Tulane Football Recruiting Update

The Wave has 4 commitments early in the process

As the temps get hotter, so does the competition for a spot in the Tulane football Class of 2023 recruiting class. To date, Tulane has four commitments. Expect the Wave to be very selective in what should be a small, but talented class. Here are the commitments so far:

Dakota Williams WR Hahnville: Williams is a big, fast receiver who wowed coaches during the 2021 summer camp. Unfortunately, Williams tore his ACL early in the Fall but judging by his rehabilitation videos on twitter, he is well on his way to recovery. Since committing to Tulane, Williams has received offers from Louisiana Tech and Charlotte.

Nick Jacobs DB Jesuit (pictured): Jacobs is a big, physical cornerback who also excels on special teams. Jacobs is not afraid of contact and is good in run support. He could very well end up moving to safety at Tulane. Jacobs committed to Tulane over offers from Purdue and Marshall.

Geimere Latimer ATH Tyrone, GA: Latimer plays at the same high school as former Tulane safety Will Harper. Latimer is a versatile athlete who plays quarterback for his high school team but who projects either at wide receiver or cornerback at Tulane. Also a great baseball player, Latimer visited Tulane in the Spring and committed to Tulane over offers from Georgia Southern, Marshall and Western Kentucky.

Hasson Manning DB Jersey City, NJ: Manning is a sure tackling, versatile safety from New Jersey who shows an ability to play near the line of scrimmage in the run game or twenty yards downfield defending the deep ball. Manning’s highlights show that he has some contact courage and isn’t afraid to mix it up with anyone. He may slide in as a strong safety with an ability to play nickel. Manning committed to Tulane over offers from Syracuse, Boston College, Temple and others.

With camps and the evaluation process ongoing, expect to see more action with recruiting soon!

If you are interested in Tulane athletics and want to make a tangible difference, you should consider a donation to the FTW Collective Group. The FTW Collective is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that helps Tulane student-athletes take advantage of NIL opportunities. NIL is here to stay, and we need your help to keep Tulane competitive with other schools by providing NIL opportunities. Visit our website HERE for more information.

Roll Wave!

NEW FTW CAST WITH HEAD BASEBALL COACH JAY UHLMAN

Coach Uhlman discusses his background in the game and his plan to bring Tulane back to Omaha

New Tulane Head Baseball Coach Jay Uhlman sits down for an extended discussion on his background in baseball, his thoughts on recruiting at Tulane, his plan to bring the Wave back to Omaha and his desire to get fans and alumni back to Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.

You can click the link below to listen or you can find it on Apple podcasts or your favorite podcast platform.

LISTEN NOW

BREAKING NEWS: TULANE TO HIRE JAY UHLMAN AS HEAD BASEBALL COACH

Uhlman has shown an ability to recruit talent to Tulane

New Tulane Head Baseball Coach Jay Uhlman (pictured)

FearTheWave has learned that Tulane plans to hire Interim Head Coach Jay Uhlman as its next skipper. Uhlman has spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Tulane. Uhlman’s 2021 recruiting class was ranked in the top 25 nationally by D1 Baseball.

Immediately prior to Tulane, Uhlman spent 8 seasons as a memeber of the University of Oregon coaching staff. He has coached 106 players who have played professional baseball and 24 big leaguers (and counting). In total, Uhlman has over 24 years of college coaching experience including stints in the Pac-12, Big XII, WAC and the AAC.

Since coming to Tulane, Uhlman has shown an ability to recruit at Tulane that we had not seen in recent years prior to his arrival. He recruited a talented, young roster that won 33 games this season and 31 games the year prior. He will be tasked with re-recruiting some of his players who have entered the transfer portal and continuing to build momentum on the recruiting trail. Coach Uhlman has a different approach and philosophy than his predecessor, and he had a lot of support within the clubhouse to earn this promotion.

Expect an announcement on Coach Uhlman’s staff in the coming days.

As a Tulane baseball alum, I am excited to see the direction of the program under Coach Uhlman. I would encourage all of the Tulane fans, alumni and especially the baseball alums, to welcome Coach Uhlman as head coach and support him in his effort to get us back to the post-season.

A good way to show your support is to contribute to the FTW Collective, our NIL Collective geared towards providing Tulane student-athletes with NIL opportunities. Please visit our website at www.ftwcollective.com to find out how you can give and help provide Tulane student-athletes with NIL opportunities.

#RollWave

FTW Collective Group is now a 501(c)(3) organization

Your donations will be tax deductible

Big news Tulane fans! FTW Collective Group has been granted 501(c)(3) status by the IRS. This means that all of your donations are tax deductible.

We’ve also set up a new website for the Collective. Please visit us at https://www.ftwcollective.com

As many of you know, the FTW Collective Group is our NIL collective dedicated to providing Tulane student-athletes with NIL opportunities. All of the guests on the FTW Cast and the Jimmy O Show have been paid NIL fees for their participation. You may have also seen players post as “FTW Athletes” on Twitter and Instagram promoting the Collective. These are also sponsored posts.

We need your help to grow this Collective so that we can continue to provide more NIL opportunities for these great student-athletes.

If you have any questions, you can either visit our website that we linked above or you can feel free to send us an e-mail at ftwboosterclub@gmail.com

Roll Wave!

Tulane Men’s Basketball Season in Review + AAC Tournament Preview

Can the Green Wave make a run all the way to March Madness?

By: Ryan Hodes

Back in ancient history (November 2021), Tulane’s men's basketball season was off to a disastrous start. In the non-conference portion of their schedule, the Green Wave went 3-6, including four losses to teams outside KenPom’s top 150. They took a brutal home loss to Southern University in just their second game, and got swept by Charleston; not exactly world-beaters.

The most excruciating part of these losses was that five out of the six came by five points or fewer. In fact, Tulane still ranks No. 20 in the NCAA in KenPom’s “luck” metric. Essentially what this means is the randomness of late-game outcomes did not fall in Tulane’s favor, and they are better than their record might indicate.

So it’s not all that surprising that Tulane—fresh off a three-week COVID pause—blew through their early AAC schedule, going 4-1 and picking up wins against Memphis, Cincinnati, and Wichita St (the latter two came on the road). 

While the Green Wave haven’t remained quite as hot to finish the year, they still finished with a 10-8 record—their most AAC wins ever—and have played competitively against top teams like Houston, Memphis, and SMU. 

And this isn’t some fluke hot streak; this is the payoff of a proven coach laying the groundwork and cultivating a culture of success. Head coach Ron Hunter, in his third year at Tulane, has managed to resuscitate a dying program, pulling them out of their perennial basement spot in the American, and brought student and fan excitement back to the basketball program. I’ll have a season-in-review piece coming out once the season is over, in which I’ll go into more detail, but what Hunter and his staff have done in year three of their tenure has been nothing short of spectacular.

But that’s enough about the past, let’s talk about the upcoming American Athletic Conference Tournament.

American Athletic Conference Tournament Preview

Tulane comes into the AAC tournament with a No. 5 seed, meaning they get a valuable first-round bye. Their first game is Friday at 2 pm CT against 4-seeded Temple, and if they win that they will likely play top-dog Houston in the semis before any number of teams in the championship game. 

Do the Green Wave have what it takes to string together three straight wins against quality competition and earn an auto-bid to the NCAA Tournament? Well, in my eyes Tulane’s chances of making a run are contingent on the health of star PG Jalen Cook, who leads the team in scoring (18.0 PPG), assists (3.5 APG), and is tied with Sion James in steals (1.6 SPG). A sophomore LSU transfer, Cook has been a revelation for the Wave, and although they’ve managed pretty well without him, Houston will be a tough out without him.

Cook is expected to be a game-time decision for Thursday’s game against Temple, but will likely be limited if he plays. If he is out, the Wave will rely heavily on guards Jaylen Forbes and Sion James, along with up-and-comer Jaden Coleman, to pick up the slack.

Opponent Previews

No. 4 Temple (17-11, 10-7) and Tulane split their regular season this year, with each team picking up a win at home. Temple is ranked 107th in KenPom, but just 188th in offensive efficiency. They are a poor three-point shooting team at only 31.1% from deep, and they rank bottom 100 in defensive turnover percentage.

Temple’s poor shooting is fortunate for Tulane, as 45.6% of the Wave’s field goals allowed have come from three on the season, good for 15th highest in the NCAA. Additionally, Tulane should be able to win the turnover battle, as they rank 12th in offensive TO% and 67th in defensive TO%.

The Owls are, however, a good rebounding team; they rank top 50 in offensive rebounding percentage. Tulane struggles on the glass as they are relatively undersized, so they’ll need to find a way of preventing the rebounding margin from getting too out of hand. In Tulane’s win over Temple, they were out-rebounded 43-37 (-5), but in their loss, they performed even worse on the glass, getting out-rebounded 45-28 (-17).

This should be a close matchup; both teams have distinct matchup advantages that should balance out. Jalen Cook struggled in Tulane’s win over Temple, scoring only 8 points and registering a measly 64 Offensive Rating (he averages 107.2). So even if he doesn’t play or is limited, I like Tulane to get it done.

Prediction: Tulane wins, 74-72.

No. 1 Houston (26-5, 15-3) enters the AAC tournament off a blowout road loss to Memphis, but there’s no denying that they are still top dog in the conference. Kelvin Sampson’s team has been really impressive, despite losing two of their best players (Marcus Sasser & Tramon Mark) early in the year. The Cougars swept Tulane in their two meetings, but the Green Wave competed in a way I’ve rarely seen them compete against Houston.

The Cougars, quite frankly, are a matchup nightmare for the Wave. Tulane is bottom-50 in the country in offensive rebounds allowed, and offensive rebounding has been engrained in Houston’s DNA for years; they rank 4th in the country this year. Houston is stingy on defense, ranking 13th in defensive efficiency, 6th in effective FG%, and 16th in 3P% allowed. At this juncture, Houston is simply bigger, more athletic, and flat-out better. So how does the Green Wave pick up a win against the odds?

Matchup advantages are hard to come by for Tulane, but two things immediately jump out at me. First off, turnovers. While Houston is 25th in defensive TO%, they are only 96th in offensive TO%. This means Tulane, who is good on both offense and defense, can make up some possessions they’ll inevitably lose on the glass by winning the turnover battle. Additionally, Houston is bottom-75 in free throws allowed, meaning Tulane can take advantage of this by driving hard to the bucket and getting free points at the line.

Tulane’s execution will need to be flawless, and they’ll ultimately need to have a strong three-point shooting night in order to knock off Houston. Hopefully, Jalen Cook will be good to go in some capacity for this game, but either way, I truly believe Tulane has an outside shot of winning.

Shameless homer pick: Tulane wins 66-63.

If Tulane makes the championship, I may try and get a preview out for whoever their opponent is; there are too many possibilities to go over at this point. I'll be crossing my fingers it’s not Memphis, as they’re one of the hottest teams in the country, but Tulane is capable of winning against any team in the conference.

Whatever happens in the AAC tournament, this has already been a massive success of a season. And with how young Tulane’s roster is, it seems all but certain that next year will be even better. We’ve already landed a spot in the Cayman Islands Classic, alongside teams like LSU, Kansas State, and Nevada. Building a strong SOS will be key in competing for an at-large NCAA tournament resume, so I hope the athletics staff is working on scheduling stronger opponents than we faced this year.

Roll Wave!

Ryan Hodes (find me on Twitter @the_B1G_boy)