The Houston Cougars and the Tulane Green Wave meet for the third time this season, this time in the quarterfinals of the 2021 AAC tournament. Can the Cougars take care of business, as most people expect them to do this Friday? Or will the Green Wave score an earth-shaking victory? Check out our preview of this game below.
How about the Green Wave? Tulane finished the regular season looking like a team that couldn’t wait for all this to be over, as the Green Wave went 0-4 straight up before entering the AAC tournament. Then on Thursday, Tulane woke up and scored a mild 77-70 upset win over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, as a four-point underdog. The tandem of Jaylen Forbes and Jordan Walker took things into their hands and scored 22 and 24 points, respectively against Tulsa. If the Green Wave were to upset Houston this Friday, they are going to need those two players to put up flawless performances. Forbes finished the regular season as the team’s leading scorer with 16.5 points per game, while Walker had 12.7 per outing. Perhaps the Green Wave can steal plenty of points from the free-throw line again versus Houston. Tulane is the No. 1 free-throw shooting team in the AAC, and the Green Wave had a combined 37 attempts from the foul line (30 made) in the two meetings this season with Houston, which only went 10 of 15 from the charity stripe in those games.
Houston is on a four-game win streak following an upset loss at the hands of the Wichita State Shockers on Feb. 18 on the road. The Cougars are expected to steamroll past Tulane in their first game of the AAC tournament. After all, Houston had crushed Tulane twice in the regular season. The Cougars beat Tulane on Jan. 9 at home, 71-50, then demolished the Green Wave again in an 83-60 home win on Jan. 28. In both games, Houston shot over 40 percent from long range. Houston is third in the ACC with a 35.4 percent shooting from deep. Even if the Cougars’ outside shooting won’t click against Tulane this time around, Houston’s rebounding should take care of the team. Houston dominated the glass in both wins over Green Wave, which figures because the Cougars ended the regular season fifth nationally with 40.7 rebounds per game.
Houston is 3-1 against the spread in its last four games overall.
