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The American Athletic Conference announced the conference schedule, including the format and dates for the league tournament, for the 2016-17 women's basketball schedule.
Cincinnati, which finished a disappointing 8-22 last season, will play two games apiece against UCF, UConn, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, USF, SMU and Tulane. The rest of the league slate will include a home contest against Tulsa and a trip to North Philadelphia to clash with Temple. Last season, UC played single games against SMU and Tulane, finishing off the regular season by visiting the Green Wave.
The Bearcats had only four wins in 18 tries against conference foes last season, losing four straight and nine of its last 10 including a 70-61 setback against East Carolina in the AAC Tournament. Their lone wins came at UCF (68-50), at Tulsa (55-53), vs. Houston (56-50) and at Houston (67-61), so its good news that the Cougars appear on the schedule twice once again.
Obviously the big kahunas on the docket for UC, which has been languishing in the AAC basement (and the Big East's before that) for some time, are matchups against perennial national title contender UConn. However, visiting Temple also will be a difficult task as the Owls went 13-5 in league play and 23-12 overall last season. Additionally, USF (24-10, 14-4) will be tough to beat once let alone twice.
On top of announcing the scheduling pairings, the AAC confirmed details about the women's basketball tournament. The event will be held March 3-6 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, with all 11 teams participating.