NEW ORLEANS– Another positive sign of the return of the city of New Orleans will take place on Tuesday evening as the Tulane University men’s basketball team plays its first game of the year in Fogelman Arena, the same building it has been playing its games in since 1933.

&#8220We are very excited to be back home,” Tulane head coach Dave Dickerson said. &#8220We hope that our games can offer a distraction from many of the other things still going on in the city. We want to give our fans an exciting couple of hours of basketball every game starting on Tuesday.”

The Green Wave, which has played eight games this season away from New Orleans, will be hosting Richmond on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Dickerson may be having on the most challenging first years as a head coach in the history of basketball. The long-time Maryland assistant took the Tulane head coaching job in April. As he put his plans in place to build the Green Wave program and was preparing to greet his players for the fall semester, Hurricane Katrina struck. The fall semester at Tulane was cancelled and the Tulane athletics teams were scattered to four different campuses. Men’s basketball spent the fall at Texas A&M; and Dickerson worked to create a routine which would make the Wave competitive on the court, despite the loss of starting point guard and all-conference candidate Taylor Rochestie to injury. Tulane posted a 2-6 record in its eight games away from home and Rochestie remains out indefinitely.

&#8220We are just ready to play basketball in our own gym,” Dickerson said. &#8220The familiar surroundings for the guys will be a big benefit for us. It will be great to have a home court advantage, and to have our fans cheering for us, finally.”

Leading the way thus far for the Green Wave has been junior Chris Moore. The 6-5 shooting guard paces the Greenies in scoring (11.8 ppg), three-pointers (20) and minutes (35.0 per game). Sophomore David Gomez, from Baton Rouge, has 11.4 points per game and is averaging 20.0 points per game over the last two games. Big man Quincy Davis had one of his best games of the season last Monday with 22 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field.

Richmond, under first-year head coach Chris Mooney, comes into Tuesday’s game with Tulane with a 5-5 record. The Spiders have been defensive stalwarts, holding opponents to just 50.9 points per game. However, their slow-down style, based on the Princeton offense, has tallied just 48.7 points per game of their own. Jermaine Bucknor and Kevin Steenberge lead Richmond in scoring with 12.7 and 10.6 points per game, respectively. Bucknor also paces the team with 34.2 minutes, 5.4 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game while hitting a team-high 23 three-pointers.

Following the Richmond game, Tulane will play in N.O. again on New Year’s Eve, however that will be a road game against UNO at the Alario Center on the West Bank. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.