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Attended Tulane baseball practice this morning. In an interview head coach Rick Jones notes that in 2004, the Wave played poorly in the Conference USA tournament (two lopsided losses) and then went to Ole Miss and won the Oxford Regional.

Jones said, "Every year there's documentation of teams that may not have played great down the stretch and got in the NCAA tournament and turned it on and got it going again. We did it in oh four and Oregon State won a national championship and was very close to not getting in.."

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Tulane announced its 2008 Football schedule today. 5 of 6 home games will kick off at 2 pm. Part of the reason why Tulane moved back to the afternoon is for Cox Sports TV. They will air the UL-Monroe and Army home games live. Also the SMU game September 25th has been moved to Thursday night for CBS' College Sports Network. The homecoming game against Army will be played at Tad Gormley Stadium.

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Send me an e-mail. I will be happy to respond to your questions and comments, good and bad.
Thanks, Ed Daniels

Saints defensive end Will Smith will participate in this weekend's mini-camp at the Saints facility. Smith has skipped the Saints entire off season of workouts as he seeks a new contract.
Smith's agent Joel Segal confirmed that his client will participate.
In 2007, the Saints franchised tagged fellow defensive end Charles Grant. Grant later signed a $63 million dollar deal that included $20 million in guaranteed money.
In 4 seasons Smith has totaled 33.5 quarterback sacks. He was the team's first round draft choice in 2004.

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LSU practiced this morning at the Box in preps for Friday afternoon's regional game against Texas Southern. Head coach Paul Mainieri has named Hahnville's Jordan Brown the starter for game one. He said his game two starter will either by Blake Martin or Ryan Verdugo.

Ed Daniels

After last week's poor showing at the Conference USA tournament, Tulane bounced back with a 7-4 win over the Florida Gators in the Tallahassee regional. Tulane fans may not like this, but this is a fact: this team was looking forward to going on the road. More than one player complained to me this week about the way they were treated by a handful of their own fans in last weekend's conference tournament. No doubt that a loose, relaxed team played like it today in Tallahassee.

I attended Saints mini camp this morning. Quarterback Mark Brunell threw some really nice passes in the morning workout. Brunell tossed a deep slant to Lance Moore, and a long ball to Adrian Arrington that Arrington could not run down. I know there's been a lot of chatter about how impressive Arrington has been in workouts. But, Arrington does not have closing speed to catch up with the long ball, and we don't know yet if he can defeat bump and run coverage. Arrington may be a very good player, but I would reserve judgment. In round 5 in 2001, the Saints drafted Onome Ojo from Cal Davis. He looked the part of NFL receiver, but could never stick.

I hope the Hornets are super aggressive in the off season. Remember this: the Lakers are in the NBA finals and will likely win it, even without injured starting center Andrew Bynum. The Hornets may need one more outstanding player to compete with the Lakers. Perhaps Julian Wright, last year's first round pick, is that player. If not , the Hornets better find one if they plan on competing with the Lakers, and: the young and talented Portland Trailblazers.

Ed Daniels