American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament
The American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament (sometimes known simply as The American Championship) is the conference tournament in men's basketball for the American Athletic Conference. It is a single-elimination tournament that involves all league schools (14 as of the 2023–24 season[1]). Its seeding is based on regular season records. The winner receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA men's basketball tournament; however, the official conference championship is awarded to the team or teams with the best regular season record.
| AAC men's basketball tournament | |
|---|---|
| Conference basketball championship | |
 | |
| Sport | College basketball |
| Conference | American Athletic |
| Number of teams | 14 |
| Format | Single-elimination |
| Current stadium | Dickies Arena |
| Current location | Fort Worth, TX |
| Played | 2014–present |
| Last contest | 2024 AAC tournament |
| Current champion | UAB |
| Most championships | Cincinnati, Houston, SMU (2) |
| TV partner(s) | CBS ESPN / ESPN2 / ESPNU / ESPNews |
| Official website | theamerican.org/mbball |
The creation of the conference tournament was a product of the split of the original Big East Conference. While The American is the legal successor to the old Big East, it gave up the rights to the long-standing conference tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York City to the new Big East. As a result, the 2014 tournament was numbered as the first tournament for the conference.
Champions
edit| Year | Champion | Score | Runner-up | MVP | Venue | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Louisville† | 71–61 | Connecticut | Russ Smith, Louisville | FedEx Forum (Memphis, TN) | |
| 2015 | SMU | 62–54 | Connecticut | Markus Kennedy, SMU | XL Center (Hartford, CT) | |
| 2016 | Connecticut | 72–58 | Memphis | Daniel Hamilton, Connecticut | Amway Center (Orlando, FL) | |
| 2017 | SMU | 71–56 | Cincinnati | Semi Ojeleye, SMU | XL Center (Hartford, CT) | |
| 2018 | Cincinnati | 56–55 | Houston | Gary Clark, Cincinnati | Amway Center (Orlando, FL) | |
| 2019 | Cincinnati | 69–57 | Houston | Jarron Cumberland, Cincinnati | FedEx Forum (Memphis, TN)[2] | |
| 2020 | Canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic | |||||
| 2021 | Houston | 91–54 | Cincinnati | Quentin Grimes, Houston | Dickies Arena (Fort Worth, TX)[3] | |
| 2022 | Houston | 71–53 | Memphis | Fabian White Jr., Houston | ||
| 2023 | Memphis | 75–65 | Houston | Kendric Davis, Memphis | ||
| 2024 | UAB | 85–69 | Temple | Yaxel Lendeborg, UAB | ||
† Louisville was forced to vacate their 2014 win due to 2015 sex scandal
Tournament championships by school
edit| School | Titles | Winning years |
|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati | 2 | 2018, 2019 |
| Houston | 2 | 2021, 2022 |
| SMU | 2 | 2015, 2017 |
| UConn | 1 | 2016 |
| Louisville | 1 | 2014* |
| Memphis | 1 | 2023 |
| UAB | 1 | 2024 |
| Charlotte | 0 | |
| East Carolina | 0 | |
| Florida Atlantic | 0 | |
| North Texas | 0 | |
| Rice[a] | 0 | |
| South Florida | 0 | |
| Temple | 0 | |
| Tulane | 0 | |
| Tulsa | 0 | |
| UCF | 0 | |
| UTSA[a] | 0 | |
| Wichita State | 0 |
Italics indicate school no longer sponsors men's basketball in The American.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "2024 American Men's Basketball Championship -".
- ^ "College Sports: Memphis set to host AAC basketball tournament in 2019 | SportsDay". Sportsday.dallasnews.com. 10 July 2017. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
- ^ McGrath, Shawn (16 August 2017). "AAC Men's Basketball Tournament Headed to Fort Worth for 2020-2022". The UConn Blog. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
