Tulane Green Wave Women’s Basketball Boss Reveals Key Area for Improvement
The Tulane Green Wave were picked 10th in the preseason American Athletic Conference coaches’ poll. To achieve better than that ranking, new coach Ashley Langford is clear about what it will take — or at least what the first building block will be in rebuilding the program.
“If we don’t defend, you’re not going to play,” Langford said. “Right? I’m just very honest and direct about it. That’s what we have to do.”
That’s not Langford telling the media just to tell the media. She says she makes that clear every day in practice. A look at her coaching history proves it, too.
Last season with Stony Brook, her third season as head coach, the Sea Wolves went 28-5 and 16-2 in league action. While they didn’t win the CAA’s tournament title, they did get to the second round of the WBIT.
Stony Brook held opponents to 57.6 points per game and combined with the Sea Wolves’ 72.9 points per game on offense, they outscored opponents by more than 15 points per game.
The Sea Wolves were ranked No. 33 in Division I in scoring defense. That’s the level of effort she’s demanding from her new players.
“I mean, you just watched the WNBA Finals Game 5,” she said. “It was a low-scoring game (the Liberty beat the Lynx, 67-62). It’s hard to get points. So it’s all about defense. That’s what wins championships and to me it’s all about what you emphasize, what you do every single day. Defending is part of our identity, so we defend every single day and we talk about it every single day. When you do that they really don’t have any choice but to buy in, especially when you just tell them flat out.”
Getting Stony Brook to that point required patience as defense can sometimes be inconsistent from season to season. The Sea Wolves gave up 65.8 points per game in Langford’s second season (2022-23), which was up from the 56.5 points it allowed in 2021-22 in her debut.
The good news is that Langford’s experience will come in handy for the Green Wave, which could use improvement on that end of the court. Coming off a 12-20 season, with a 3-15 record in American Athletic Conference action, the Green Wave gave up 65.6 points per game. For context, that put Tulane No. 202 in the country.
Better defense would also boost the impact last year’s top scorer could have on the court. Guard Kyren Whittington averaged 17.4 points and 2.4 assists last season.
Sometimes good defense can lead to good offense. But, as for what kind of defense Langford will play, well she’s not talking — not even to a local reporter who seemed to assume he knew.
“You don’t know what I’m going to do, and I’m not going to tell you what I’m going to do right now,” she said. “I’ll save that for when you see us play.”
Tulane opens the season at Loyola on Nov. 4.
