Exclusive: How Ron Hunter's 40-year 'chip on shoulder' will drive Tulane's underdog bid for NCAA Tournament appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
Tulane Green Wave head coach Ron Hunter has seen the game of basketball change significantly throughout his coaching career. Going into his 40th year as a coach, he looks forward to continuing his evolution as one who has persevered throughout different periods of the sport.
"Longevity is generally not something that you see a lot of in this business. Always been a blessing, and I've seen a lot of changes from academic reforms to NIL and pay-to-play, basically…I tell the story that I was an assistant coach in 1987 when the three-point line came in. So, when you think about that up to now, I've seen a lot of changes in college basketball," Hunter said.
"But at the end of the day, it's still 18, 19, 20-year-olds that you get an opportunity to coach, but there has been a lot of change, and I think that when there's change, you kind of learn how to deal with it, or you don't. And there have been a lot of guys that I started with that are not in the business, and the change is just too much for them. If you keep the main thing, and that's about the kids, then again, then you have an opportunity to where you can win games and continue to affect and change lives of young people."
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Hunter's career as a coach humbly started as an assistant with the Milwaukee Panthers in 1987. He represented them for six seasons before spending a brief stint with the Miami (OH) Redhawks from 1993 to 1994.
Then came his first head coaching job with the IUPUI Jaguars, embracing the role in 1994. This job was the longest stint of his career, proudly leading the program for 17 seasons until 2011. His major accomplishment was leading them to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2003, falling to Kentucky in the Round of 64.
Hunter ultimately decided to leave IUPUI for his next chapter, accepting the offer from the Georgia State Cougars in 2011. This stands out as his most successful head coaching stint to date, leading them to six postseason appearances that include three NCAA Tournament runs. 2015 is the most notable campaign, seeing them beat Baylor in the Round of 64 before falling to Xavier in the Round of 32.
"I had some great experiences in my career, not only at Georgia State but at IUPUI. But it's one of those things, especially for mid-majors and teams in our conference, and it becomes harder and harder to get to that dance because you become a one-bid league and you got to have that one great day in a tournament and the conference tournament. So it makes a little bit harder in that regard, but it also makes it [that] when you do get in, it's that much sweeter in that regard," Hunter said.
Hunter stayed with Georgia State for eight seasons, departing from the program as Tulane came calling in 2019. It marked another step up the ladder in conference competition for his career, now competing as a member of the American Conference (then-American Athletic Conference).
Development has been a major aspect of Hunter's coaching style. His ability to recruit and motivate players to maximize their potential on the court and help the team win games allowed the coach to display his signature trait as a college basketball coach throughout decades in the sport.
However, that has changed with NIL playing a major role in college sports since the start of the 2020s. It results in major overturn for a lot of programs, especially those at the mid-major level. While Hunter has adapted to the current situation, it has presented a challenge for him when it comes to retaining key talents and carrying over team chemistry from the year prior.
"Some of the best things I've had happen in my 40 years in this business is taking a high school kid at 18, and seeing them graduate from our institution, watching them grow as a young man, and those things. Now you see these kids for about eight months, and they're leaving, and you got kids just running in and out of your program, and that makes it tough. It's hard to have that type of culture when you got 14 new guys on your roster every single year. I spend more time now doing chemistry things and worried about the fundamentals of teaching them how to play," Hunter said.
"I spend more time now doing chemistry things and worried about the fundamentals of teaching them how to play. It used to be [that] they bring them in and you worry about the fundamentals and you teach them it. Well, if you do that, they're generally going to go take that stress and take them someplace else. And so, all that time that I spent on word about the fundamentals, we do it on a chemistry deal to try to get a team together so they can play together for the year, now months that you have them."
Hunter has done a remarkable job at helping mid-majors achieve winning campaigns, even getting them to punch their ticket to the Big Dance. This involves persevering through the obstacles of having limited resources, resulting in him pushing himself to punch above his weight and inspiring everyone on the teams he coached throughout his career.
"I think what I've learned, and it's taken me a long time to learn this, is to control the things you can control. One thing I can control is making sure that the kids that I've got play as hard as they can for as long as they can. When it gets in between the lines, it doesn't matter how much money you got. You got to coach those kids and get them to play, the best they possibly can play," he said.
"If I spent my time worried about what everybody else had, I'll be honest with you, I couldn't do my job effectively. So I don't spend a lot of time worried about, 'hey, somebody's got a better facility or these guys got way more money.' Those things help, trust me. But again, if I worried about that, then I couldn't effectively do my job. And I think a lot of times coaches spend too much time worried about what they don't have and then worry about the things that you do have, and control that narrative."
Ron Hunter got off to a shaky start in his initial years at Tulane, but he has since helped build a sneakily competitive squad in the American.
Hunter posted 12, 10, and 14-win seasons throughout his first three years with the program. He helped them gain serious form in the 2022-23 campaign, pulling off his first 20-win campaign with the Green Wave. Following a down year in 2024, Tulane finally secured its first postseason appearance by appearing in the College Basketball Crown in 2025, losing to the USC Trojans in the first round.
Hunter now gears up for his eighth year at the helm for the Green Wave, coming off an 18-15 campaign last season. The veteran coach knows that Tulane fans appreciate the winning seasons, but they patiently await their long-awaited return to the NCAA Tournament. Tulane last reached the Big Dance in the 1990s, making it three times, with their last appearance happening in 1995.
"It used to be [about] winning championships and those type of things, and I think that's changed so much with the landscape of college basketball. Now it's always about that postseason play. So that's what we want to be able to do. The same thing's got to happen. You got to defend, and you got to take care of the basketball. But more importantly, we got to make shots. We've had some of the best defensive teams in the league, and we couldn't make shots. And so, why I like this group is that I think that we can make shots on every night consistently," Hunter said.
Hunter is excited to have two experienced players from last season return to Tulane for this upcoming campaign. He named Tyler Ringgold and KJ Greene as the returning standouts who will be crucial to the team's success. As for the newcomers, he listed ULM transfer Krystian Lewis as a notable contributor in the rotation on top of players from the Power-5, NCAA Division I and Division II levels.
"Tyler Ringgold started every game for us last year, and he'll be back. We had to play him in a different position last year because of all the things that happened to us, so I'm excited about the year he had. KJ Greene is in his third year. You don't usually get many third-year guys, so we got two guys that played a lot of minutes for us last year that are third-year guys, and so they're a rarity in our league, and so I'm excited to have them…I think that Krystian is a really good player. He averaged 18 in Monroe, and whenever you average 18 [PPG] at this level, you're a good player," he said.
"I wanted to go get some guys who were established scorers, whether you played Division II, Division I at the lower level, and we brought five or six guys in that were the leading scorers on their team at various levels, and I thought that's really helped us…Sometimes you get those Power-5 guys, Power-4 guys come down, and they still can't give you the value that you need sometimes. So we went on a different route. Make sure we try to get some shooters in here. We've got that. We got some guys that can score. So I like this team. I think this is one of the better teams in the past since I've been in Tulane, and so I'm really excited about this group."
Tulane does have an underdog status going into this season. The American Conference preseason poll projects them to finish 10th among the 13 teams in the league, presenting motivation for Hunter and the Green Wave to exceed expectations and make serious noise in what will be a competitive league this season.
"I've had a chip on my shoulder for the 40 years I coached. This is Year 41 for me coaching at this level, and I've had a chip on my shoulder ever since. Everybody would tell me, 'Boy, you haven't had great jobs that you've been doing this a long time.' I would disagree. I think any job you have is a good job. It's what you do with it," he stated.
"I like recruiting kids that have a chip on their shoulder. So we don't worry about the polls. We don't worry about any of those things. What we worry about is trying to get better. And like each of these kids, they don't even know if they'll be here next year. You know how everything goes in that regard. So let's enjoy the experience while we're together, and let's prove to ourselves that we're good. We think we're a good basketball team, so all we want to do is we want to prove that every day to ourselves."
The Green Wave will look forward to starting their regular season at home. They host the UT Martin Skyhawks as tip-off commences on Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. ET.
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