AAC basketball coaches think conference tournament will bring ‘twists and turns’
It’s not hard to prove that the American Athletic Conference just wrapped up its wildest men’s basketball regular season in its brief, seven-year history.
There was a three-way share for the conference championship for the first time and the first-place team (five losses) had the most losses and the last-place team (four wins) had the most wins in conference history. More than a quarter of the conference games (26.9%) were decided by one possession or in overtime, which ranks the highest of any major conference.
So the feeling that anything could happen over the next four days at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas is very much alive in all 12 teams, as the first round of play begins Thursday. Wichita State, the No. 4 seed, will play the winner of No. 5 Connecticut and No. 12 Tulane in Friday’s quarterfinals at approximately 2 p.m.
“The tournament promises to have a lot of twists and turns because the regular season definitely had that for everybody in the league,” South Florida coach Brian Gregory said. “It became a night-in, night-out thing where if you don’t play well, you can’t win. It doesn’t matter who you play. That’s a big change in this league.”
Adding to the drama is that a handful of American teams feel like they can play their way into the NCAA Tournament with a strong showing in Fort Worth. While Houston is projected by many to safely be in the field, teams like Wichita State, Cincinnati, Memphis and Tulsa are all considered bubble teams.
“We have a lot of teams that are deserving to play in the postseason,” Tulsa coach Frank Haith said. “I think what you’re going to see this week is a tournament full of teams fighting like crazy. it should be a fun weekend and hopefully we can be a big part of that.”
While Houston, Cincinnati and Tulsa finished atop the conference standings, none of those teams proved infallible. Cincinnati, the top seed, lost to No. 12 seed Tulane, while the top three teams combined to lose nine games to teams seeded fifth or worse in the tournament.
That gives confidence to teams like Connecticut, which owns wins over all three of the top seeds and has won nine of its last 12 entering, and Memphis, which knocked off Houston and Cincinnati and has the AAC Player of the Year in Precious Achiuwa.
“I think when you get into these conference tournaments and NCAA Tournament games, it’s not always the best team that wins, it’s the team that’s playing the best,” Cincinnati coach John Brannen said. “You have to make sure you’re playing your best basketball, both offensive and defensive. Over the course of a season, you can wins games when your offense is humming and maybe your defense isn’t playing well, but in the tournament you need both of those things as tight as you can have them.”
With so many conference games coming down to the wire, sometimes having the best player on the floor that can simply create scoring chances on their own can be the difference.
WSU coach Gregg Marshall has won a total of nine conference tournament championships in his career and he said having a team with seniors can be an advantage this time of year.
“If you have seniors and they’re on the fence about being in the NCAA Tournament or even if they’re locked into the NCAA Tournament, they know they only have a couple more losses in their career or only one more loss in their career,” Marshall said. “Seniors who have been around, they appreciate it a little more when it’s almost gone. That’s not the case with young kids. They just don’t have that same sense of urgency.”
.jpg)