Tulane Green Wave Ron Hunter Shares Harsh Comparison and Assessment of Team
Tulane Green Wave men’s basketball head coach Ron Hunter knew that he was going to have his hands full during the 2024-25 season.
This was by far the youngest group he had ever coached, relying on nearly an entire rotation of players who are freshman or don’t have extensive experience at the college level. This has been a year of firsts for the veteran coach with several players earning regular minutes for the first time.
While some bumps in the road were expected, it still doesn’t make the team’s struggles any easier to handle.
Heading into their game on Saturday afternoon against the George Mason Patriots, their second true road contest of the season, the team was riding a four-game losing streak.
It was an incredibly disappointing stretch, as they lost to the New Orleans Privateers, Wyoming Cowoboys, Belmont Bruins and Southeastern Louisiana Lions. Games at Devlin Fieldhouse were sandwiched with a holiday tournament in Cancun.
It was a stretch that Hunter saw some things that he didn’t like from his team, as he didn’t hold back with comments made prior to the matchup against the Patriots.
“They are like deer in the headlights,” Hunter said via Guerry Smith of NOLA.com. “I can see it in timeouts. Their eyes are all just popping out. I can’t convince them it’s going to be OK and play the next possession. I'm not down on them at all. That’s something we’ve got to keep teaching them, but there’s no magical pill. There's no something we can do in practice. They’ve got to go through this.”
The only way to get over these struggles is to continue gaining experience and learn from them. The lumps are tough to take, as this is the first time the team had lost four consecutive games since the 2018-19 disaster under Mike Dunleavy.
That losing streak reached five games as they were run out of the gym by the Patriots. After scoring the first seven points in the matchup, and taking a 10-9 lead after allowing a 9-0 run, George Mason had a 10-0 run to take control and never looked back.
In a 76-64 loss another issue that the head coach mentioned popped up; inability to gain confidence and some defensive breakdowns.
“Just like most young teams, we panic and lose our confidence,” Hunter said. “Defensively, rotations get out of whack, and offensively we turn the ball over trying to get it all back in one possession, mistakes that veteran teams don’t make.”
As he noted, confidence is still high in this group. There is a lot of talent to work with, and the rotation is still unsettled as the starting lineup has been changed on several occasions.
Some of that has been necessitated by injuries, but inconsistent performances have also plagued the squad. That is one of the things that has to be overcome by a young team with so many new faces, as chemistry and cohesion take time to build up.
Kenneth Teape is an alumnus of SUNY Old Westbury and graduated in 2013 with an Honors Degree in Media Communications with a focus on print journalism. During his time at Old Westbury, he worked for the school newspaper and several online publications, such as Knicks Now, the official website of the New York Knicks, and a self-made website with fellow students, Gotham City Sports News. Kenneth has also been a site expert at Empire Writes Back, Musket Fire, and Lake Show Life within the FanSided Network. He was a contributor to HoopsHabit, with work featured on Bleacher Report and Yardbarker. In addition to his work here, he is a reporter for both NBA Analysis Network and NFL Analysis Network, as well as a writer and editor for Packers Coverage. You can follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @teapester725, or reach him via email at teapester725@gmail.com.