AMERICAN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 12, 2026

Daniyal Robinson

Je'Shawn Stevenson

David Terrell,Jr.

Legacy Arena At The BJCC

North Texas Mean Green

Postgame Press Conference

North Texas 74, Florida Atlantic 70

THE MODERATOR: We are joined on the podium now by North Texas head coach Daniyal Robinson, Je' Shawn Stevenson, and David Terrell, Jr.

DANIYAL ROBINSON: All right, give FAU a ton of credit. In these elimination games, they played a hard-fought game last night, to be able to turnaround and push us to the limit tonight, give them a ton of credit.

But also I love the way our guys responded after they came out. I think it was 9-3 and then we finished the half great and guys being able to play at the level of physicality and then we had multiple guys stepping up tonight.

Q. You had such a great first year here, what does adding a tournament win to that resume mean to you as your start your tenure here?

DANIYAL ROBINSON: I just have a great sense of gratitude for the players, the administration, and our coaching staff. That speaks to everyone working together as a collective unit and the buy-in of our players.

Man, the hard work and the winning habits that they've created, to be able to come to North Texas which has a great tradition to be able to have a good year.

Q. Je' Shawn had such a great game for you, can you speak about his performance tonight?

DANIYAL ROBINSON: Je' Shawn has grown all year long. He's doing it in different ways. He's efficient right now. I think he had four assists tonight and then he's taken the right ones, making plays for others, so his growth has been tremendous throughout the season.

Q. Je' Shawn, that run in the first half really seemed to establish you guys and set you up for the rest of the game. What transpired during that run that got you going.

JE' SHAWN STEVENSON: I think we just got our defense into the game, and, you know, all year long our defense had to create our offense and we feed off that, so I think once we saw a few go in, it was seamless after that.

Q. DT, you reached that mark that we have been talking about the last few days: 400 points; 150 asists. There's only been one other guy in program history to do that, Ryan Woolridge back a few years ago. What does that mean to you in your debut at North Texas to reach that milestone like that?

DAVID TERRELL JR.: I think it's just a tribute to my teammates and the staff here. I had a lot of growth coming from my last school, a lot of growth over the course of the season.

But they stay on me, know how to make reads coming off things, know when to score, when to pass. I feel like it's a tribute to them and the hard work we put in.

Q. You get Tulsa next round, Je' Shawn. Thoughts on facing them again?

JE' SHAWN STEVENSON: We're just happy to move on. We're going to be ready. I think that's the biggest thing. It's always going to be about us and we're going to get a good night's rest and be ready for Tulsa tomorrow.

Q. Coach, some of these first games in tournament can be kind of dicy just getting settled in.

DANIYAL ROBINSON: Yeah, I loved our guys' energy, their response. The build-up to the tournament, we had a few more days I think than anyone else because our last game was Wednesday and so our guys handled that time we had together.

I thought our execution in a lot of areas was great, but the main thing is our energy level. I thought we sustained that throughout tonight.

Florida Atlantic is a very well-coached team. They have a lot of talent. They kept coming at us and our guys responded over time.

Really proud of our effort tonight. As, again, multiple guys stepped up.

Q. Seems like you played really well defensively today. Did you feel like your defense really impacted the way this game unfolded?

DANIYAL ROBINSON: Absolutely, especially in the first half and then the start of the second half, really impacted them.

And then, again, Florida Atlantic, they had a tough physical game last night against Temple, so I thought over time we kind of wore them down but they had a lot of scrap, a lot of fight. Our guys answered the bell and obviously we're excited to move on.