American Conference men’s basketball bracket finalized. Who could Shockers play?
Wichita State’s road in the American Conference men’s basketball tournament is finally in focus.
Sunday’s regular-season finales around the league locked the bracket into place for the American’s first stepladder-style postseason tournament, which will run Wednesday through Sunday at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, with the championship game slated for 2:15 p.m. Sunday on ESPN.
The Shockers had already taken care of the most important piece of their business a day earlier.
By beating Florida Atlantic 88-70 on Saturday at Koch Arena, WSU clinched the No. 2 seed and the tournament’s coveted triple bye into the semifinals. WSU finished the regular season at 21-10 overall and 13-5 in conference play, earning a spot in Saturday’s 4 p.m. semifinal on ESPN2.
“What I’m happy about as a coach is you always see the holes that need to get fixed, so I’m happy that we get a little bit of extra time to make sure we’re doing the things that lend itself to winning,” WSU head coach Paul Mills said. “Then you’re going to have to have some wrinkles just because all of these teams know each other so very well. So I’m happy the most about the week of practice.”
What remained unsettled entering Sunday was the exact route to the Shockers’ side of the bracket.
The one certainty was Tulsa (25-6, 13-5 American) as the No. 3 seed. But the rest of the bracket fell into place after Sunday’s results.
Florida Atlantic (17-14) finished at the No. 7 seed and will meet No. 10 seed Temple (16-15) in the first round on Wednesday. The winner advances to Thursday’s second-round game against No. 6 North Texas (18-13) with the survivor of that game meeting Tulsa in Friday’s 2 p.m. quarterfinal.
The Shockers split the regular-season series with Tulsa, losing 93-83 on the road on Feb. 1 before evening the score with an 81-77 win at Koch Arena on Feb. 14. WSU also split against FAU, while handling Temple and North Texas at home in their only meetings this season.
Instead of needing to survive multiple games in multiple days, WSU will need only two wins in Birmingham to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021. The Shockers will also be looking for their first conference tournament championship since 2017.
WSU carries a six-game winning streak into Birmingham and now has a full week to prepare for a semifinal opponent that will have to survive at least one game just to get there. Whether that opponent is Tulsa, North Texas, Florida Atlantic or Temple, WSU’s postseason position is about as favorable as it could have hoped when the season began.
Fans can purchase tickets to the conference tournament games through Ticketmaster.
American Conference men’s basketball tournament schedule
Wednesday’s first round
Game 1: No. 8 Memphis vs. No. 9 Tulane, 6 p.m. (ESPNews)
Game 2: No. 7 Florida Atlantic vs. No. 10 Temple, 8 (ESPN+)
Thursday’s second round
Game 3: Game 1 winner vs. No. 5 Charlotte, 6 p.m. (ESPNU)
Game 4: Game 2 winner vs. No. 6 North Texas, 8 p.m. (ESPNU)
Friday’s quarterfinals
Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. No. 4 UAB, noon (ESPN2)
Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. No. 3 Tulsa, 2 p.m. (ESPN2)
Saturday’s semifinals
Game 7: Game 5 winner vs. No. 1 South Florida, 2 p.m. (ESPN2)
Game 8: Game 6 winner vs. No. 2 Wichita State, 4 (ESPN2)
Sunday’s championship
Game 9: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 2:15 p.m. (ESPN)
This story was originally published March 8, 2026 at 5:30 PM.
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