Welcome to March. Sure, the actual month began last Wednesday, but the regular season in college basketball did not end until yesterday for the American Athletic Conference.
Now that all of that is over, its time to dive into the best postseason in the known universe, which begins with the American Athletic Conference Tournament. You’ll find everything you could possibly want to know about the tourney here.
The Bracket
Schedule/TV Times
Thursday, March 9
- 3:30 p.m. ET - No. 8 Temple Owls vs. No. No. 9 East Carolina Pirates (ESPNU)
- 6 p.m. ET - No. 7 Tulsa vs. No. 10 Tulane (ESPNews)
- 8 p.m. ET - No. 6 UConn Huskies vs. No. 11 USF Bulls (ESPNews)
Friday, March 10
- 12 p.m. ET - No. 1 SMU Mustangs vs. Temple/ECU winner (ESPN2)
- 2 p.m. ET - No. 4 UCF Knights vs. No. 5 Memphis Tigers (ESPN2)
- 7 p.m. ET - No. 2 Cincinnati Bearcats vs. Tulsa/Tulane winner (ESPNU)
- 9 p.m. ET - No. 3 Houston Cougars vs. UConn/USF winner (ESPNU)
Saturday, March 11
- 3 p.m. ET - SMU/Temple/ECU winner vs. UCF/Memphis winner (ESPN2)
- 5 p.m. ET - Cincinnati/Tulsa/Tulane winner vs. Houston/UConn/USF winner (ESPN2)
Sunday, March 12
- 3:15 p.m. ET - Championship Round (ESPN)
How Did We Get Here
The AAC was a top-heavy conference this season, with SMU and Cincinnati running the show. SMU finished with the No. 1 seed and regular season title thanks to a 17-1 mark in league play, with its lone loss on the road against the Bearcats. UC lost twice in 18 league games, including an upset against UCF and road setback against SMU, to earn the No. 2 seed.
After the Mustangs and Bearcats, Houston and UCF showed the most promise, with each earning 20-win campaigns while producing a better than .600 winning percentage in league play.
Memphis and UConn split their 18 league games, falling short of the upper echelon, where they were predicted to finish to start the year.
From there, the rest of the conference was rather forgettable. Temple managed to top some Top 25 teams early on, but finished at just 16-15 overall. Meanwhile, Tulsa (which had a better record than the Owls in league play), East Carolina, Tulane and USF all had losing seasons.
Here’s the final league standings to give you a snapshot of where we stand entering the tournament.
Odds
Now you may be trying to fill out a bracket for this tournament and want to know who stands a chance of winning each round. You might also want to know who has the best chance of winning the whole thing. OR maybe you just like looking at percentages. Either way, you can find odds for all of that stuff below, per TeamRankings.com.
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