Tulane Shows Fight In Early Tournament
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Despite starting 1-3, Mike Dunleavy's team played three good teams. They were able to find some identity on the offensive side with Cameron Frazier and some more guard play. They were also able to get good minutes outside of Ryan Smith. It looked like Tulane would like an inside presence, but Smith is putting up a solid 8 points and 7.5 rebounds, which is more than expected.
The Green Wave opened up the year playing #5 North Carolina. Tulane lost 95-75, but that's when it looked like it was Cameron Reynolds was going to be the leader of this team as he put up 21 and a handful of rebounds as well. Next came Oklahoma and yet again it was the Cameron Reynolds show with him putting up 19 points. Wave were hammered on the board in this game as expected though. After beating a cupcake, Tulane came back for another upset bid against Arizona State. Melvin Frazier led the team with 22 in an 80-71 loss.
As I said the main concern was for Tulane was the offense, mainly because they lost their two main scorers from last year in Louis Dabney and Dylan Osetkowski, but they have scored over 70 points in the all four of their games this year. Green Wave are averaging over 40 percent from the three point land and that has been do to stellar guard play. Along with Reynolds, Kain Harris, Melvin Frazier, and Malik Morgan, all guards, have all had a very good year thus far. Tulane will get another chance at an upset tomorrow when they face Missouri.
This may not seem like a lot, but Mike Dunleavy is looking for any positives this year after being picked last in the American early this month. Despite actually developing some offense, the defense has been terrible thus far. In there three loses, all the teams have scored 80 plus on Tulane, that won't win to many games. Remember this Tulane team is very young and does not have one senior this year.
