American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament

AAC men's basketball tournament
Conference basketball championship
SportCollege basketball
ConferenceAmerican Athletic
Number of teams14
FormatSingle-elimination
Current stadiumDickies Arena
Current locationFort Worth, TX
Played2014–present
Last contest2024 AAC tournament
Current championUAB
Most championshipsCincinnati, Houston, SMU (2)
TV partner(s)CBS
ESPN / ESPN2 / ESPNU / ESPNews
Official websitetheamerican.org/mbball

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.

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

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

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.

  1. ^ a b First conference season in 2023–24.

See also

References

  1. ^ "2024 American Men's Basketball Championship -".
  2. ^ "College Sports: Memphis set to host AAC basketball tournament in 2019 | SportsDay". Sportsday.dallasnews.com. 10 July 2017. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  3. ^ McGrath, Shawn (16 August 2017). "AAC Men's Basketball Tournament Headed to Fort Worth for 2020-2022". The UConn Blog. Retrieved 2017-08-16.