AMERICAN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 13, 2026

Daniyal Robinson

Je'Shawn Stevenson

Legacy Arena At The BJCC

North Texas Mean Green

Postgame Press Conference

Tulsa 90, North Texas 84

THE MODERATOR: All right, we are joined on the podium by North Texas head coach Daniyal Robinson and Je' Shawn Stevenson. Coach, let's just start with some general comments.

DANIYAL ROBINSON: Man, you hate to come up short tonight. Felt like our guys emptied their tank. I mean, they played outstanding tonight. We had everyone who played I felt like played their heart out for us and fought and scrapped.

Give Tulsa credit. They were out to outlast us but our guys emptied their tank and gave everything they had. That's how, you know, if you're going to go down, you want to go down fighting like we did. We had guys catching cramps. We had guys exhausting all their fouls and, man, it felt like a wide range of emotions.

Really proud of this group and sad to see this to be our last game.

Q. You guys just kept coming at them. Were you proud of the way you guys just continued to extend that game and play in the clutch like that?

DANIYAL ROBINSON: Yeah, absolutely. They showed their true character today. Again, Tulsa, this is their first -- you can tell they were a little rusty to start with and our guys took advantage of it. We jumped on them and, man, they fought hard and took the lead and for our guys to keep fighting that way all the way to the end absolutely really proud of the group.

Q. And Barnstable only hit one shot that whole game and it was that three. Is that just the kind of game you figure there's going to be that one big shot that's going to swing it?

DANIYAL ROBINSON: Yeah, it was going to come down to one play of the multitude of things that happened out there, and, man, our guys did a phenomenal job on him all night long. He got freed up and, man, to his credit, he hit a deep three.

Q. Je' Shawn, you guys got off to such a great start. What went into the great start you guys had?

JE' SHAWN STEVENSON: I just think we were dialed in as a team and we knew what this game meant to us and the opponent we were facing and I think we just executed on both sides of the ball.

Q. So many clutch free throws from you, did you just feel confident in that position to extend those?

JE' SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, game on the line, I just knew all the guys were depending on me and I just wanted to play more to give our team another chance.

Q. What did you see at the end when Barnstable got loose for that three?

JE' SHAWN STEVENSON: That's a play that they like to run and he got open. He was deep and obviously a miscommunication. He made a big time shot.

Q. Coach, you mentioned this was your guys' last game. Do you feel like you have done enough to potentially get an NIT? I know the CBI is out this year, but...

DANIYAL ROBINSON: Yeah, we're hopeful for the NIT. We feel like we would be deserving. I know our metrics are -- when you compare the metrics from the at-large teams from last year in the NIT, we're right there on the cusp.

I feel like the way we've played this month, the last month, February leading into March I feel like our team got better. We got more guys healthy. We would love the opportunity and I feel like we would be deserving.

Q. Coach, I was curious what kind of reaction you're going to have to a triple overtime conference tournament loss in terms of are you going to sleep for 12 hours tonight because you're exhausted or are you not going to sleep at all because you're going to be thinking about the game for the next 12 hours?

DANIYAL ROBINSON: I know, man, it had to be the longest game ever. You think about the stoppage before the game and the stoppage with about 11 minutes to go in the first half.

We started the game at 2:30 and walk out of here five minutes to 6:00. One of the longest games ever.

You know, I can tell you when I do rest, I can rest comfortably because I know my team left it all out on the floor. They played connected basketball. They played a great brand. They don't have anything to -- there's no reason to hang their head. We're hopeful that we can have an opportunity to extend our season and post-season play.