WTF happened to Tulane Baseball?

Can't hit, starters have been bad, terrible bullpen, maybe their best power hitter out for the year.

Rick Jones !

Not hiring Cannizaro will haunt this program for a while, I would bet.

You are correct. Andy would have been a king at Tulane. One day he probably will go back to Tulane if MSU doesn't work.

I hope not. Louisiana needs Tulane baseball to be strong again. I feel for coach Rick Jones. What an awesome job he did of building an outstanding program. His 01 and. 05 teams were stacked. I wish that he could have been at LSU after Skip. It's not jones fault that Katrina happened.

Coach Jones for some reason always reminded me of former baseball manager, Tony LaRussa. :)

who was that telling me of all the great hires their new AD made before any of them had even coached a game?

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I hope not. Louisiana needs Tulane baseball to be strong again.

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Why?

Really no excuses. Returned most of their players from last year. Merril & Massey were stud weekend starters last year and both are struggling. Something goin on with the new coach. Really sucks as a fan to start the season so poorly.

Tulane failed to make the postseason for 6 straight seasons before qualifying for regionals in '15 and '16. They were never bad during that stretch (like they are now), but the program was slowly declining. Pierce had a couple of memorable seasons, but honestly he didn't recruit much.

A big part of Rick Jones' success was getting D1 transfers. Back then they didn't have to sit out a season, they could come contribute right away. Then the NCAA changed the transfer rule and his recruiting took a hit. He also had strong JUCO and catholic league pipelines. Tulane doesn't have those anymore.

Basically, Tulane is not recruiting like it used to, and hasn't been able to sustain long term success. This could be a failure to adapt to the new college baseball landscape IMO

As others have said it seems like the players and the new staff aren't meshing well. One of the main complaints is that Jewett doesn't do enough scrimmaging in practice and guys don't get enough reps seeing live pitching in practice.

The bullpen is a mess and I don't see it changing much. The real concern is why have the returning players, who were mostly pretty good the past year or two, struggled so much. It's baffling in some cases. Especially the starting pitchers.

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Please explain why "Louisiana needs tulane baseball to be strong again". ULLL has a strong program. La. Tech. S.Eastern. UNO is getting close to being back. McNeese wins at its level.But I almost threw up when Jones was compared to one of the greatest MLB coaches in history, LaRussa. LaRussa actually won titles. Often. He was known as a brilliant strategist. He will be in the HOF. Jones was known to wear an athletic sock in his uniform crotch. Sarcasm but possibly not. He hated LSU with a passion. And how many national titles has he won? clue: less than 1.

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I don't ever remember Rick Jones being compared to Tony LaRussa, but even if he was, pretty weird that it upsets you. Rick Jones was a great college baseball coach. He's already in the Amateur Baseball Coaches Association HOF.
Not winning a national championship doesn't really take that away. He built Tulane into one of the best programs in the country before Katrina. From 2001-2005 he brought Tulane to 2 CWS appearances and another Super Regional.