Story from the World...
Heading into the American Athletic Conference tournament, four of the 10 participating teams are sitting on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament.
CBS Sports classifies Tulsa, Cincinnati, Temple and UConn as teams on the fence while ESPN evaluates each as having work left to do to make the 68-team field as at-large bids.
Not having any of its highest finishers projected as locks for the NCAA Tournament is viewed by many of the conference’s coaches as a lack of respect for a top-heavy league.
“I think it’s a great league and it’s unfortunate we don’t get the kind of respect nationally I think it deserves,” Tulsa coach Frank Haith said during an American teleconference Monday. “You look at our conference tournament; there’s a number of teams that can win the championship. I don’t know that you can say that in a lot of leagues.
“We lose games in our league and all of a sudden we aren’t a good league, and that’s disappointing that we’re still perceived that way. Right now, we’ve got a number of teams that are on the cusp of getting in the NCAA Tournament. ... I think we’re deserving of at least four teams getting into the tournament.”
In the latest bracketology, Jerry Palm of CBS Sports projects Cincinnati, UConn and Tulsa as play-in teams among the last four in and Temple as a No. 10 seed. Joe Lunardi of ESPN has UConn and Cincinnati among his last teams in and Tulsa as one of the first four out, plus Temple as a No. 11 seed.
The situation creates drama for the conference tournament, which begins Thursday and runs through Sunday in Orlando. The top six seeds have a first-round bye, and among the quarterfinal matchups is a meeting between two bubble teams, No. 4 seed Cincinnati and No. 5 seed UConn.
“I’m sure anybody in this league would say we need to do our best, we need to win games to try to get into the NCAA Tournament,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. “If we’re fortunate enough in our situation to win three games, that would be unbelievable and we would be very excited about representing our leagues as champions, but we know how hard that is. There are a lot of us in the same boat and we need to win.”
The winner of the American tournament secures the automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament. In addition to the four on the bubble, second-seeded Houston might be able to play its way in with a strong showing.
SMU would be a virtual lock for an at-large bid if not for being banned from the postseason, including the league tournament, for NCAA violations.
Having teams snubbed by the selection committee is nothing new for the American. Two years ago, it was 23-9 SMU. Last year, it was 23-10 Temple and 22-10 Tulsa.
This season, the conference improved its RPI and had more competitive games, but parity resulted in the top teams handing each other losses. Also working against the league is the lack of quality nonconference victories. The only win against a nonconference ranked opponent was Tulsa’s victory against Wichita State.
“You can see with our (projected) tournament seeds; you can see how the outside views our conference,” UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. “It’s not definitely valued as much as we think (it should be). ... Out of conference, we have to do a better job of winning those games and getting our conference on the map.”
In the regular season, the top six teams in the American reached the 20-win mark including at least 11 victories in league play. The remaining five teams finished below .500 in the conference, and four of those were below .500 on the season.
“One of issues has been the lower tier of our conference needed to improve in terms of RPI,” American commissioner Mike Aresco said. “If you look at other conferences this year, you see some lower teams that are no different than ours, with teams that have hardly won games in their conference or teams that have struggled.
“I think in that sense we have improved the lower tier and we’re going to continue to improve it. I think that will make a difference down the road and it will make a difference with the committee as well.”
Despite the separation in records between the top and bottom halves, the latter beat teams in the former a total of five times this season.
“One through 11, our league from top to bottom is as equal as any league in the country,” Memphis coach Josh Pastner said. “Everybody can beat anybody on any given night.
“It’s a battle and there are a lot of good coaches in this league, really good players, and every night you’re fighting to get a win. None of them are easy and if you don’t play well, you have a great chance of losing.”
Heading into the American Athletic Conference tournament, four of the 10 participating teams are sitting on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament.
CBS Sports classifies Tulsa, Cincinnati, Temple and UConn as teams on the fence while ESPN evaluates each as having work left to do to make the 68-team field as at-large bids.
Not having any of its highest finishers projected as locks for the NCAA Tournament is viewed by many of the conference’s coaches as a lack of respect for a top-heavy league.
“I think it’s a great league and it’s unfortunate we don’t get the kind of respect nationally I think it deserves,” Tulsa coach Frank Haith said during an American teleconference Monday. “You look at our conference tournament; there’s a number of teams that can win the championship. I don’t know that you can say that in a lot of leagues.
“We lose games in our league and all of a sudden we aren’t a good league, and that’s disappointing that we’re still perceived that way. Right now, we’ve got a number of teams that are on the cusp of getting in the NCAA Tournament. ... I think we’re deserving of at least four teams getting into the tournament.”
In the latest bracketology, Jerry Palm of CBS Sports projects Cincinnati, UConn and Tulsa as play-in teams among the last four in and Temple as a No. 10 seed. Joe Lunardi of ESPN has UConn and Cincinnati among his last teams in and Tulsa as one of the first four out, plus Temple as a No. 11 seed.
The situation creates drama for the conference tournament, which begins Thursday and runs through Sunday in Orlando. The top six seeds have a first-round bye, and among the quarterfinal matchups is a meeting between two bubble teams, No. 4 seed Cincinnati and No. 5 seed UConn.
“I’m sure anybody in this league would say we need to do our best, we need to win games to try to get into the NCAA Tournament,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. “If we’re fortunate enough in our situation to win three games, that would be unbelievable and we would be very excited about representing our leagues as champions, but we know how hard that is. There are a lot of us in the same boat and we need to win.”
The winner of the American tournament secures the automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament. In addition to the four on the bubble, second-seeded Houston might be able to play its way in with a strong showing.
SMU would be a virtual lock for an at-large bid if not for being banned from the postseason, including the league tournament, for NCAA violations.
Having teams snubbed by the selection committee is nothing new for the American. Two years ago, it was 23-9 SMU. Last year, it was 23-10 Temple and 22-10 Tulsa.
This season, the conference improved its RPI and had more competitive games, but parity resulted in the top teams handing each other losses. Also working against the league is the lack of quality nonconference victories. The only win against a nonconference ranked opponent was Tulsa’s victory against Wichita State.
“You can see with our (projected) tournament seeds; you can see how the outside views our conference,” UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. “It’s not definitely valued as much as we think (it should be). ... Out of conference, we have to do a better job of winning those games and getting our conference on the map.”
In the regular season, the top six teams in the American reached the 20-win mark including at least 11 victories in league play. The remaining five teams finished below .500 in the conference, and four of those were below .500 on the season.
“One of issues has been the lower tier of our conference needed to improve in terms of RPI,” American commissioner Mike Aresco said. “If you look at other conferences this year, you see some lower teams that are no different than ours, with teams that have hardly won games in their conference or teams that have struggled.
“I think in that sense we have improved the lower tier and we’re going to continue to improve it. I think that will make a difference down the road and it will make a difference with the committee as well.”
Despite the separation in records between the top and bottom halves, the latter beat teams in the former a total of five times this season.
“One through 11, our league from top to bottom is as equal as any league in the country,” Memphis coach Josh Pastner said. “Everybody can beat anybody on any given night.
“It’s a battle and there are a lot of good coaches in this league, really good players, and every night you’re fighting to get a win. None of them are easy and if you don’t play well, you have a great chance of losing.”
