NCAAs for Tulane Beach Volleyball, Football Line Play, and Baseball Shows a Little Life

Welcome to our regular edition of The Green Wave Report from ON SI Tulane. I'm Doug Joubert. The Green Wave Report is a weekly rundown of stories we've put together, analysis of what went on, and what you can expect later in the week from On SI Tulane, part of the Sports Illustrated Network. If you like what we produce each week, we’d appreciate it if you’d like our stories and subscribe to our YouTube channel. It helps us in knowing what you like and don’t like. The video version of The Green Wave Report can be found here on our YouTube Channel.

Tulane Beach Volleyball Makes the NCAAs

We begin on the sands of Youngsville, Louisiana, a suburb of Lafayette, where the Tulane beach volleyball team claimed its first ever league title taking the Conference USA trophy by defeating FAU. One day later, the 16-team field for the 2026 National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship was announced by the NCAA Beach Volleyball Committee and the Tulane women were tabbed as the No. 14 seed. The Green Wave is matched up with No. 3 seed UCLA.

Tulane finished the season with a 26-13 and will be making another first-ever: an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The event is held in Gulf Shores, Alabama and features a 16-team single-elimination bracket. As the 14th seed, Tulane is matching up against No. 3 UCLA in the first round at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, May 1. The tournament continues until the championship dual on Sunday, May 3. We’ll speak with Coach Eyat Zimet and some of the players and on a special edition of The Green Wave Report Thursday at 4:00 p.m.

Spring Football: Line Play

In this, our second of a four part series, we continue our wrap up of what we saw at the conclusion of Tulane Spring Football. Last week, we examined the quarterback position. Today, we look at line play.

On SI Analysis

Either the Tulane defensive front is elite or the Tulane offensive line is lacking. Snap after snap this Spring the D-line owned the offense, showing tremendous pressure when a quarterback went back to pass. Running plays rarely found a crease in the Tulane defensive front, as backs would run into brick walls for most plays.

Truth be told, it takes time for an offensive line to jell, but there were too many times the O-line was being pushed backwards or not advancing at all on running plays. We’ll see how things progress in the Fall, but the O-line may be the biggest spot for improvement we see on this Tulane squad.

On the other side, the Wave D-line was disruptive in almost every aspect. The defensive front kept getting in the way of blocks and either making plays themselves or allowing Tulane linebackers room to do so. We were impressed by the Tulane defense overall. Linebacker play, even without Dickson Agu who will be ready in the Fall, was textbook. And what we were most worried about before Spring practice began, the secondary, has taken a huge leap. We’ll be talking about that in our fourth segment. Next week, key offensive additions for the Wave.

Baseball Falls, but Shows Life

The Sluggerbirds were no-shows for the first two games against league-leading UTSA. Then, on Sunday, they had a moment of intervention, shall we say, as Associate Head Coach Anthony Izzio asked head coach Jay Uhlman if he could speak his heart to the team. 20-minutes before the final game of the series, Izz called the position players aside and spoke from his heart. 

Three hours later the Green Wave had shown what has simmered under the surface for most of the season, racing out to a 5-run lead, losing that lead, then roaring back to retake and keep the lead for victory.

Uhlman told us after the game, the buttons pushed by Izzio were the same buttons he had been trying to trigger all season, but the Izzo buttons seemed to work, which doesn’t bother him at all. 

On SI Tulane Baseball Analysis

We are not here to make excuses. As Dragnet’s Joe Friday would say, “All we want are the facts, ma’am.” So here ya go. 

There are injuries aplenty for Tulane baseball: Uhlman is down to four position players on the bench. Four. Pitching has a half-dozen recovering from ailments, half of which are done for the year.

The good news is that the pitching is about to take a huge step in the right direction, as Aidan Rath, who only pitched an inning in the opening series against Harvard, and Jack Frankel, who last appeared in a Saturday start versus Memphis over a month ago, are getting “that close” to being back in the pitching stable. Once that settles in, we are thinking a Friday starter move will quickly be made.

Tuesday, 18th ranked Southern Miss comes to Uptown for a 6:30 first pitch. Last week, the Green Wave fell to USM on a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth to the Golden Eagles.

Special Edition of the Report: Thursday at 4:00 p.m.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our regular edition of The Green Wave Report. We’ll have a special edition of the report on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. to get the latest from the Tulane beach volleyball program as they head to Alabama for the NCAA tournament.  Our regular edition of The Green Wave Report returns Monday at 4:00 CDT.