| |
| School Name: | Tulane University |
| Location: | New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Arena: | Devlin Fieldhouse |
| Capacity: | 3,600 |
| Conference: | The American |
| Head coach: | Ed Conroy |
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as a public medical college in 1834, the school grew into a full university and was eventually privatized under the endowments of Paul Tulane and Josephine Louise Newcomb in the late 19th century. It is the only American university that has been converted from a public institution to a private institution.
Green Wave, the nickname of the sports teams of Tulane University, was adopted during the 1920 season, after a song titled The Rolling Green Wave was published in Tulane's student newspaper in 1920. Prior to that, the teams were known officially as "The Olive and Blue" and unofficially referred to as "The Greenies" or "The Greenbacks."
Tulane is a member of the American Athletic Conference (The American). Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the university fielded NCAA Division I teams in 16 sports. As part of the university's Renewal Plan some sports were suspended. Tulane currently has six Division I-A programs—football, men and women's basketball, baseball, women's volleyball, and women's track—which compete in eight sports; however, they plan to field 16 sports by 2011.
Men's Basketball
Tulane's men's basketball program fell victim to one of the biggest scandals of the 1980s in college sports when four players, including star forward "Hot Rod" Williams were accused of taking money and cocaine to alter the final point spreads of games they played in. Clyde Eads and Jon Johnson were granted immunity and testified against Williams, the alleged ringleader. Although he was indicted, the judge eventually declared a mistrial and no sentence was handed down. Williams spent the next nine years with the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. Following the scandal, Tulane's administration decided to disband the men's basketball program. It was resurrected four years later under new head coach Perry Clark who rapidly rebuilt the program to unprecedented success, including a 1991-92 season that started 13-0 and ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The 1992-93 and 1994-95 teams matched that team's success but never surpassed it, and Clark failed to coach the team to the tournament again before he resigned in 2000 to coach the Miami Hurricanes. The Green Wave failed to make any postseason tournament under Clark's successor, Shawn Finney, and currently prepares for its second season under former Maryland assistant Dave Dickerson.
Tulane is the only school remaining from the original Metro Conference to have remained in the original conference through the 1975 founding, the 1991 breakup that saw several schools form the Great Midwest Conference, the 1995 reunification that created today's Conference USA, and the 2004 realignment of conferences.
Women's Basketball
Tulane's women's basketball program has found recent success under the coaching of Lisa Stockton, who began at Tulane in 1995. That year, Stockton lead the team to its first NCAA Tournament appearance and was named Metro Conference Coach of the Year. That first appearance then grew into 9 consecutive NCAA Tournament berths. The team has been regular-season C-USA champions three times, most recently in the 2006-2007 season, when they held a 24-5 record (13-3 in C-USA). In addition, they have won the C-USA tournament 4 times, once in 1997 and then three years in a row (from 1999-2001). Lisa Stockton is the winningest coach in C-USA history and was recently named 2006-2007 C-USA Coach of the Year. 2006-2007 seniors Jami Montagnino (ranked 5th in NCAA Division I teams in free-throw percentage) and D'Aundra Henry proved essential to the team's success, both hitting 1,000 points for their careers in that season.
The 2006-2007 team was upset by Rice, 64-52, in the C-USA semifinals in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and did not receive an at-large bid to the 2007 NCAA Tournament. With a final record of 25-6, they became the first team with as few as 6 losses not to make it into the 64-team bracket.
