Memphis will hold 2019 American men’s basketball tournament

The American Athletic Conference Tournament is moving closer to Wichita. Not quite as close as St. Louis, but closer.

Memphis’ FedExForum is the site of the 2019 men’s basketball tournament, the AAC announced Monday.

The tournament will be held March 14-17 at the home of the Memphis Tigers. The arena, also home to the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, held the 2014 AAC Tournament.

The 2018 tournament is in Orlando’s Amway Center.

Oklahoma City has been discussed as a future home of the tournament, in large part because of its proximity to conference members Wichita State, Tulsa, SMU, Houston and Memphis. The American, according to the news release, will announce its championship sites for 2020-22 in the upcoming weeks.

“We’re not sure whether we want to anchor the tournament for awhile in one place, or whether we should spread it around and plant the flag in various places,” commissioner Mike Aresco said last month. “Sometimes when you move around it creates a little bit of difficulty in terms of sponsorship.”

The FedExForum is 581 miles from Koch Arena, which adds some time for Shocker fans used to driving 443 miles to St. Louis’ Scottrade Arena for the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

The Shockers haven’t played a conference tournament game at a conference member’s arena since the MVC moved its tournament to St. Louis in 1991. WSU played Tulsa at Tulsa in 1987, the last time it played the host school in a conference tournament.

This story was originally published July 10, 2017 at 12:44 PM with the headline "Memphis will hold 2019 American men’s basketball tournament."