Here’s a question: How long will it take Kentucky to match the number of SEC wins Tulane already has?

Seriously, it’s time to recognize what Tulane has done the past few years under Dave Dickerson. Pretty interesting, isn’t it, that Dickerson leaves Maryland’s staff to take the Tulane job, and immediately Tulane starts to get better while Maryland goes into the tank? So props to a very good guy for beating Auburn, Georgia and LSU, in addition to St. John’s, all teams that Tulane really should have no business beating.

Anyway, the point of this is that I got an e-mail today from Tulane’s SID asking all the AP top 25 voters to consider Tulane this week. I certainly will consider them, though I don’t know if I can put them ahead of teams like Rhode Island and Oklahoma, who I left out of last week’s poll. Either way, Tulane will have a chance to get there — and possibly to the NCAA Tournament — if it continues to play the way it has for the past few weeks. Now, to get there, Tulane will have to beat Memphis in New Orleans on Feb. 20. And that sure seems like an iffy proposition, given how badly Tulane has matched up with Memphis the past few years. Here’s Tulane’s C-USA schedule:

UAB twice
Marshall twice
Rice twice
East Carolina twice
Southern Miss twice
(Frankly, Tulane should go 10-0, 9-1 at the worst against this motley group)

SMU once (home)
Memphis once (home)
Houston once (home)
Tulsa once (road)
UCF once (road)
UTEP once (road)

Given that schedule, I would not be surprised to see Tulane go 13-3 or 14-2 in the league. At 14-2, and with a win over Memphis, Tulane would be 23-6 overall heading into the C-USA Tournament. Given the 3-0 SEC record, that would be enough to get them in. Even with a couple unfortunate early losses, Tulane may be the league’s best hope for a second NCAA team.