CHAMP CENTRAL
The American Athletic Conference Championship in Orlando this week has a wide open look to it.
The fact that the conference is filled with 20-win teams, but stirs varying opinions as to which ones will end up in the NCAA tournament makes The American Championship as intriguing as any tournament in the country, in the words of American commissioner Mike Aresco. There are five teams-- Temple, Houston, Tulsa, Cincinnati and UConn -- that are playing well enough to part of the conversation a spot in the 68-team field, but none are considered locks.
“I respect the committee, I respect their work and I know how hard they work and how diligent they are,” Aresco said. “We think we have the opportunity for multiple teams.”
Headed into this week, well known bracketologists like Joe Lunardi at ESPN have three American Conference teams --Temple (20-10), Cincinnati (22-9) and UConn (20-10)-- penciled into its bracket while Jerry Palm of CBS has four-- Temple Cincinnati, UConn and Tulsa (20-10). Houston (22-8) has been out of the picture most of the season, but the Cougars, who defeated regular season champion Temple by 27 in Philadelphia, beat SMU at home and finished up the season strong with wins over Cincinnati and UConn, are playing as well as anyone right now and have became the trendy pick to win the tournament and pick up an automatic bid
”When you look at the concept of the top 68 teams, there are five teams in the AAC that had really good years,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “I think all five are deserving.”
But there are no assurances.
”There are a lot of us in the same boat,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said.
And every time a mid-major top seed like Monmouth or Wichita State loses in their respective conference tournaments, coaches around the country-- and specifically here in The American-- get nervous that they will take an at large bid from a bigger conference.
The American, which has successfully built its brand in football when UCF and Houston won two New Year’s Six bowl games in the last three years, is still attempting to upgrade its image in basketball and earn some much needed credibility from the committee.
But it has been an uphill climb.
“I don't think we get the proper respect,” Aresco said. “We've struggled a little bit with that over the last two years.”
In 2014, the selection committee selected four American teams-- Louisville, Cincinnati, UConn and Memphis. But the seed lines didn't show much respect. Co-regular season champion Cincinnati was a No. 5 seed. UConn, which won the national championship that year, was a No. 7 seed. SMU, which was 23-9, 12-6 in the league and had an RPI of 53 was left out alltogether and was shuttled off to the NIT, where the Mustangs lost to Minnesota in the championship game.
Last year, the conference only received two bids. SMU was the highest seed American team as a 6. Cincinnati also made the field as an 8. Neither team advanced to the second week. Temple, which was 23-10 with an RPI of 31 and eight wins over top-100 RPI teams, including a home blowout of Kansas and games against top-seeds Duke and Villanova, was left out and wound up in the NIT.
Dunphy tried to be gracious after the snub but he couldn't help but notice two other teams-- Indiana and UCLA-- with 20-13 records both got bids. The Bruins did not have a quality road win the entire season. Indiana was 9-9 in confererence play.
”It looks like the power conferences-- the power five as it were-- seemed to get a large part of the attention,” he said. “I will say that.”
It is a growing problem, just like football.
”Our conference is definitely underrated,” UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. “You can see it by our tournament seeds. You can see by how the outside views our league. It's definitely not valued as highly as we think.”
The top four seeds in Orlando this week are Temple, which won the league regular season outright; Houston, Tulsa and Cincinnati. The Bearcats will play fifth seed UConn in a quarterfinal that Lunardi is already calling an NCAA play-in game. Cincinnati defeated UConn twice this season and Cronin said he expected to see them again. “I just didn't think it would be in the first round of the tournament.”
”I think it's historical,” Cronin said of the perception of The American. “Other league have historically produced nine teams and people taken it for a given. They don't know how to look at our league because it's a new thing and they say, 'Who are these teams?”
Normally, top seeded teams would appear safe. Temple has played North Carolina, Villanova, Wisconsin, Utah, Butler and Saint Joseph's, , but the Owls have done their best work in league play, defeating SMU and Tulsa in Philadelphia, Houston on the road and sweeping round robin games against UConn and Cincinnati twice.
”We just need to win,” Dunphy said.
Every game is a make or break situation because none of the participating teams, with the possible exception of Cincinnati, which might be the safest of the group because of overall resume, can rest easy.
It all adds up to what might be the best conference tournament in the country this season.