Three In A Row People

Billy Joel is to headline Jazzfest! And in other exciting news to emerge from the Crescent City, the Green Wave wins its third straight game and improving to 13-6 (3-2 in C-USA).

Bluntly, like the previous win over Rice, this game has lost any relevance outside of “Tulane simply can’t afford to lose it. Ever.” Consistently routing an SMU-level team via dominating the game late is a given now- wins are expected. I realize SMU and Rice played periods of each game tight in the second half. But as Tulane fans know brutally well- when outclassed, there is a big difference in being in the game and being in a real position to win it late. Neither Rice nor SMU had a real chance with under two minutes to go.

But while there is no credit in these pair of wins, they did avoid disaster-and so these two wins go in the bank toward Tulane’s march to 21-ish victories- and an outside shot at the NIT with a good post-season conference run. They have two more in the same bucket coming up: ECU and again horrid Rice- teams with 200+ RPIs that shouldn’t push the Wave (although they’re road games- and I remember the Buffalo disaster).

I’m increasingly optimistic that Houston- while their RPI is marshmallow soft, now is getting Top 25 votes- is going to put a real run at the NCAA Tournament- which opens up an NIT slot for the rest of the League. Eleven wins, fourth place gives the Wave a shot going into the conference tournament.