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Tulane Basketball: 2022-23 season preview and outlook for Green Wave

By Karl Heiser

Nov 17, 2021; Tallahassee, Florida, USA; Tulane Green Wave head coach Ron Hunter speaks with his team during a timeout in the game against the Florida State Seminoles at Donald L. Tucker Center. Mandatory Credit: Melina Myers-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 17, 2021; Tallahassee, Florida, USA; Tulane Green Wave head coach Ron Hunter speaks with his team during a timeout in the game against the Florida State Seminoles at Donald L. Tucker Center. Mandatory Credit: Melina Myers-USA TODAY Sports /
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Quentin Scott #15 and Jalen Cook #3 of the Tulane Green Wave  (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Quentin Scott #15 and Jalen Cook #3 of the Tulane Green Wave  (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

Some of you may remember head coach Ron Hunter for his iconic moment from the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Coaching 14-seed Georgia State from a stool due to a torn Achilles, Hunter fell to the floor after his son R.J. hit a buzzer-beater to cap off a 13-0 run and upset 3-seed Baylor. If you haven’t kept up with Ron Hunter since then, he’s now entering his fourth season as head coach for Tulane Basketball.

In his first season at Tulane, Hunter’s squad finished dead last in the AAC. However, that’s all part of the process. After opening his coaching career with three losing seasons at IUPUI, Hunter didn’t have another losing season for the final decade of his tenure there. He then guided Georgia State to three NCAA Tournaments in eight years – certainly a feat given that the Sun Belt is traditionally a one-bid league. Sometimes it takes a minute, but Ron Hunter builds winners, and there’s evidence he’s doing that at Tulane. The Green Wave posted a 10-8 AAC record last year – their first winning season in conference play since they joined the league in 2014 and a far cry from the 0-18 AAC season they had right before Hunter got there.

Tulane returns essentially everyone from last year’s fifth-place AAC finish. Foremost among them is sophomore guard Jalen Cook, who averaged 18 points and 3.5 assists per game while shooting 39.1% from three. Junior guard Jaylen Forbes is also back off an impressive campaign of his own where he averaged 16.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per contest while converting 38.7% of his long-range shots. The Green Wave’s Big Three is completed by junior forward Kevin Cross, who averaged 13.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game while functioning as the team’s offensive lynchpin.

With plenty of scoring and depth returning to New Orleans for this season, there are now legitimate expectations for a Green Wave program that was once an afterthought in the AAC. Is this the year Ron Hunter’s squad takes a jump? Here is a full 2022-23 season preview for Tulane Basketball.