Men's Basketball Heads to ECU for Final Road Trip of the Season

NEW ORLEANS - Tulane University men's basketball takes on the Pirates at 9 p.m. on Wednesday in Greenville, N.C.

The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+. Fans can also listen to the game live on the radio by tuning into 104.1 The Spot or by CLICKING HERE. Tulane's "Voice of the Green Wave" Corey Gloor will call the action live.

STARTING FIVE
1. Tulane University men's basketball heads to East Carolina to take on the Pirates for the first time this season. Splitting the series last year, Tulane will face ECU twice in three days.

2. Jalen Cook notched his eighth straight game scoring 20+ points versus Wichita State on Wednesday when he scored a career-high tying 30 points. The sophomore is currently averaging 20.7 points per game and has only scored below double figures twice this season (Memphis and Temple).

3. Sion James (37.7), Jaylen Forbes (36.4), and Jalen Cook (34.1) are one, two and five in the conference in minutes per game in the AAC. James has led the conference for the entirety of the season and in the top 10 in the country.

4. Tulane continues to have the highest scoring offense in the AAC averaging 81.2 ppg on the season.

5. Tulane is sixth in the country and first in the AAC in free throw percentage shooting 79.0 percent from the charity stripe. Jalen Cook leads the team and second in the
AAC shooting .895 percent.

TULANE BY THE NUMBERS
500 - With a 17-9 record and five games left to play (counting first round of AAC tournament) this is the first time Ron Hunter will finish over .500 as the Tulane head coach. Tulane hasn't finished .500 or better since 2013-14 (17-17).

280 – Tulane has made at least one 3-point field goal in 280 consecutive games. The last time the Green Wave failed to do so came on Jan. 16, 2014 at home against Louisiana Tech when they went 0-for-14 from outside.

90 – Tulane has scored 90+ eight times this season which is more than the last six seasons combined.

79.0 – Tulane is shooting 79.0 percent from the line which is on track to be the best team average ever for a Tulane team.

17 - The last time Tulane had 17 or more wins in a single season was 2013-14 (17-17).

10 – 10 conference wins ties Tulane conference win total from last season. Tulane has never won more than 10 AAC games in a single season.

2 – Head coach Ron Hunter is two wins away from 500 in his career. 53 of those wins are while at Tulane.

THE OPPONENT – ECU
• The Pirates are coming off a 76-57 loss at home to No. 1 Houston on Feb. Ezra Ausar led ECU with 15 points and eight rebounds and RJ Felton and Brandon Johnson added 13 and 12 points respectively.
• RJ Felton is averaging 17.4 points per game over ECU's last 10 games.
• ECU has won three of its last five home games, having defeated Tulsa, SMU and Cincinnati.
• East Carolina currently ranks second in the AAC in offensive rebounds per game at 12.14 but is last in the league in defensive rebounds at 24.5.

A WIN VERSUS ECU
• Ron would get his first win at ECU.
• Tulane would get its 11th home win of the season, it's most in the Ron Hunter era.
• Tulane would improve to 18 wins on the year, the most since 2012-13 when the team went 20-15.

2022-23 STATISTICAL IMPROVEMENT
Through the first 25 games of the year, Tulane shows improvement through five statistical categories compared to the first right games of last season.

Category                                 2021-22                                      2022-23
Points Per Game                         73.4                                     81.2
Field Goal Percentage              .438                                     .467
Free Throw Percentage             75.2                                    79.0
Steals per game                           8.1                                       9.0
Assists per game                        13.0                                    15.9

SUCCESS FROM THE CHARITY STRIPE
• Tulane is currently 439-556 from the free throw line (.790) which is trending towards the program's highest single-season percentage since 1967-68 when the team shot 528-of-692 (.763) at the charity stripe.
• Three Green Wave players are currently shooting over .800 from the line - Jalen Cook (.895), Jaylen Forbes (.867) and Kevin Cross (.837).

Men's Basketball Heads to ECU for Final Road Trip of the Season

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Players Mentioned

Jalen Cook

Kevin Cross

Jaylen Forbes

Sion James

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