The American has not been good prior to league play.
This was in the New Orleans paper.
As the Tulane men’s basketball team (6-7) endured a five-game losing streak from mid-November to early December, coach Ron Hunter remained positive he could turn it around in time for league play.
For one, he liked the potential of his young, inexperienced group.
The other factor is the overall weakness of the American Athletic Conference, which was decimated in the offseason by transfers.
“When we figure it out on a consistent basis, it will be different,” he said. “The league’s not very good.”
He lowered his voice to a whisper for that last part, but the reality is the AAC’s results outside of 21st-ranked Memphis have screamed trouble. The Tigers own all three of the league’s Quad 1 NET victories and will be comfortably inside the NCAA tournament field if they maintain anything close to their current form.
The other 12 teams likely will need to win the AAC tournament to get in regardless of how they fare in the conference. At No. 11, the AAC has plummeted out of the top 10 in the NET for the first time in the five-year history of the rating system.
Charlotte (7-6), which hosts Tulane on Tuesday (1 p.m., ESPN+) in the AAC opener for both, reflects the league-wide struggle. The 49ers have beaten one team in the top 150 of the NET—No. 141 Murray State in double overtime—and dropped a home game to Long Island, which is 2-11.
Preseason favorite UAB (7-6), the AAC tournament champion a year ago, has not beaten a team outside the Southwestern Athletic Conference since November, losing to the likes of Longwood, High Point and Vermont.
Rice (9-4) has a decent record but fell, irredeemably, to NAIA school UNT-Dallas, which is below .500 in its own conference.
Wichita State (10-3) won eight of its first nine games before getting dumbed by double digits at perennial Big East bottom feeder DePaul and at home to Kansas City of the Summit League.
Florida Atlantic (7-6), which lost coach Dusty May to Michigan after earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament in its first year of AAC competition, is a long way from its out-of-nowhere Final Four appearance in 2022-23. The Owls have one win against a top-100 team, beating Liberty in overtime, and three defeats to sub-100 teams.
South Florida (7-6), the only AAC school remaining from the 15-team Big East when it split into two leagues after 2012-13, is understandably down after winning the regular-season title last year. Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim died in October at age 42 before he could start his second season. The Bulls handed Bethune-Cookman one its three victories on the year.
Temple (8-5), which is enduring a point-shaving scandal from last March involving former guard Hysier Miller, has zero victories against top-100 teams.
East Carolina (8-5) is 1-4 in December with losses to Gardner-Webb and North Alabama and one win against a top-100 opponent--George Mason in double overtime.
Texas-San Antonio (6-6) has one win against a top-200 opponent, beating Merrimack 76-74, and losses to sub-200 Little Rock and Army.
Tulsa (6-7) can count a victory against No. 295 Detroit as its best NET win. The Titans went 1-31 last season.
At least North Texas (9-3) has avoided embarrassment. The Mean Green beat Oregon State (10-3), nearly beat Utah State (12-1) and ranks third nationally in points allowed per game (56.5).
Still, it received zero points in Monday’s Associated Press poll, and, like every AAC team not named Memphis, had no national profile while former members Houston (No. 14) and Cincinnati (No. 16) are ensconced in the top 25.
Tulane’s home defeats to two-win UNO and Southeastern Louisiana fit right in with the rest of the league, which has seven teams below 200 in the NET and one (Tulsa) below 300.
The top four finishers will earn double byes into the AAC tournament quarterfinals and will be three wins away from an NCAA tournament berth when the event starts. Hunter believes Tulane can be one of them.
“It’s not always going to be perfect,” he said. “We are not going to worry about the destination. We’re worrying about just getting better, and we’ll have a chance.”
