Showing posts with label jordan callahan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jordan callahan. Show all posts
Josh Davis defends against Alabama 
The road hasn't treated Tulane well much this season. Luckily, the Green Wave has boasted a perfect home record so far.

While winning close road games has proven somewhat elusive, Tulane arrived in Tuscaloosa with an opportunity to turn the tide.

And that they did. Tulane downed a solid but slumping Alabama Crimson Tide in a 53-50 thriller. The offense struggled: a 36% field goal percentage proved that. Nonetheless, clutch shooting and lockdown defense buoyed the team in this grinding matchup.

In the end, Jordan Callahan took the game into his own hands. He nailed back-to-back threes in the final two minutes to hold on to a narrow lead. Josh Davis showed his superstar ability with another clutch double-double: 18 points and 12 rebounds. Rather than fouling Alabama (who held the final possession), Tulane forced Rodney Cooper of Alabama to miss a final opportunity to tie at the buzzer.

All in all, this game thematically represented a big shift from earlier losses against Nebraska and San Diego. In the final ten minutes - on a court outside of New Orleans - the Green Wave traded blows and refused to surrender the lead.

So what does this mean for Tulane's big picture? Depends how you look at it. As the Alabama blogs noted before this win, Tulane's 10 wins all were previously against teams ranking 221st or worse in Ken Pomeroy's analysis.

Fair point. Tulane has succeeded largely by rocking lesser competition with a great level of consistency. This win definitely changes that perspective a little bit. Alabama ranked 68th in that same measurement of offensive/defensive efficiency and schedule strength. So if nothing else, Tulane acquires a little credibility and confidence.

Photo of the win from @CoachAndyFox on Twitter
That said, Alabama's early season 7-0 rise (which was even highlighted by a few weeks receiving votes in the polls) gave way to a pretty abysmal December. They lost 4 out of their last five (two to tournament teams, Cincinnati and VCU, admittedly). So basically, the Crimson Tide was definitely on the ropes. They needed this win badly.

They aren't playing like an elite team right now, but they had the weapons to win on their home court. They badly needed to win a game like this to route the ship back on course. However, Tulane showed up ready to win this game. Plain and simple. And I don't think you can really diminish the value of that.

Tulane will finish its non-conference season this week with a Jan. 4th matchup against a weak Wofford team. If they can maintain this level of play, they will enter Conference USA with a 12-3 record, 9-0 at the remodeled Devlin Fieldhouse.

While the Green Wave will have to answer some big questions against teams like Memphis, Southern Mississippi, and UTEP down the road, they have established momentum in this midseason. The players don't control scheduling. They took care of business when it counted and will look to translate this into a solid start in conference play.

Tonight, it's all about the roll wave.

Reax on Twitter:



The Big Easy brought its A-game to the Big Apple. Tulane laid a second half smackdown on Hofstra for an 83-62 finish in a road matchup at the Barclays Center - the home of the new Brooklyn Nets.

The story of the day? Another slow start followed by a hot second half. But unlike unfortunate losses at Nebraska and San Diego on the road, the Green Wave showed its mettle and lit up the second half.

Guard Ricky Tarrant was the headliner in this game, stealing the limelight from Josh Davis in a stellar 28 point performance.

Davis continued his trend of consistent great play with 18 points and only a rebound short of a double-double. Jordan Callahan also finished well with 15 points.

Hofstra hasn't been a strong team, for sure. They were 3-7 coming into this matchup. However, they did pull off a nice upset of C-USA's Marshall Thundering Herd earlier this year. Getting out of the Barclays Center with a nice road win was critical to building momentum as the tougher schedule approaches.



The team will have an 8 day break before heading to Tuscaloosa, AL to take on the Crimson Tide. Alabama, of course, had a hot start this season and earned some poll votes in the process. Tulane will have a chance to upset a good team on the road and gain some confidence. Good win, and roll wave.
And... That was a close one. Tulane men's hoops narrowly defeated Southern University on Saturday night in what proved to be a tough home matchup. While Southern defeated Grambling in its historical football rivalry, the basketball team came close to pulling off a remarkable upset.

While Tulane established a 17 point lead at one point, the second half was all about Southern. The Jaguars outscored Tulane 44-32 in the second half, yet came up short in a 68-65 loss.

The Green Wave should be happy to get out of Devlin with a W, taking their season home record to 4-0 (and overall record to 4-2).

Josh Davis, once again, threw down a solid double-double with 20 points and a game leading 16 rebounds. The junior is averaging almost 20 points per game and roughly 10 rebounds while also leading the squad in assists.

Jordan Callahan and Ricky Tarrant also contributed 16 points apiece. However, Tomas Bruha struggled with only two rebounds and three points credited to the seven footer.

Luckily, home court has been good to Tulane thus far, and the team won't leave campus again until Dec. 8. They will take on Louisiana-Lafayette on Nov. 27.


Tulane faces off against in-state opponent Southern University tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a power ranking of Conference USA teams as we continue to get deeper into non-conference play.

12. Rice Owls (1-3) - Pretty simple here. The Owls are off to a 1-3 start against a comparatively very easy schedule. Not a lot of hope in the early season. They also got pounded this week by Georgia Tech, the only somewhat significant team they have seen so far.

11. Houston (4-0) - There, I said it. Sure, 4-0 looks pretty, but they have played a horrible schedule. Their four opponents have a combined win total of 2 victories. Not an average. Total of two wins over four teams. The have four more cupcake games before they take on Texas A&M, the first from a conference of note. So don't be shocked if they are off to a 7-0 run.

10. East Carolina (4-0) - Another undefeated team without much substance. ECU scheduled the Mickey Mouse teams upfront before they head to #9 UNC midway through their non-conference schedule.  They have played two close games against weak opponents already. Only a matter of time before the Pirates come back to earth.

9. Tulsa (4-1) - C-USA is a conference of a great records so far. But Tulsa is a textbook case of some underlying weakness. Tulsa is looking OK thus far until you see the 20+ point drubbing they suffered at the hands of the Cal State Northridge Matadors. Life comes at you fast.

8. UAB (3-2) - Their two losses came to ranked Creighton and Illinois St. They have UNC and Rutgers coming up soon, which should be additional tests. They are playing one of the tougher non-conference schedules of the conference.

7. Marshall (2-3) - Marshall had high hopes coming into this year but has struggled so far. A tough loss to South Dakota State and a 2OT defeat against Hofstra definitely have limited the Thundering Herd's expectations.

6. Tulane (3-2) - The Green Wave clashed with Nebraska in the finals of their preseason tournament but came up short in the 1:05. Had Tulane pulled it off, they would have real momentum in the early season. Luckily, the team will play a series of easy teams to get rolling once again. Josh Davis is thriving in his leadership role, and Jordan Callahan has been effective. Let's see where this goes.

5. UTEP (2-3) - The Miners' record looks weak, but their losses came against Arizona, Oklahoma, and Clemson. For whatever reason, UTEP missed the memo on avoiding major conference opponents, but the Miners look like a competitive team moving forward.

4. SMU (5-0) - The Larry Brown era is starting with a bang for the Mustangs. 5-0 looks great, and there isn't too much ahead of them before conference play. Ken Pomeroy's computer is still saying they have the third easiest schedule in C-USA, so it's tough to give much weight to this team just yet.

3. Central Florida (3-2) - You can definitely excuse their loss tonight to #7 Florida, but a drubbing by Middle Tennessee St. definitely makes you wonder about the Knights' viability. UCF will have to gain some steam as they rebound from a chomping by the Gators.

2. Memphis (2-3) - Yeah. Definitely bold to put the Tigers at #2 in C-USA. They are always the conference leader come March, after all, and they started this week with a #16 national ranking. Well... a lot can change in a week. It's tough to justify the Tigers as the conference top spot right now after suffering beatdowns by VCU and Minnesota at the Battle for Atlantis. Memphis is playing bad basketball, and until they get their groove back, their resume consists of a win against North Florida and a squeezed home victory against Samford. Yuck.

1. Southern Miss (5-0) - USM is looking solid right now, especially with two overtime wins in away games (Western Kentucky and Georgia) already. An away visit to #10 Arizona in two weeks will likely bring them back to earth, but a solid foundation to the season so far.

That's all for now. We'll do another update next Saturday.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers maintained their undefeated season in a 61-57 home victory against Tulane. In spite of a strong second half for the Green Wave, the Cornhuskers held their lead throughout the game's final two minutes as Tulane faced several opportunities to tie or take the lead.

The critical moment came with 1:05 left, as Jordan Callahan (who put up 17 points in the game), missed all three key free throws as Tulane trailed 59-57. Ouch.

At that point, Tulane failed to convert and allowed Nebraska to hold onto the lead.

Nebraska improves its record to 4-0 while Tulane falls to 3-2. Despite the loss, Tulane's performance was highlighted by another Josh Davis double-double while the team, as a whole, largely controlled the boards against the Cornhuskers.

Fortunately, Tulane will face several cupcake opponents after Thanksgiving, including Southern (1-4) and Navy (2-3).
FTW has been pretty dormant for a while, so I thought I'd revive posting as the men's hoops season gets rolling.

Here are the key stories from the past week:

1. Tulane beats Nebraska-Omaha at the new Devlin Fieldhouse (76-52). Jordan Callahan lit it up, putting up six baskets from behind the arc en route to a stellar game. In the end, Callahan's 27 point performance was his career high at Tulane.

2. Green Wave packs the house... with high school students. "School Day" brought high schoolers from across New Orleans to the new fieldhouse. Callahan told Tammy Nunez that "there was a lot of high pitched-screaming." Roll wave.

3. Tulane has Chicago State (1-2), Nebraska (of the Cornhuskers variety) (2-0), and Southern (1-4) on the agenda this week. Should be an exciting holiday.

That's all for now.

Like Fear the Wave on Facebook for more updates and information. 


© Copyright FearTheWave.com Designed by Template Trackers