane earned themselves a bid to the inaugural College Basketball Crown, marking their first appearance in a postseason tournament since the 2013-14 season. While not on the same level as the NCAA Tournament, the College Basketball Crown’s bracket has a slew of programs from major conferences like the Big 12 Conference, the Big Ten Conference and the Big East Conference. Even better, Tulane’s first-round matchup in the tournament will be a Cotton Bowl rematch with the University of Southern California Trojans, who Tulane’s football team took down in 2023 in what might be the school’s biggest win ever.
While Tulanians are disappointed, and for good reason, we at least have more basketball to look forward to, and this team has at least one more game together, with the potential to make some noise and earn more. This team has been one of Tulane’s most fun in a long time, and I, for one, am glad to see these kids have their hard work pay off with a postseason.
If you’d like to tune in for more Tulane men’s basketball, the College Basketball Crown will be taking place from March 31 to April 6 in Las Vegas, with the Green Wave tipping off its first-round matchup against USC on April 1 at 10 p.m. CST.
