Wichita State, other AAC bubble teams will get rescheduling priority: commissioner
A significant addition to the conference schedule of the Wichita State men’s basketball team could be announced as early as Thursday, according to American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco in an interview with The Wichita Eagle.
Since Monday, when COVID-19 issues within SMU’s program once again postponed two games against WSU, the first-place Shockers have come up empty in their frantic search to find a nonconference game that could potentially help them boost their NCAA Tournament résumé the same way playing SMU (with a NET ranking of No. 60) could have.
On Wednesday, Aresco told The Eagle that the AAC will prioritize its bubble teams — WSU, SMU and Memphis — with its scheduling decisions the final two weeks of the regular season and attempt to give those three teams the best opportunities.
“I can’t give you the full details, but we’re trying to arrange some other games so that Wichita will have a game to replace (the SMU games) that could have some meaning for them for NCAA Tournament qualification,” Aresco said. “We want to get certain key games in and try to give our teams the best chance to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.”
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, the conference is trying to make room to reschedule the Memphis-WSU game at Koch Arena in a prime-time slot for next Thursday, March 4. Playing Memphis (NET No. 62) at home would give WSU a shot at a solid Quad 2 win on a résumé sorely needing quality wins, while the Tigers could score a Quad 1 road win to keep their hopes alive for an at-large berth.
But in order for that to happen, the AAC has some rearranging to do. The conference already cleared the way for Memphis on Wednesday when it announced its game scheduled at South Florida on March 3 had been moved up a day to March 2. Expect the conference to do the same for WSU’s schedule next week, as games at Tulane on Wednesday, March 3 and at Temple on Saturday, March 6 are subject to change.
Some fans have suggested the conference should scrap games that won’t move the needle for its bubble teams in place of quality games against each other. For example, scrap WSU’s road trips to Tulane (NET No. 155) and Temple (No. 174) and replace them with games against Memphis and SMU.
Aresco dismissed that idea, saying the conference would not cancel games already on the schedule to make room to reschedule postponed games.
Along with some of the conference’s coaches, Aresco was frustrated that the American was even in the position of trying to qualify a second team to March Madness. He was particularly dismayed that WSU, currently first place in the conference, is considered on the wrong side of the bubble as an at-large team by most bracketologists.
“I think there is some lingering disrespect for the conference and we’ve faced that over the years,” Aresco said. “I don’t think there’s much question that we have a very good league. We have all 11 teams in the top 175 of the NET and the Pac-12 and Big 12 can’t make that claim. We’ve really improved in the middle and toward the bottom of our league.
“I believe we do have a very competitive league, but at the end of the day we have to deal with reality. All we can do is continue to play and continue to try to impress the committee and we’ll just have to see where the chips fall.”
The lack of quality games played and wins collected is what is holding WSU back from being considered solidly in the field, according to bracketologists. The Shockers have just one win over a team projected to be in the field and a 2-4 record against top-75 NET competition with a 2-2 record in Quad 1 games and 2-2 record in Quad 2 games.
But the lack of quality games played has largely been outside of WSU’s control. The Shockers scheduled aggressively in the non-conference, but COVID-19 issues took away three quality games in South Dakota and then affected them in early home losses to Missouri and Oklahoma State.
During conference play, WSU has missed opportunities through no fault of its own — a total of nine conference games have been postponed with all nine stemming from COVID-19 issues within other programs. In what has been considered a fluky season in the American that has limited the amount of quality games available, WSU has seen an even fewer share of those quality games due to games being postponed this season.
“I feel bad for Wichita because they’ve been ready to play and they’ve done an outstanding job with their protocol,” Aresco said. “The same thing happened to Houston in football. There were five games when they were ready to play, but their opponents weren’t. They were victimized by that as well.”
Aresco has heard the complaints from passionate fan bases who are calling for forfeits from teams who aren’t able to play scheduled games.
“I would caution fans and tell them remember that we’re playing in a pandemic,” Aresco said. “And that COVID happens and it’s unpredictable. In my view, there shouldn’t be any finger-pointing. Anybody can have a problem at any time. You could be rolling along and you’re fine and then all of a sudden, a case pops up. It’s a very transmissible virus, which you don’t need me to tell you that. This shouldn’t be a pejorative situation.”
In recalling the Shockers playing the first two games of their season with eight scholarship players, some WSU fans have wondered if AAC teams that have paused activities this season have chosen not to play games with a limited roster in fear of taking a loss.
Aresco said the AAC’s policy has been to leave those decisions up to the discretion of each school. There’s not an ‘X’ number of players who have to be unavailable for a program to be able to postpone a game. Sometimes those decisions aren’t even up to the basketball programs, as universities make the ultimate call whether it is safe or not for them to play.
“And I don’t believe for one minute there’s been any gamesmanship there,” Aresco said.
As for the conference tournament, Aresco is optimistic that all 11 teams will be able to compete safely in the event scheduled from March 11-14 in Fort Worth with around 25% fan attendance. Unlike the South Dakota tournament WSU tried to play in where one positive COVID-19 test in a traveling party disqualified the team, the AAC Tournament will take it on a case-by-case basis when there is a positive test.
“I don’t want to speak categorically, but one positive would not necessarily knock a team out,” Aresco said. “We would do contact tracing and do it very carefully and it is possible that team could continue to play. If it was more than one positive, then obviously that would be very concerning. We’re taking every precaution and we’re very concerned and want to make sure everyone who plays there stays safe and healthy. But we’re very confident we’ll have a good tournament.”
And if for some reason a conference tournament champion isn’t able to be crowned? WSU might have some interest in the answer to that question if it is able to hold on the final week of the season to win the regular-season championship.
Would the Shockers be sent to the NCAA Tournament as the conference’s automatic qualifier? It’s likely, but not a guarantee. Aresco said the NCAA is leaving that decision up to each individual conference.
“We still have to determine how we’re going to do it if we don’t have the typical automatic qualifier from winning our conference tournament,” Aresco said. “We have to let the NCAA know within the next week or so how we’re going to choose an alternate team if we don’t have a typical automatic qualifier.
“And that means a couple of situations could occur. One is we can’t finish our tournament for whatever reason. Two is we have an AQ team that wins our tournament, then develops a COVID issue, so you would need some backup teams. We are in the process of working with our AD’s to determine how we’re going to do that, whether it’s regular-season standings, whether it’s a NET ranking. We’re going to try to figure that out, but we haven’t decided yet.”
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