AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 14, 2025

Ron Hunter

Greg Glenn III

Rowan Brumbaugh

Dickies Arena

Tulane Green Wave

Postgame Press Conference

Tulane - 83, Florida Atlantic - 76

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started with an opening statement from Coach and then take questions for the student-athletes.

RON HUNTER: When you get to this time of year, every game is hard. But this is a team that doesn't have a senior. When I woke up this morning, I didn't realize that only really two of our guys out of the 15 or 16 guys have ever even been in a conference tournament game. So this is a lot of these guys' first conference tournament game, and I'm so proud of them, the way they handled it.

I thought we were a little nervous, to be honest with you, the first four or five minutes because, again, I know how much they want this. But they hadn't been there, and so I thought we were a little jumpy, a little nervous. We knew we were playing a good basketball team. But we won, and we won today because I've got a really good team. But Mari Jordan was the difference for us today. What he did today was incredible. Absolutely incredible.

A lot of things that you guys see on this stat sheet won't show even up to the things that we talk about. That's why I said, yes, Mari was absolutely terrific today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. There were a lot of things that could have gotten you beat today. You couldn't make a layup in the first 10 minutes, you were in a ton of foul trouble, and their freshmen had a career day. What does it say about the team that you guys were able to find a way to win this?

RON HUNTER: We've been winning like that all year. As a matter of fact, in the -- I think it was six and a half to go, we were talking in the timeout, this is our kind of game. You know, ugly, we hadn't done well, and this is our kind of game. We've won a lot of games like this this year, and there we go. We wanted the game. We executed at the end of the game with our defense. Our defense ended winning. We made free throws when we needed to. And then Asher hit a clutch shot to make it a two-possession game. It felt like a Tulane basketball game of how we played the last six weeks.

Q. Greg, you guys didn't have a great rebounding day either, but you came up with a huge rebound and then the put-back dunk to tie it I think with about two and a half minutes left, and then you guys took control from there. What was your mindset in this game? Even though everything wasn't going your way, how confident were you that would you end up with this win?

GREGG GLENN III: Obviously I was just giving it all I got to win the game. That's all. Give it all I got.

Q. Rowan, same thing for you. Just when things weren't always going your guys' way, you could still look in the eyes. You guys looked like you felt like were you going to win. What was the mindset during the game?

ROWAN BRUMBAUGH: Just play every possession because it's such a long game. So teams are going to go on runs, but it doesn't matter what they do. We just got to focus on what we do.

Q. You've talked all year, you've got so many different guys that could hurt you. You don't know who is good to step up. You mentioned Mari today. How important is that in a tournament setting?

RON HUNTER: It's huge, especially when you got seven freshmen on the roster. It's really huge. We knew that someone would have to step up, and he was big. But I think they were 9-33 from the three-point line, and they're one of the better three-point shooting teams not only in our league, but in the country. So when our three-point defense is there, we know we got a chance, and so we didn't give up a ton of threes, and we won that battle.

But I'm just really proud of these young people because, again, no one thought we would be where we are all year, even early, and it's all what these guys have done.

Q. You closed the first half on a 12-0 run and you closed the second half on a 9-2 run, 11-2, something like that. Just the poise that your guys showed, what did you feel about that?

RON HUNTER: You know, it's funny, I've been talking about how young we are and being the only team in the country without a senior, but it felt like I had nine or ten seniors today. They never cracked.

Earlier in the year teams would jump on us and we would fade back. We've been through so many battles early, and people wrote us off in November, and these guys have just grinded it out, grinded it out, and there's nothing that's going to happen in this tournament that we hadn't seen, whether it was the last-second shot or how to defend.

So we're not freshmen anymore. We still may on paper look like the youngest team in the country, but right now, these guys, they're hungry and confident.

Q. What made their freshman Player of the Year so difficult to deal with? Because you guys haven't had anybody do as much as he did to you on the inside all year long.

GREGG GLENN III: It wasn't necessarily him. It was just us being a little nervous and, like you said, the first four minutes that -- the rest of the game we just did what we do best.

Q. When you struggled to finish inside early, how did you make sure not to let it affect the way you played later on? Because you stayed aggressive the whole way.

GREGG GLENN III: I just prayed to God, and God just helped me, at the end of the day.

Q. Thoughts on Memphis tomorrow?

RON HUNTER: Who we play? Oh, I'm kidding. I'll worry about that tonight. I even brought my old Penny Hardaway shoes. I might wear them in the game tomorrow. Just out of respect for my brother, I may wear some penny Hardaway shoes in the game tomorrow. Maybe that will give us a little luck. I may do that.