A guide to the WSU Shockers’ bracket in the AAC men’s basketball tournament this week
Fresh off their regular-season championship celebration at Koch Arena this weekend, the Wichita State men’s basketball team heads to Fort Worth, Texas this week as the No. 1 seed in the American Athletic Conference tournament.
The Shockers (15-4) will receive a first-round bye and play the winner between No. 8 South Florida (8-12) and No. 9 Temple (5-10) in Friday’s quarterfinals at 11 a.m. in Dickies Arena with the game broadcast on ESPN2. Single-game tickets and session passes can be purchased through Ticketmaster with WSU playing in a Session 3 game on Friday.
If WSU wins its first game at the conference tournament, it would play the winner of No. 4 SMU (11-4) and No. 5 Cincinnati (9-10) in Saturday’s semifinals at 2 p.m. with the game broadcast on ESPN. Both of WSU’s games against SMU were canceled in the regular season because of COVID-19 issues for the Mustangs, while the Shockers topped Cincinnati 82-76 at home on Jan. 10 in their lone meeting.
The AAC tournament championship is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. Sunday and will be broadcast on ESPN.
Here are the final conference tournament seeds:
No. 1 Wichita State (15-4, 11-2)
No. 2 Houston (21-3, 14-3)
No. 3 Memphis (15-7, 11-4)
No. 4 SMU (11-4, 7-4)
No. 5 Cincinnati (10-10, 8-6)
No. 6 Central Florida (10-11, 8-10)
No. 7 Tulsa (11-11, 7-9)
No. 8 South Florida (8-12, 4-10)
No. 9 Temple (5-10, 4-10)
No. 10 Tulane (9-12, 4-12)
No. 11 East Carolina (8-10, 2-10)
Here is the tournament and television schedule for the games (all times Central)
First round: Thursday, March 12
South Florida vs. Temple, 11 a.m. (ESPNU)
Tulsa vs. Tulane, 2 p.m. (ESPNU)
UCF vs. East Carolina, 6 p.m. (ESPNU)
Quarterfinals: Friday, March 13
Wichita State vs. USF-Temple winner, 11 a.m. (ESPN2)
SMU vs. Cincinnati, 2 p.m. (ESPN2)
Houston vs. Tulsa-Tulane winner, 6 p.m. (ESPNU)
Memphis vs. UCF-East Carolina winner, 9 p.m. (ESPNU)
Semifinals: Saturday, March 14
First two quarterfinal winners, 2 p.m. (ESPN2)
Last two quarterfinal winners, 4:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
Championship: Sunday, March 15
Semifinal winners, 2:15 p.m. (ESPN)
This story was originally published March 7, 2021 at 9:40 AM.
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