Fansided

8 Cinderella teams to watch in the conference tournaments

By Andrew Garda

Mar 23, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; Kentucky Wildcats celebrate as the defeat the Wichita State Shockers 78-76 in the third round of the 2014 NCAA Men
Mar 23, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; Kentucky Wildcats celebrate as the defeat the Wichita State Shockers 78-76 in the third round of the 2014 NCAA Men /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
9 of 9
Next
Feb 22, 2015; Storrs, CT, USA; Tulane Green Wave guard Louis Dabney (0) shoots against Connecticut Huskies guard Ryan Boatright (11) in the second half at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion. UConn defeated Tulane Green Wave 67-60. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 22, 2015; Storrs, CT, USA; Tulane Green Wave guard Louis Dabney (0) shoots against Connecticut Huskies guard Ryan Boatright (11) in the second half at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion. UConn defeated Tulane Green Wave 67-60. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports /

Tulane— AAC

It won’t be an easy road for the Green Wave, but this is a team which is out-scoring teams in the first half of games and grinding them in the second.

It has three solid shooters in Louis Dabney, Jay Hook and Jonathan Stark as well as four players in triple digits in rebounds. If they can win the battle at the glass, they can win a lot of games. In fact, they are out-rebounding teams 35 rebounds to 32 rebounds per game.

They have beaten some of the high seeds before, like Cincinnati, and have had some very close games with other high seeds.

Tulane has struggled to be consistent during the regular season, but they steadily improve throughout the season. They could be peaking at almost the right time for a run.

Why it won’t happen:

Tulane has lost five of their last six games—that’s a bad way to enter a tournament.  Some of them have been against some bad teams as well—Houston and UCF to be specific.

We’re also talking about a team being out-shot from the floor (41 percent to 44 percent), blocked at an alarming rate (130 times this season) and turning the ball over a ton (389).

On top of that, Tulsa and Cincinnati—the two high seeds they must beat to even sniff the championship—have beaten them before. While they stole an early game against Cincy, they were swept by Tulsa. Heck there was a game against 5-13 UCF which went into triple-overtime. And they lost.

That just doesn’t bode well, does it?