The regular season in the American Athletic Conference ended up exactly how many experts believed the season to go.
About half the conference were all contending to be conference champions and possibly making a run at being a tournament team, while the lower half sometimes left fans wondering why they were even in the conference to begin with. Nonetheless, college basketball has proven to fans over and over again that crazy things can happen in March. It’s hard to tell if the American Athletic Conference will be that underdog conference that everyone refers to at the end of the year; however, it’s very clear who the favorites are to win this conference and punch their ticket to the NCAA tournament in a couple of weeks.
The Contenders
Houston Cougars
Houston finished with an astounding 15-3 conference record this year. Obviously, it doesn’t take a professional analyst to see that Houston is the clear-cut favorite to win the conference championship after running through almost every conference team in their path this year. However, there are still some weaknesses that could be exploited within this Houston team. For example, Marcus Sasser, their leading scorer who’s been out since late December, will not be available for the Cougars while he still deals with his toe injury. This would come to really hurt them in their final regular season game against Memphis where they only put up 61 points in a 14-point loss. The Cougars will likely look towards Kyler Edwards and Fabian White Jr. to carry the load on the offensive side, especially in the continued absence of Sasser. Overall, Houston is undoubtedly the favorite to win the American conference championship this year, but there are certain weaknesses that could allow some teams to give them a run for their money.
SMU Mustangs
SMU greatly overachieved this year and are one of only probably 3 American conference teams that have secured their spot in the NCAA tournament. Finishing their regular season with a conference record of 13-4, the Mustangs have put themselves in a great spot to not only get a high seed in the conference tournament, but win it as well. They will, of course, have a lot of competitive teams in their way as they look to make it far in this tournament. However, they will benefit greatly from not having to play the top conference ranked team, the Houston Cougars, unless they meet in the conference championship. Look for their leading scorer, Kendrick Davis, to make a huge splash in the tournament and hopefully propel his team to a higher seeding in the big dance.
Memphis Tigers
In a season that was heavily hyped up for the Tigers after the signing of former five-star Emoni Bates, Memphis hasn’t quite lived up to the amount of hype that they were given by fans and analysts alike. With this being said, head coach Penny Hardaway and the Tigers still managed to put together a good overall season and is a team that is very likely to move on to the NCAA tournament. Even without almost any contribution at all from Bates, who’s been dealing with a back injury, Memphis has still strung some clutch late-season wins together including their last regular season game where they beat the conference championship favorite Houston Cougars. No one player on the Tigers’ roster is going to be able to carry them to a conference tournament championship. But, if this team is able to play through one and other, they could easily string together some wins and make a serious push going into the NCAA tournament.
Temple Owls
There may be no other team in the American conference that needs a big run in this tournament more than Temple. With March basketball officially upon us, the Owls find themselves in a very scary spot with the NCAA tournament just weeks away. Finishing the season with a 10-7 conference record, many professionals are saying that the Owls will need to make a big run in the American conference tournament to solidify their bid to the Big Dance. They will continue to play without their star guard, Khalif Battle, who led the American conference in points per game before his injury in December. It’s safe to say that the Owls have plenty to play for in this year’s tournament, it’s just a matter of if their depleted roster will be able to keep up with the conference heavyweights.
Tournament Schedule
First Round
Eastern Carolina Panthers vs. Cincinnati Bearcats 1 p.m. ET
Tulsa Golden Hurricanes vs. Wichita State Shockers 3 p.m. ET
South Florida Bulls vs. UCF Knights 7 p.m. ET
Quarterfinals
(Winner of Eastern Carolina and Cincinnati) vs. Houston Cougars 1 p.m. ET
Tulane Green Wave vs. Temple Owls 3 p.m. ET
(Winner of Tulsa and Wichita State) vs. SMU Mustangs 7 p.m. ET
(Winner of South Florida and UCF) vs. Memphis 9 p.m. ET
Semifinals
Game 1 will be at 3 p.m. ET
Game 2 will be at 5 p.m. ET
Championship
The championship will be at 3:15 p.m. ET
*All games will be held at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas