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Watched most of the Tulane v Utah game, a rare opportunity to watch some 10:30 AM basketball on the east coast in between errands and UConn basketball.
I was impressed with the Ron Hunter hire by Tulane and he's making an immediate impact on the team. Yes, Utah is a young team, but they are very talented with one of the tallest teams in the league playing a 2-3 zone. Timmy Allen is a good bucket getter and Rylan Jones is a mature, secure freshman PG. They are a good team and will be even better next year being one year older and having one of the better recruiting classes of '20.
Going into this year, I expected Tulane to be KJ Lawson and a bunch of other guys, but three of their less heralded transfers (Teshaun Hightower, Christion Thompson and Jordan Walker) are averaging a combined 44.6 ppg. Hightower has been their best player.
Two factors that impressed me with today's game:
1) Their matchup zone. Unlike Utah's (similar to Syracuse's) snoozefest zone, Tulane plays a matchup zone that is more of a living, breathing zone where certain players leave the weak-side to double. Very interesting to watch and I don't know a lot of teams who play zone this way.
2) Sharing the ball. Jordan Walker is their de facto point guard, but he's more of a facilitator. Once the ball is in halfcourt, 1 through 4 has an equal shot of handling and distributing the ball. Between their starting 1-4 of Walker/Hightower/Thompson/Lawson, all players range between 2.4 and 3.4 assists/game. All four also like to shoot on the outside, while Lawson and Hightower are good drivers.
Yes, maybe having three of your top eight players being grad transfers isn't a long-term plan for success, but Hunter needed to change the culture of the program and he's doing that.
While we won't care much about Tulane basketball next season, we play Tulane twice this year and I'm glad that matchup will be less of playing a bottom feeder and more of an opportunity for playing a solid, well coached team.
I was impressed with the Ron Hunter hire by Tulane and he's making an immediate impact on the team. Yes, Utah is a young team, but they are very talented with one of the tallest teams in the league playing a 2-3 zone. Timmy Allen is a good bucket getter and Rylan Jones is a mature, secure freshman PG. They are a good team and will be even better next year being one year older and having one of the better recruiting classes of '20.
Going into this year, I expected Tulane to be KJ Lawson and a bunch of other guys, but three of their less heralded transfers (Teshaun Hightower, Christion Thompson and Jordan Walker) are averaging a combined 44.6 ppg. Hightower has been their best player.
Two factors that impressed me with today's game:
1) Their matchup zone. Unlike Utah's (similar to Syracuse's) snoozefest zone, Tulane plays a matchup zone that is more of a living, breathing zone where certain players leave the weak-side to double. Very interesting to watch and I don't know a lot of teams who play zone this way.
2) Sharing the ball. Jordan Walker is their de facto point guard, but he's more of a facilitator. Once the ball is in halfcourt, 1 through 4 has an equal shot of handling and distributing the ball. Between their starting 1-4 of Walker/Hightower/Thompson/Lawson, all players range between 2.4 and 3.4 assists/game. All four also like to shoot on the outside, while Lawson and Hightower are good drivers.
Yes, maybe having three of your top eight players being grad transfers isn't a long-term plan for success, but Hunter needed to change the culture of the program and he's doing that.
While we won't care much about Tulane basketball next season, we play Tulane twice this year and I'm glad that matchup will be less of playing a bottom feeder and more of an opportunity for playing a solid, well coached team.