Notes From Day Two of American Conference Tournament
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - March 12, 2026
SNAPSHOTS FROM LEGACY ARENA ON DAY 2 OF THE AMERICAN CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
Wednesday’s results: Women’s games: No. 5 North Texas 80, No. 9 FAU 57; No. 6 UTSA 59, No. 7 Temple 51. Men’s games: No. 9 Tulane 81, No. 8 Memphis 69; No. 7 FAU 63, Temple 59.
Thursday’s schedule: Women’s games: No. 4 Tulsa vs. No. 5 North Texas, noon; . Men’s games: No. 9 Tulane vs. No. 5 Charlotte, 6 p.m.; No. 7 FAU vs. No. 6 North Texas, 8 p.m.; No. 3 South Florida vs. No. 6 UTSA, 2 p.m.
BASKETBALL CAN BE A SIMPLE GAME
From the stating the obvious file, we offer up one of the things that Tulane head coach Ron Hunter said after his team avenged a regular season ending loss to Memphis.
“When you look at our record, when we make shots we usually win games,” Hunter said. “I know that sounds kind of simple, but for us it's kind of been that way.”
It certainly was on Wednesday night. Tulane had six different players make a 3-pointer in the first half of the win over Memphis and the Green Wave hit 14 overall from long range. It was the third most 3-pointers Tulane made in a game this season, trailing the 19 the Green Wave hit against UTSA and the 15 they had against Utah State. Tulane had seven 3-pointers in each half.
SUPERMAN OR BALANCE?
Tulane shared the wealth in the first half of the Wednesday’s win over Memphis. Rowan Brumbaugh put on his Superman cape in the second half. So, the combination of Superman and balance is probably the best answer.
Brumbaugh scored 25 of his career-high matching 35 points in the second half. He made 10-of-15 shots from the field, hit 5-of-8 3-pointers and connected on 10-of-13 free throws. He also had four rebounds in each half.
“Yeah, I guess I was just feeling it in the second half and my teammates got me the ball in the right places, credit to them,” Brumbaugh said.
FINAL GRADE
Can a team get a lower grade than F?
Memphis finished with a 13-19 record with losing streaks of seven, four and three games. They not only lost in the first game of the conference tournament but really had little chance in the final 16 minutes of the game. During the postgame press conference, Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway was asked if he considered this season as a failure.
“It was a failure for sure,” Hardaway said. “You can't categorize it anywhere else, any other way. We didn't do what we needed to do. We failed. But, again, you can come back from failure. There's been a lot of teams that have gone through this and I'm the head of that failure. Couldn't get the guys to really believe in the buy-in every single game. We worked hard, we put guys in position, and then the guys have to go out there and take over from there because we can't go on the court. But it was a failed season.”
Rest is a good thing
The Florida Atlantic women’s team gutted out a 74-70 overtime win over Charlotte on Tuesday afternoon. They had to quickly turn around and play North Texas, which had a first round bye with the No. 5 seed earned in the regular season. What resulted was a tired team against a rested team.
“We tried to tweak it obviously and tried to rest them as much as possible, but it's such a quick turnaround,” said FAU coach Leeann Freeland, whose team was seeded ninth. “I actually love the way the conference has the tournament, if you're a 1 through 4 or 1 through 6 it's fantastic, and I think those teams deserve those opportunities. We were going to have to fight to stick around. I thought we fought hard today, but we just didn't have enough gas in the tank.”