Coach Dickerson's Thoughts on the 2007 Roster

We had an opportunity to speak to Coach Dickerson and some players after practice Thursday. While the majority of our conversation won't be available until the Hullabaloo hits the racks next Friday, we felt fans might be interested in some player-related snippets from our conversation with the coach.

"The great thing about this team is we have seven of out of nine players returning, and we can get a lot of scoring out of those guys. David Gomez is a player that can raise his level of play, can become more of a complete player. He’s a guy we need to have a good year. He averaged 13 points a game, 5-6 rebounds last year, and he needs to take those stats up to around 15-17 and eight rebounds.
Kevin [Sims] did a good job for us last year, and he’s going to be called upon to run the team and he’s going be called upon to score also. His role won’t change from last year because what is important for us is we have a good point guard that can run the team and score. We have to look for other ways to get him some more scoring opportunities but his first and foremost obligation will be to run the game for us.
Kevin has become more of a complete player, he understands the system and he knows where to pick his points as far as scoring and defense and being a leader. We need to continue him doing is be vocal, the way good point guards are. We had him watching Chris Paul practice. Have him learning from a good point guard in the NBA. Hopefully those things can carry over. Kevin is a good player for us and we’re lucky to have him. If he can be a leader and score more points for us that would be great, but we have Donnie Stith back for his senior year, and we have Daniel Puckett, whom should both be scoring in double figures.
Then you have the player that had the best off-season for us, Matt Wheaton. Matt is in better condition, he understands the system, he’s scoring the ball inside and out. If Dave Gomez can go to another level and Kevin can stay solid and Wheaton can raise his level of play then we have three or four guys that can be in double figures.
Our headline freshman is Chris Richard. He’s a versatile guard…we’ve played Chris primarily at the two and the three in the first weeks of practice and now we’ve shifted him around to the point guard position. The more he learns the system the better he’ll be as a player. He has a knack for scoring and he’s very quick defensively so he can play in the passing lane and get a lot of steals for us.
Jake Henderson has been going against Kevin Sims everyday in practice, playing at being a backup point guard for us. He’s struggled at times but he’s kept his confidence up, hopefully he’ll be able to play five to seven minutes a game for us this year.
Jun Anderson we don’t need to come in and play right away, because we have Dave Gomez, Robby Louisme and Asim Mcqueen and Donny Stith. If those four guys can play at a high level he can learn on the job and be ready to play come December.
Robby we graded as the most productive player on our team if he had played forty minutes for us last year. But last year he was coming off a red shirt year, he had no familiarity playing with officials and he got in foul trouble and his conditioning was a problem. This year he’s in the best shape of his tenure here at Tulane and hopefully he can play more minutes than fourteen and be a scoring threat inside next to Dave Gomez."

Coach Dickerson Looking for Fan Support

Head Basketball Coach Dave Dickerson was asked on how he feels the Tulane basketball program was being supported. Here is his response

Dickerson: One of my big pushes since I've been here is to try and get our students more involvded in our basketball program because I understand from a first hand basis that if you get good fan support but mostly good student support you have a chance to win game. We can get 1,500-2,0o0 students here every home game. We have over 1,500 season ticket holders already so that means we are almost sold out. When we won a national championship, we went undefeated at home that year, that was largely based on the students. You look at Memphis student support vs. our student support, its not comparable. But if you look at the opportunity for us to be a good team, and with our gym only being under 4,000 people, if we can get a lot of students in here then we have a chance to at least win our home games. If we can do that then steal some on the road, then you have a chance.
I think our administration is committed to us being a good program, but I would like to see our students come out and support us. A place like Tulane University you need everyone... you need everyone to be successful because we are such a small school and we are an academically-based school. Our student-athletes that we have, especially our basketball players, we are high-achieving in the classroom. We don't get any special passes because we are atheltes. Our team GPA is 2.9... We are doing the same thing everyone else is doing, so we are trying to make this whole thing into a family situation where they support us, we support them ,and there is no disconnects- all of us in this whole deal together.

It seems like Coach Dickerson just wants the seats to be filled up and I agree. Even though the gym is small, in a way that is an advantage because it gets much louder. Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke only holds around 4,000, and it is considered maybe the toughest place to play in the country. Every year there are crazy upsets in college basketball, and almost all happen when a talented team is on the road in a hostile environment. This is noticed the most in the ACC, where a clearly less talented team like Virginia is able to consistently beat Duke or North Carolina on their home court. Remember, these guys are college players, not professional athletes. They can get easily rattled and the fans play a big part in that. When a place gets so loud that a team can barely hear, they start to get nervous. So if Fogleman Arena could consistently get filled up, I think that would be a huge boost for Tulane's season and would make a difference in the win column.

No Love for Wave Basketball

CBS Sports currently has a preview of the Conference USA basketball season. I don't necessarily agree with their assessment of the Green Wave finishing 8th, especially since 4 of 5 starters return from a team that finished 4th last season.

Basketball Madness

I took a few pictures at the Basketball Madness event on Friday night (below). Overall, there weren't as many people in attendance as I thought there'd be, but I guess that's to be expected considering it was on a Friday night (and it's not really basketball season). Nonetheless, I'm glad the athletics department and Coach Dickerson decided to do something resembling a Midnight Madness.

Let me know in the comments if you'd like more.

Taylor Rochestie Update

For those that remember Taylor Rochestie, the standout point guard that played at Tulane as a freshman but then transferred to Washington St. following Katrina [sigh] before leading them in scoring and to an NCAA tournament run last year.

Well now, he apparently isn't even asking for a scholarship to play at WSU his senior year. In order to make room for another recruit (defensive specialist Marcus Capers), Rochestie agreed to forfeit his scholarship for his senior year so that Capers could receive one. The money he's giving up is valued at around $20,000-$25,000. If only....

Basketball Block Party

For fans that can't wait for basketball season to get started, there will be a Basketball Block Party on Oct 12 (First day of Basketball practice) from 7-9pm at Fogelman Arena. There will be a live band/dj outside the front doors plus catering with $1 beers and $1 hotdogs. Inside, there will be a small 3 on 3 open tournament while the band is playing. Registration for this will be open to anyone. First come first play upon availability.

After that, there will be coach and player intros inside followed by a brief speech fro the coaches. Then, they will holds a 3 point competition with 2 students vs. 2 Tulane basketball players (men's and women's) followed by a 2 student vs. 2 Tulane basketball players (men's only) dunk contest judged by the crowd. One fan in attendance will have a chance to win $10,000 by making 5 out of 10 three pointers within 25 seconds.

To finish the night they will hold a 10 minute intrasquad women's scrimmage followed by a 10 minutes men's intrasquad scrimmage. The Green Wave will have a few big basketball recruits on campus that evening for the festivities, although who they are is unknown at this point.

Basketball signs Ft. Worth Guard

After spending the weekend in Louisiana and attending the LSU game, Kendall Timmons verbally committed to Coach Dickerson and the Green Wave. Timmons averaged 18.2 points and 7.6 rebounds last season on his way to being named District 7-4A Player of the Year and Second Team all-City. He chose Tulane mainly over Oral Roberts, although a few small Texas schools were also recruiting him. Great athlete good shooter, solid rebounding numbers for a guy his size, and most importantly a good guy from what it sounds like. He looks like a sleeper that could really make some noise once Dickerson teaches him up on the defensive end (he averaged almost 3 steals a game last seasons). The Times Picayune has a nice article on him as well, including a few quotes from his coach.

Basketball recruits in town

Head coach Dave Dickerson and the men's basketball team hosted a pair of highly-touted prospects this weekend, according to Scout.com. Evan Ravenel and Shaquille Johnson were in town Saturday (probably to check out the football game) on official visits. As of now VA Tech seems to be Tulane's biggest competition for both players. We'll see if Dickerson can work his magic and pry players away from BCS conference schools this year.

Of course, keep in mind that last year's big-time recruit, Kris Richard, didn't even see the court while Kevin Sims, a lesser-known prospect, was one of Tulane's best players in '06-'07.