After a strong first-round victory versus the University of Memphis Tigers, the Tulane University Green Wave men’s basketball season came to an end on Thursday. With a second-round exit from the American Conference tournament to a tough 5-seed University of North Carolina at Charlotte 49ers team, closing the book on an 18-15 season full of ups and downs and flashes of brilliance.
Tulane entered the third year in the AAC conference’s preseason coaches’ poll, and redshirt third-year guard Rowan Brumbaugh was awarded AAC Preseason Player of the Year.
Brumbaugh, who averaged 15.5 points a game and 4.8 assists last season, and fourth-year guard Asher Woods both returned, giving Tulane one of the best backcourts in the conference. With a promising roster, the team seemed well positioned to compete for the AAC championship.
The season began with a little bit of everything.
The Green Wave got smacked in the face in its opening matchup of the Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic, with a 96–75 loss to Utah State University. The game was competitive until a 21-5 Utah State run in the second half that Tulane had no answer for.
The Green Wave quickly bounced back with one of their best performances of the year, a 93–90 overtime win over Boston College. Curtis Williams Jr. and Brumbaugh combined for 59 points, and Tulane played with a palpable sense of confidence.
Back in the Big Easy, the Green Wave handled Nicholls State University and Grambling State University — but not exactly comfortably. Both games turned into back-and-forth battles against teams Tulane was expected to dispatch with ease.
At times in the season when everything clicked, the Green Wave looked like a dangerous team — quick, driven by the backcourt, and capable of momentous scoring runs — but the Wave often made games harder than they needed to be, piling on turnovers and struggling with defensive rotations.
Late in the season, the Wave hit a rough patch. On the road against the University of South Florida, the Wave was dominated from the start, ending the game with a 90–62 loss. Williams Jr. scored 27 points, but the Green Wave was outrebounded 43-32 and turned the ball over 18 times.
The loss was part of a four-game skid, culminating in a heartbreaking one-point overtime loss to Memphis — a loss that the Wave would avenge in the AAC tournament.
Brumbaugh repeated as the team’s standout performer, averaging a stellar 19.2 points and 4.9 rebounds per game on 45% shooting from the field. He played at an elite level all year and earned AAC second-team honors.
Veteran guards Williams Jr. and Woods were crucial for the team this season. Both put up 12 points a game on the season, and Williams Jr. came up huge on the glass with 4.8 rebounds a game, while Woods served as the team’s lockdown defender.
Redshirt second-year Tyler Ringgold emerged as a key part of the Wave’s offense, averaging 9.4 points a game and helping enhance Tulane’s ball movement. Third-year forward Scotty Middleton and second-years Luke Rasmussen and KJ Greene made valuable contributions to the team and will no doubt help the team reach its full potential next year.
Shoutout to fourth-year center Percy Daniels for always giving the Wave valuable minutes when his name was called.
Head coach Ron Hunter, in his seventh season with the program, has undoubtedly done a great job of elevating expectations around the program. Tulane has improved its on-court play and recruiting, and the Green Wave is no longer an afterthought in the conference.
The Green Wave has all the tools to become a contender. What remains to be seen is whether it can find the consistency to take the next step into serious AAC contention, and beyond.