HoopsHD continues its series leading up to Selection Sunday and March Madness, as we simulate what would have happened in TTTW (The Tournament That Wasn’t). Up next is the entirety of the American Athletic Conference Tournament. Houston entered this event as the favorite, while Wichita State was bordering towards the good side of the Bubble and Cincinnati desperately needed a deep run to get into the at-large field. What would the bubble picture look like after the conference tournament was over? It is time to find out!
AAC FIRST ROUND
The first round of the American Tournament saw UCF start the day off sneaking by South Florida 73-69. The UConn Huskies then took the floor for their final tournament as a member of the AAC, and promptly played their final game in the league as a K.J. Lawson 3 with 13 seconds left put Tulane up 73-72, and Akok Akok’s attempt to win the game with a jumper at the buzzer came up short. Temple cruised past SMU 68-51 in a game that was not even that close, and 22 points from Lester Quinones led Memphis to an easy 74-57 win over East Carolina.
AAC QUARTERFINALS
The top four teams in the American joined the action on Quarterfinal day for a series of games with massive bubble ramifications. Tre Scott led the way for the Cincinnati Bearcats in the day’s opener, scoring 14 points and pulling down 17 boards as they defeated UCF easily, 84-65. A loss in this game would have pretty much guaranteed the Bearcats a trip to the NIT, but for now their dreams of a ticket to the Big Dance stayed alive.
Next up, Wichita State, the 4 seed, took on surprising 12-seed Tulane. The Green Wave played just well enough to stay within one run of making it a game, but not well enough to actually make that run The Shockers were able to avoid a potential resume-crushing loss, winning 84-74. Erik Stevenson’s 24 points were tops for his team.
Houston may have been the only AAC team that felt confident about their chances to make the NCAA Tournament heading into the day, and that over-confidence may have played a part in allowing Temple to stay in the game the entire way. In fact, an Alani Moore 3 pointer with 23 seconds left pulled the Owls even at 69. But the Cougars had just enough to win this one, as Quentin Grimes nailed a jump shot with less than a second left to lift his team to the two point win and a berth in the semifinals.
The day ended with another thriller, as Memphis’ chance for a spot in the Big Dance got snuffed out by Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane won 67-63, thanks in part to a huge steal late in the game by Jeriah Horne. The win gave Tulsa a spot in the semifinals against 2 seed Houston, and saw that, despite a couple of challenges, all four top seeds did advance to Saturday’s games.
AAC SEMIFINALS
The word heading into the first semifinal was that the winner would have a great shot at an at-large berth, while the loser would certainly be sweating things out on Selection Sunday, especially if that loser ended up being the Cincinnati Bearcats. Although UC was playing for its tournament life, it was the Shockers that were the better team the entire day, building a 10 point lead at the half and holding it most of the second to win 80-71.
With Wichita State now looking like they had sealed up a bid to the Big Dance, Bracketologists everywhere were glued to the Tulsa-Houston game. A win by Tulsa would likely mean contingency brackets late Sunday afternoon with the AAC title game not set to tip until just 3 hours before the field would be revealed. The game itself was a thriller, and bubble teams everywhere were sweating hard when Tulsa took a 56-55 lead with 1:30 left to play, However, a Quentin Grimes 3 on the Cougars’ next possession gave them the lead, and they were able to just barely hold on, with a Tulsa 3-pointer with under 5 seconds left cutting it to 60-59, the final score in the win for Houston that gave them a date with Wichita State in Sunday’s championship.
AAC CHAMPIONSHIP
With both teams looking like they were set to represent the AAC in the NCAA Tournament, there was not much at stake (other than a championship banner) in Sunday’s late title game between Wichita State and Houston. The Shockers, who had entered the conference tournament as a team that was possibly on the bubble, ended up winning this one fairly convincingly, taking the title by an 85-70 score and locking themselves into the Big Dance with the final automatic bid of Championship Week. Erik Stevenson scored 23 points for the victorious Shockers en route to winning the tournament Most Outstanding Player Award.
