AMERICAN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 12, 2026

Ron Hunter

Rowan Brumbaugh

Legacy Arena At The BJCC

Tulane Green Wave

Postgame Press Conference

Charlotte 74, Tulane 60

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Tulane head coach Ron Hunter and Rowan Brumbaugh. Coach, let's start with some general comments by you.

RON HUNTER: I just told our guys how proud I am of them, especially after the kind of year that we had, the up and down.

To win 18 games with this group, and I thought most of the year we were playing with one arm tied behind our back. What really just got us today is what got us a lot of times this year where we just couldn't make shots.

I think we were 7 for 33 from the 3-point line, when yesterday we make those same shots, the open shots. We missed those shots today. Some of it was just tired. I thought we put everything.

Into that game yesterday. We're not the deepest team, and we put everything we had emotionally and physically into that game.

Proud of the guys. I thought Charlotte played really well, especially in the second half. They started making every shot. Kudos to them. I'm proud of these guys. I'm proud of this guy right here. I'm proud of my -- if a lot of teams around the country had to go through the things that we went through this year would have buckled, and this group never ever buckled.

As long as I'm doing this, I told them, I'm always going to always remember this group. I've had some great teams. I've had a lot of great success with some tings that we've done, but I'm always going to remember this group.

No sadness at all with this. Not one bit. He I look at this whole thing, this whole season as a win-win.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. How concerned were you at halftime when the looks were pretty good at times and you just weren't hitting them, and Charlotte couldn't hit anything either, and you could have been up double digits, and you were only up three?

RON HUNTER: Even before that, the first seven minutes of the game I was worried. I was worried. We didn't have the same pop. I told one of our assistants, you can just tell. I know my team.

We just didn't have that same -- and a lot of it is that we put -- we played Memphis, and it was such an emotional game a few days ago. Then turn around, and had another emotional game that I was worried how much we could actually bring into this game.

I thought defensively we were outstanding. You know, kept us in it. Kept us in it. Kept us in it. We went four straight possessions with wide-open looks, and we didn't make any of them. If you just hit a couple of those instead of a five point, now it's eight.

We could never get to that where mentally it would help us. I thought in the first seven minutes I could just see that coming.

Q. Rowan, how tough was the second half? Charlotte couldn't hit anything in the first half, and they literally almost couldn't miss in the second half. When a team kind of changes that much, how hard was it to change the momentum there?

ROWAN BRUMBAUGH: First and foremost, all glory to God. But I would say, yeah, it's hard when a team makes shots like that. They were on fire from three, so give them credit.

Q. What did you think was the key for you? Just open shots. You played pretty well. You shot pretty well, but a lot of open shots weren't going in for the team today.

ROWAN BRUMBAUGH: Yeah, thank you. I think I could have done a lot better defensively, and I think they were exploiting our ball screen coverage and then just swing, swing, corner three, and they killed us on the glass and got a bunch of second-chance opportunities.

It was just tough. Then obviously we didn't capitalize. We got great shooters that are missing wide-open shots.

Q. Did you feel like you should have had a much bigger lead at halftime?

ROWAN BRUMBAUGH: With the looks we were getting, yes.

Q. Rowan, what happened to you in the first half? You sort of fell awkwardly. I didn't get a good shot of what happened. Can you explain what happened there when you had to go to the bench for a little while?

ROWAN BRUMBAUGH: Oh, yeah, I kind of mistimed my jump. Then I just fell awkwardly. I just hit my tailbone and my elbows. Had a little bruise. Nothing too bad.

Q. It didn't affect you the rest of the game, did it?

ROWAN BRUMBAUGH: I mean, it hurt. I'm on some Advil right now, so it will probably hurt in the morning, but not really.

Q. Ron, I know you sort of addressed this already, but it seemed like you just ran out -- the team just ran out of gas overall. Is that what it came down to?

RON HUNTER: Yeah, I'll be honest with you. I thought that when we left to come to this tournament, I thought emotionally we were drained after the Memphis game. I really did.

With all the things that we had gone through and all the talks and all the things, these kids have given me everything. When we walked out of there, I was really concerned coming into the tournament, because I thought emotionally we were drained.

Man, they came out yesterday and just gave it everything they got. Then last night right before we went to bed and you can just see us. You know, it was almost -- not so much of a celebration, but you can just see Memphis has knocked us out of the tournament, and these guys wanted that more than anything. I thought would we have enough? Would we have enough to get through today?

It shows we didn't, and I thought we got frustrated because we weren't making the shots that we normally make. I thought this guy played his butt off. I'm really, really proud of him.

Q. Rowan, how surprised you by the flagrant foul call? You thought you had a layup that was in, and suddenly they were scoring three points at the other end?

ROWAN BRUMBAUGH: Yeah, I mean, it was obviously a big swing in the game, but refs are human too. They're going to make mistakes. I haven't even seen the play back, so if he this used their best judgment and assessed it a flagrant, good for them.

RON HUNTER: That's all. That's all. That's a tough call. It's actually a big possession what we were trying to do. Again, I just thought that -- I know his explanation why he said that, but I thought he made a basket player. When you're on the fastbreak and making a basketball play, you know, you got to sometimes what I call the first one and the first foul.

It didn't have anything to do with the game, but it was a critical part at that particular time, because, again, he could have been shooting two free-throws instead of going down on the other end.

Q. It's been an incredibly tough emotional season in all kinds of ways. Have you thought about what you want to do with your future in terms of having gone through a lot this year?

RON HUNTER: Yeah, man, I'm going to get back, and I'm going to have seven shots of tequila, and I'm going to enjoy six of them, and seventh will just sit there and think about how well some of these guys played.

I'm more about these kids and what they did for us this year. I think we all kind of sit back and kind of see where you're at, but I love coaching this group, love coaching these kids. That's the No. 1 thing.

We got through this together. That's what I just told them back there. We got through this together, and we needed to. We needed to be together. A lot of times, man, that it was just us, and a lot of sadness and whatever, and we got through it. We got through it.

That's the only thing that matters to me right now.