2018–19 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season

2018–19 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Duration	November 2018 through March 2019
Number of teams	12
TV partner(s)	ESPN, CBSSN, CBS
Regular Season
Season champions	Houston
Season MVP	Jarron Cumberland, Cincinnati
Tournament
Champions	Cincinnati
Runners-up	Houston

2018–19 American Athletic Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 11 Houston	16	–	2		.889			33	–	4		.892
No. 22 Cincinnati †	14	–	4		.778			28	–	7		.800
Temple	13	–	5		.722			23	–	10		.697
UCF	13	–	5		.722			24	–	9		.727
Memphis	11	–	7		.611			22	–	14		.611
Wichita State	10	–	8		.556			22	–	15		.595
Tulsa	8	–	10		.444			18	–	14		.563
South Florida	8	–	10		.444			24	–	14		.632
UConn	6	–	12		.333			16	–	17		.485
SMU	6	–	12		.333			15	–	17		.469
East Carolina	3	–	15		.167			10	–	21		.323
Tulane	0	–	18		.000			4	–	27		.129
† 2019 AAC tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

The 2018–19 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2018 followed by the start of the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. The conference held its media day in October 2018. Conference play began in December 2018 and concluded in March 2019.

Head coaches

Coaching changes

• UConn hired former Rhode Island and Wagner coach Dan Hurley after firing Kevin Ollie following his sixth season as head coach.
• Memphis fired Tubby Smith after 2 seasons and replaced him with alum Penny Hardaway.
• East Carolina head coach Jeff Lebo resigned 6 games into the 2017–18 season and was succeeded on an interim basis by assistant coach Michael Perry. After the season, the school hired former Florida Gulf Coast head coach Joe Dooley, who previously served as head coach of the team from 1995-99.

Coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	AAC record	AAC titles	NCAA Tournaments	NCAA Final Fours	NCAA Championships
Cincinnati	Mick Cronin	Murray State	13	292–144	85–20	2	8	0	0
Connecticut	Dan Hurley	Rhode Island	1	14–16	5–12	0	0	0	0
East Carolina	Joe Dooley	Florida Gulf Coast	6	68–71	3–14	0	0	0	0
Houston	Kelvin Sampson	Houston Rockets (asst.)	5	111–50	57–34	1	1	0	0
Memphis	Penny Hardaway	East HS	1	18–12	11–7	0	0	0	0
SMU	Tim Jankovich	SMU (asst.)	4	69–37	28–25	1	1	0	0
South Florida	Brian Gregory	Michigan State (advisor)	2	29–33	11–24	0	0	0	0
Temple	Fran Dunphy	Penn	13	269–160	58–49	1	7	0	0
Tulane	Mike Dunleavy	Los Angeles Clippers	3	24–67	8–45	0	0	0	0
Tulsa	Frank Haith	Missouri	5	95–64	54–35	0	1	0	0
UCF	Johnny Dawkins	Stanford	3	66–31	33–20	0	0	0	0
Wichita State	Gregg Marshall	Winthrop	11	290–101	23–12	0	7	1	0

Notes:

• Overall and AAC records are from time at current school and are through the end of 2018–19 season. NCAA records include time at current school only.
• AAC records only, prior conference records not included.

Preseason

Preseason Coaches Poll

The American Coaches poll was released on October 15, 2018, with UCF predicted to finish first in the AAC.^[1]

Coaches poll
Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	UCF	114 (6)
2	Cincinnati	107 (3)
3	Houston	103 (2)
4	Memphis	85 (1)
5	Connecticut	75
6	Temple	74
7	SMU	63
8	Wichita State	60
9	Tulsa	48
10	Tulane	23
11	East Carolina	22
12	USF	18

Preseason All-AAC Teams

Honor	Recipient
Preseason Player of the Year	B. J. Taylor, UCF
Preseason All-AAC First Team[2]
	Jarron Cumberland, Cincinnati
	Jalen Adams, Connecticut
	Jeremiah Martin, Memphis
	Quinton Rose, Temple
	B. J. Taylor, UCF
Preseason All-AAC Second Team
	Corey Davis, Houston
	Jarrey Foster, SMU
	Markis McDuffie, Wichita State
	Tacko Fall, UCF
	Jahmal McMurray, SMU
	Sterling Taplin, Tulsa
Preseason Rookie of the Year	Nate Hinton, Houston

Regular season

Rankings

Legend

		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		Not ranked previous week

Main article: 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play. Each team will play 18 conference games: one game vs. four opponents and two games against seven opponents.

	Cincinnati	Connecticut	East Carolina	Houston	Memphis	SMU	South Florida	Temple	Tulane	Tulsa	UCF	Wichita State
vs. Cincinnati	–	0–2	1–0	2–0	0–2	0–2	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–2	1–1	0–2
vs. Connecticut	2–0	–	0–2	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	2–0	0–1	1–0	2–0	1–1
vs. East Carolina	0–1	2–0	–	2–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	0–2	2–0	1–0	2–0
vs. Houston	0–2	0–1	0–2	–	0–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	0–1	0–2	1–1	0–1
vs. Memphis	2–0	0–1	0–2	1–0	–	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–2	1–1	1–1	0–2
vs. SMU	2–0	1–1	0–1	2–0	1–0	–	1–1	1–0	0–2	0–1	2–0	2–0
vs. South Florida	1–0	1–1	0–2	2–0	0–1	1–1	–	2–0	0–2	1–0	2–0	0–1
vs. Temple	1–0	0–2	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	0–2	–	0–2	1–1	1–1	0–1
vs. Tulane	1–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	–	2–0	1–0	2–0
vs. Tulsa	2–0	0–1	0–2	2–0	1–1	2–0	0–1	1–1	0–2	–	1–0	2–0
vs. UCF	1–1	0–2	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	0–1	0–1	–	1–0
vs. Wichita State	2–0	1–1	0–2	1–0	2–0	0–2	1–0	1–0	0–2	0–2	0–1	–
Total	14–4	6–12	3–15	16–2	11–7	6–12	8–10	13–5	0–18	8–10	13–5	10–8

Player of the week

Throughout the regular season, the American Athletic Conference named a player and rookie of the week.

Week	Player(s) of the week	Rookie of the week
November 12, 2018	Shizz Alston, Temple Markis McDuffie, Wichita State	Jayden Gardner, ECU
November 19, 2018	Aubrey Dawkins, UCF	Tyler Harris, Memphis
November 26, 2018	Jarron Cumberland, Cincinnati	Cedrik Alley Jr.
December 3, 2018	Armoni Brooks, Houston	Jayden Gardner (2), ECU
December 10, 2018	DaQuan Jeffries, Tulsa	Tyler Harris (2), Memphis
December 17, 2018	Shizz Alston Jr. (2), Temple Galen Robinson Jr., Houston	Alexis Yetna, USF
December 24, 2018	Jarron Cumberland (2), Cincinnati	Alexis Yetna (2), USF
January 7, 2019	Aubrey Dawkins (2), UCF	Nate Hinton, Houston
January 14, 2019	Nate Pierre-Louis, Temple	Jayden Gardner (3), ECU Alexis Yetna (3), USF
January 21, 2019	Jarron Cumberland (3), Cincinnati	Jayden Gardner (4), ECU
January 28, 2019	Jarron Cumberland (4), Cincinnati	Alexis Yetna (4), USF
February 4, 2019	Markis McDuffie (2), Wichita State	Jamarius Burton, Wichita State
February 11, 2018	Corey Davis Jr., Houston	Cedrick Alley Jr., Houston
February 18, 2019	Shizz Alston Jr. (3), Temple	Jayden Gardner (5), ECU
February 25, 2019	Jeremiah Martin, Memphis	Dexter Dennis, Wichita State
March 4, 2019	Tacko Fall, UCF	Jamarius Burton (2), Wichita State
March 11, 2019	Corey Davis Jr. (2), Houston	Nate Hinton (2), Houston

Honors and awards

All-AAC Awards and Teams

Honor	Recipient
Player of the Year	Jarron Cumberland, Cincinnati
Coach of the Year	Kelvin Sampson, Houston
Rookie of the Year	Alexis Yetna, USF
Defensive Player of the Year	Laquincy Rideau, USF
Most Improved Player	Josh Carlton, UConn Nate Pierre-Louis, Temple
Sixth Man of the Year	DeJon Jarreau, Houston
Sportsmanship Award	Galen Robinson, Jr., Houston
All-AAC First Team
	Jarron Cumberland, Cincinnati*
	Corey Davis Jr., Houston*
	Jeremiah Martin, Memphis*
	B. J. Taylor, UCF
	Shizz Alston, Jr., Temple
All-AAC Second Team
	Armoni Brooks, Houston
	Aubrey Dawkins, UCF
	Markis McDuffie, Wichita State
	Quinton Rose, Temple
	Jahmal McMurray, SMU
All-AAC Third Team
	Jalen Adams, UConn
	David Collins, UCF
	Tacko Fall, UCF
	DaQuan Jeffries, Tulsa
	Laquincy Rideau, USF
All-Rookie Team
	Jayden Gardner, ECU*
	Nate Hinton, Houston*
	Alexis Yetna, USF*
	Tyler Harris, Memphis
	Dexter Dennis, Wichita State

* Unanimous Selection

Postseason

American Athletic Conference tournament

Main article: 2019 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament

	First round Thursday, March 14					Quarterfinals Friday, March 15					Semifinals Saturday, March 16					Championship Sunday, March 17
						1	Houston	84
						9	UConn	45
	8	South Florida	73
	9	UConn	80
											1	Houston	61
											5	Memphis	58
						4	UCF	55
						5	Memphis	79
	5	Memphis	83
	12	Tulane	68
																1	Houston	57
																2	Cincinnati	69
						2	Cincinnati	82
						10	SMU	74
	7	Tulsa	65
	10	SMU	74
											2	Cincinnati	66
											6	Wichita State	63
						3	Temple	74
						6	Wichita State	80
	6	Wichita State	73
	11	East Carolina	57

^[3]

NCAA Tournament

Main article: 2019 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

The winner of the AAC tournament, Cincinnati, received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Seed	Region	School	First Four	First round	Second round	Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
3	West	Houston	N/A	defeated (14) Georgia State, 84–55	defeated (11) Ohio State, 74–59	eliminated by (2) Kentucky, 58–62
7	South	Cincinnati	N/A	eliminated by (10) Iowa, 72–79
9	East	UCF	N/A	defeated (8) VCU, 73–58	eliminated by (1) Duke, 76–77
11	East	Temple	eliminated by (11) Belmont 70–81
		W–L (%):	0–1 (.000)	2–1 (.667)	1–1 (.500)	0–1 (.000)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–) Total: 3–4 (.429)

NIT

Main article: 2019 National Invitation Tournament

Memphis and Wichita State received at-large bids to the NIT.

Seed	Bracket	School	First round	Second round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
3	TCU	Memphis	defeated (6) San Diego, 74–60	eliminated by (2) Creighton, 67-79
6	Indiana	Wichita State	defeated (3) Furman, 76–70	defeated (2) Clemson, 63–55	defeated (1) Indiana, 73–63	eliminated by (5) Lipscomb, 64–71
		W–L (%):	2–0 (1.000)	1–1 (.500)	1–0 (1.000)	0–1 (.000)	0–0 (–) Total: 4–2 (.667)

CBI

Main article: 2019 College Basketball Invitational

South Florida received an at-large bid to the CBI.

School	First round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals (Best-of-three)
South Florida	defeated Stony Brook, 82–79^OT	defeated Utah Valley, 66–57	defeated Loyola Marymount, 56–47	defeated DePaul, 63–61, 96-100^OT, 77-65
W–L (%):	1–0 (1.000)	1–0 (1.000)	1–0 (1.000)	2–1 (.667) Total: 6–1 (.857)

NBA draft

No AAC players were drafted in the 2019 NBA draft.

References

1. Groeschen, Tom. "Cincinnati Bearcats edged out for 1st place in AAC men's basketball Media Day poll". Cincinnati.com. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
2. "Coaches Select UCF as Preseason Favorite". American Athletic Conference. October 15, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
3. "American Athletic Conference - 2019 MBB Championship Bracket" (PDF). theamerican.org.