AAC Hoops Tournament Preview: Can Any Team Knock Off Houston?

Previewing the American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament.

Author:
Jack Edwards
Publish date:
Mar 10, 2022 6:00 AM EST

The 2022 American Athletic Conference tournament is slated to begin on March 10th, with the championship game being held on March 13th. That would also be Selection Sunday. At the moment, the conference only has one lock for the NCAA tournament, the Houston Cougars, meaning this is a chance for the other ten teams to try and secure the AAC’s automatic bid.

Memphis and SMU are on the bubble, and UCF is nowhere to be found in Joe Lunardi’s most recent bracket projection. Here are some things to know about the AAC tournament as we head into the always highly-anticipated season of March Madness.

The Favorites: Houston

This one should come as a surprise to nobody. The Houston Cougars are the best team in the conference by a wide margin, and if everything goes right, they should win the AAC tournament. The Cougars have had their way with AAC teams, as they hold a 15-3 record in conference, with their only three losses being to SMU and Memphis (twice), the number two and three seeds in the conference, respectively. On the year, they have an average margin of victory of 17 PPG. Absolute dominance.

Houston has done most of this without arguably their best player, Marcus Sasser, who was declared out for the season after an injury in mid-December. They have also been missing sophomore Tremon Mark due to season-ending surgery, another key contributor that will miss the remainder of the season.

The loss of these two players could have easily derailed the Cougars’ reign over the AAC, but head coach Kelvin Sampson has been able to bring his team together and continue to win on a consistent basis. Watch for the Cougars to dominate their way to the AAC championship game. They’ll play the winner of Cincinnati vs East Carolina on Friday.

Sleepers: Memphis and SMU

It is tough to call the second and third highest seeds in a conference “sleepers”, but when there is a team so far ahead of the rest of the pack like Houston is, the term is justified. Memphis and SMU are the only two teams this year who have knocked off Houston in AAC play, and they are certainly a tier or so above teams like Cincinnati, Temple, UCF, and Tulane.

Memphis has had one of the biggest turnarounds in all of college basketball this season. After starting the season at an underwhelming 9-8, including 3-4 in the conference, they rattled off 10 wins in their final 11 games to finish the season with a respectable 13-5 conference record.

Jalen Duren has held down the fort for Memphis, as the projected top 10 pick has averaged 11.9 PPG on 62.2% shooting to go with 7.5 RPG on the year. He is a dominant force on both ends of the floor for the Tigers. They also have two other ESPN top 100 players in DeAndre Williams and Emoni Bates.

Memphis beat Houston both times this season, including a 14 point drubbing at home to end the season. If there were any team to watch out for to potentially knock off Houston, it would be the Tigers. Memphis plays the winner of South Florida vs UCF on Friday.

SMU finished conference play at 13-4. They do not have as much potential NBA talent, if any, as Memphis does, but they know their identity and they play off each other really well. Senior guard Kendric Davis has been the leader of the Mustangs squad, leading the team in both scoring at 19.5 points per game, and assists with 4.6 per game. He led the team in scoring in 22 of the 28 games he played in. SMU will start off tournament play against the winner of Tulsa vs Wichita State on Friday. Both SMU and Memphis are projected to be in the tournament as of right now according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.

Other Teams to Watch: Cincinnati, Tulane, UCF

Tulane was the most surprising team of the 2022 AAC season. Projected as low as 10th out of 11 in the conference coming into the season, the Green Wave blew their expectations out of the water. Led by freshman phenom Jalen Cook, Tulane went 10-8 in conference play after a rough 3-6 start to the season. Those records are nothing extraordinary, but Tulane is not a usual contender in the AAC, in fact this is the highest regular season finish in the school’s AAC history.

For them, this could be the start to a strong couple of years under new head coach Ron Hunter. They could certainly make some noise in this year’s tournament considering they have knocked off some of the better teams in the conference a few times this season, including Memphis, UCF, and Cincinnati. The Green Wave will start off tournament play vs Temple after a first round bye.

UCF is a hot and cold squad. They severely underperformed expectations in conference play in 2022, but when they get hot, they can be too much for the opposition. The talent on the roster is good enough to compete with the best teams in the conference, but the decision making is what has been questionable to this point. When they get the ball moving on offense, they can light it up at will, but that is not always the case.

It is unknown at this point whether or not senior Brandon Mahan will be available for Thursday’s tilt vs the South Florida Bulls, but his status will be a huge factor for the Knights as they fight for a NCAA tournament bid. If they can find their shooting touch, they could make a deep run in the tournament, but of late, the shooting has been a struggle for them.

Cincinnati has had it rough of late. They lost their last five regular season matchups, and eight of their final ten. However, many of those games came down to the wire, and Cincinnati ended up getting the short side of the stick. The Bearcats are more talented than their record shows, and they can put up a fight vs anyone in their path. They’re led by a two-headed monster of Jeremiah Davenport and David DeJulius, and both will need to have a strong showing in tournament play in order for Cincinnati to have a chance at punching their ticket to the dance.