What Is This Team, Mr. Robinson?

A Tulsa preview

In 2025, the American’s top two teams were Memphis and North Texas. They played a defensive slugfest in Memphis in early January, and Memphis won at home. We came away from that game thinking that UNT could do some things when the game was going our way, and couldn’t when Memphis created chaos.

In 2026, Memphis is one of the league’s top teams and they faced North Texas at home and won another slugfest but no one came away thinking North Texas could when when the game is played our way. That’s because I don’t think anyone knows what our way is.

North Texas is 9-5, with a slow tempo, a solid defensive rating, and a terrible offensive rating. The Mac/Hodge teams were defense-first, and focused on efficiency on offense. It was a recipe that won, even if it was not super fun to watch all the time. This Robinson team’s effort on defense does not translate to easy buckets. When the offense has to create against set defenses, it looks like it is being given a test in Cantonese, having studied for Latin.

Okay, I’m being a little aggressive, I admit. There is good, when it is good. David Terrell will steal the ball and fly for some dunks. In that sense, it is nice to have an athletic point guard. Je’Shawn Stevenson has taken over some of the scoring load that was going to be the domain of injured (for season) Will McClendon.

The problem is that no one can shoot the three ball reliably. It makes everything so much harder.

Even with McClendon, I don’t know how this team was supposed to score well enough to win the league. Going athlete-first is fine, but Memphis and historically UAB have done that better. I mean one of the main considerations about facing UAB in the last five years has been dealing with their length and athleticism. The plan seemed to be “Go get ‘em Will (McClendon)” and now it’s something like that but with Stevenson.

The rebounding and athleticism have kept the team in it, but there is no payoff. It is painful to watch at times. A theme of the season has been, “North Texas is hanging around” which is fine I guess, but not a championship-level plan.

It is difficult for Robinson, as the men’s hoops program is not well-funded. Even in the “fat” years, winning and competing at a high level, the investment was limited. Memphis is the only program with consistent investment, and there has not been a great return on that. FAU got the most bang for their buck, but even then couldn’t really build on their Final Four appearance.

Modern college basketball has been ahead of the curve in the portal madness, and programs experience the worst of pro sports with none of the benefits. You have pressure to deliver in the immediate short term, with little ability to lock in anything long term. There is no ability to benefit from development and so there is no incentive to take on project players who could develop into pieces. Everyone is looking for ready-made contributors.

That acknowledged, Tulsa is 13-1 under Eric Konkol, who has spent four years at Tulsa but couldn’t build much in that time. He tried importing some former Louisana Tech guys (Keaston Willis, Cobe Williams) but its clicked this year. From my limited look, it has simply been playing better offense. He has David Green, who was a freshman player at Tech in 2022 when they had Kenneth Lofton, Cobe Williams, et al. You might remember that team as the one that beat Tylor Perry’s North Texas 42-36 in the semi final at the Star. Green left Tech for Hofstra, and now is a 14 ppg guy for Konkol.

Incredibly, Tulsa blitzed Rice 97-48 in the league opener. The bulk of the blowout was a second-half onslaught that included 39 points in the final 10-minutes of hte game. David Green had 19, and freshman (from Plano!) Jaylen Lawal had 25.

North Texas will host Tulsa this afternoon looking to slow down a good offense,. It is strength vs strength and weakness vs weakness. We’ll learn whether Tulsa is for real, and if North Texas can compete in this league with their accidental basketball offense.

North Texas v Tulsa — Sunday January 4, 2026 — Super Pit, Denton 3pm ESPN+