AMERICAN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2026

Ron Hunter

Rowan Brumbaugh

Curtis Williams, Jr.

Legacy Arena At The BJCC

Tulane Green Wave

Postgame Press Conference

Tulane 81, Memphis 69

THE MODERATOR: We are joined ^ by ^ but Tulane coach Ron Hunter, Rowan Brumbaugh, and Curtis Williams Jr. Coach, we'll start with you.

RON HUNTER: I thought our kids were really good defensively today. We came in here with a little edge after the last game that we wanted to come in and really win this game.

I just thought defensively the physicality, outside probably the last two or three minutes of the game, I'm really proud of how these young men played today.

Q. Rowan it was a total team effort in the first half. Everybody contributed and you scored 25 points in the second half. Can you talk about, one, that's you getting everybody involved and then your performance in the second half.

ROWAN BRUMBAUGH: First and foremost all glory to God. Yeah, I guess I was just feeling it in the second half and my team mates got me the ball in the right places, so yeah, credit to them. Curtis gets hot; he got hot a couple games ago, so...

Q. The one that banked in.

ROWAN BRUMBAUGH: Yeah...

Q. Curtis, how much did that loss on Sunday motivate you guys? Obviously you want to win in a tournament regardless, but the way that one went down, how much did that influence the way you guys played today?

CURTIS WILLIAMS JR: We felt we should have won that game back at home, but I feel like we came out here, we regrouped, cleaned up the things we needed to do and did that today and we executed that.

Q. Thank you. Ron, you beat the Gary Smith prediction or the jinx of Gary Smith. Congratulations on doing that. Can you speak to that for us, please?

RON HUNTER: Yeah, I'll be honest with you, I slept about 14 minutes last night thinking about Gary. Talked about our record, well, my record in first round conference tournament games, which I had no idea that was our record. So I thought, boy, he's going to finally jinx this and here we go.

But, no, I thought the kids played relaxed today. The whole agenda was to make sure that they were relaxed. I think when you get in conference tournament, everybody gets really tight. One of the things I want to make sure, especially after the emotional game we had just a couple days ago I wanted to make sure we came in here, didn't lose, and play with confidence.

We're looking forward to doing it again tomorrow.

Q. Rowan, you had tied your career high in this game for points scored. Is this something that when you give that much effort, are you a little bit worried about being tired and having to play again tomorrow?

ROWAN BRUMBAUGH: No, not at all, actually. I used to run cross-country. Like I run still all the time. We all played AAU, so it's nothing. I actually like doing this more than having to wait to play.

Q. Ron, you talked all year about when you make shots; Six different guys made threes in the first half. Just how much does that -- you talk about playing loose; how much does that help when so many different guys are contributing like that?

RON HUNTER: We had such an emotional up and down year, but the one thing that's been consistent for us is when we make shots, we're really good. When you look at our record, when we make shots we usually win games. I know that sounds kind of simple, but for us it's kind of been that way.

I thought we did a great job of taking care of the basketball. Says ten here; probably four of those in the last two minutes of the game.

When we can take care of it we can make shots the way we make shots, we're a hard team to beat. So we have to continue making shots tomorrow.

Q. I won't give you your record in second games.

RON HUNTER: No, please don't. Please don't.

Q. How do you attack it tomorrow?

RON HUNTER: Just coming back, talk about being professional. Sometimes I always thought in tournaments is that the teams that's playing with confidence, you keep playing, you have the advantage a lot of times ^ by ^ but sitting there waiting and waiting because you get anxious to play, especially walking into a new building, we'll be ready to play.

I know these guys, we need to get them back so they can get back and get some recovery and then we'll be ready to play at 6:00 tomorrow.