Sunday, March 9, 2014

American Athletic conference tournament

This is part 18 of a 32-part series covering each conference and conference tournament.  These previews are meant to provide every bracketologist with the information they need to make informed projections about the teams of the conference.

The standings:
Cincinnati 15-3
Louisville 15-3
SMU 12-6
Connecticut 12-6
Memphis 12-6
Houston 8-10
Rutgers 5-13
Temple 4-14
Central Florida 4-14
South Florida 3-15

Tournament format:
They play from March 12-15, as Memphis hosts.  It's your standard 10-team format.

The matchups:
7) Rutgers (11-20) vs. 10) South Florida (12-19)
8) Temple (9-21) vs. 9) Central Florida (12-17)

3) SMU (23-8) vs. 6) Houston (16-15)
2) Louisville (26-5) vs. 7/10 winner
1) Cincinnati (26-5) vs. 8/9 winner
4) UConn (24-7) vs 5) Memphis (23-8)

The stakes:
Literally zero bubble impact.  Well, almost zero.  If SMU loses to Houston we'll have to re-evaluate.  Non-con SoS of 285, but wins of UConn, Memphis, Cincy, @UConn are better than many bubble teams, and the non-con losses were very reasonable.

Cincy and Louisville are playing for the 2 line.  Memphis and UConn probably closer to 7 than 6 or 8.  Any guess to the pecking order?  It'll probably be decided in the tournament.

No NIT teams for the AAC.  Houston in the CBI/CIT if they want it.  And we're done.  No teams on any kind of bubble.

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