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.
