Uhlman stays away from cliches, critiques in taking Wave to NCAAs

Playing with house money. Go out and play loose. No pressure.

Apply all of the cliches to Tulane’s Cinderella-like run into the NCAA baseball tournament, beginning Friday against longtime rival and No. 5 national seed LSU at Alex Box Stadium.

Just don’t tell Green Wave coach Jay Uhlman about it.

“I challenged them – great, you’ve had your Cinderella story, you’ve won your championship, are you ready to go home?” Uhlman said Wednesday night on All Access with Ken Trahan on NASH ICON 106.1 FM. “The house money, the go out and play relaxed, to me that’s a recipe for a letdown and a no-show.

“I’ve tried to impress upon them the importance of developing each day … to be ready for the moment when the moment comes. To me, that doesn’t lend itself to fighting. This is postseason baseball. I want to keep our foot on the pedal and let everybody else talk about house money.”

At 19-40, Tulane has the worst record in the field of 64. The No. 7 seed in the American Athletic Conference tournament, the Green Wave won four of five games to take the championship, including an 8-6 victory over top-seeded East Carolina in the title game.

“We had seen our league,” Uhlman said. “We knew nobody was stock full of starters and nobody had a lockdown closer. Everybody was vulnerable.

“If you were going to have a down year and have a chance to win the tournament, this was the year. I think our players felt that.”

In 2022, with Uhlman acting as interim head coach, Tulane got to semifinal Saturday in the American tournament. That experience played a part in last week’s success, Uhlman said.

“We went out and took what we wanted, but we had to earn it,” he said. “As a coach, you always say ‘win each pitch’ and ‘win each inning,’ and then look at the scoreboard at the end. They truly did that.

“They had a different kind of look and a different kind of swagger. Lo and behold, they went out and backed up my feelings of where we thought they were.”

Outfielder Teo Banks, who hit three home runs last week, was named the tournament’s most valuable player. Catcher/DH Brennan Lambert, shortstop Gavin Schulz and pitcher Dylan Carmouche joined Banks on the all-tournament team.

Tulane faced a daunting non-conference schedule that included three trips out west. The Green Wave’s final non-conference strength of schedule ranked sixth nationally.

“I said at the beginning of the year that I thought we had enough talent to win enough games,” Uhlman said. “Our margin for error was really thin.”

Part of that lack of depth was a result of five key players leaving for Power 5 programs through the transfer portal, including catcher Bennett Lee and pitcher Michael Massey to No. 1 overall seed Wake Forest and outfielder Ethan Groff, a graduate transfer, to defending national champion Ole Miss.

“At key spots, we really lost a lot,” Uhlman said. “Those pieces would have made a huge difference.

“We did have a lot to overcome, but so did everybody else. There’s no crying over spilt milk. We have what we have.”

Tulane lost to LSU 11-5 on April 11 at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. How much does the previous meeting serve as an advantage?

“I don’t know that it necessarily helps us, but it de-mystifies the product,” Uhlman said. “When we played them, we weren’t playing consistently well enough. The energy in the stadium was different and I thought it locked our guys in. Ultimately … they pulled away, but the way we went about it was positive.

“I have nothing but the utmost respect for Jay (Johnson). We go back to our west coast days.”

Uhlman called the pitches in the regular-season meeting against LSU because pitching coach Anthony Izzio missed the game for personal reasons.

“Here’s what I can tell you – it was stressful from first pitch to last pitch,” Uhlman said. “All the guys in those lineup can really hurt you. There’s no real weakness.”

Uhlman has stayed off social media this year, but hasn’t been able to help hearing the rumbles nationally about a 40-loss team reaching the NCAAs.

“We don’t make the rules,” he said. “Everybody’s got a conference tournament. We’re not going to apologize for that. I’m extremely proud of our players and staff for hanging in there. That’s the cool thing about this story.

“They praise Cinderella stories in March Madness and that’s exciting, but for whatever reason, people are complaining about our record and getting in.”

A closer look at the final record shows it perhaps wasn’t all that.

Tulane split the first two games in seven of its eight conference series, but only won one of those seven – the opening series against Memphis, on a walk-off homer in extra innings by Banks.

“With the exception of Houston, we had a chance to win every series on Sunday,” Uhlman said. “We had ECU on the ropes, had a chance to sweep them, but didn’t; they were able to respond in their home park.”

Tulane avenged both of those series losses last week in Clearwater. Now, it’s on to another week of baseball. Is there more magic on the way?

“In baseball, hope springs eternal,” Uhlman said. “Anybody can beat anybody on any given day.”