2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament

The 2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament was the first conference tournament of the American Athletic Conference (The American). It was the first conference tournament held since the split of the original Big East Conference. While The American is the legal successor to the old Big East, the rights to conference tournament in Madison Square Garden were retained by the new Big East, so the 2014 tournament was numbered as the new conference's first edition. The tournament was held March 12–15 in the FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee and decided a champion of the 2013–14 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season (like most NCAA conferences, The American recognizes both regular-season and tournament champions; Cincinnati and Louisville shared the regular-season title). The teams in the conference competed in a ten-team single-elimination tournament for an automatic bid to the 2014 NCAA Tournament.

2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
Tournament Logo
Classification	Division I
Season	2013–14
Teams	10
Site	FedExForum[1] Memphis
Champions	None
Attendance	63,636
Television	ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU
American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournaments

2013–14 American Athletic Conference men's basketball standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 15 Cincinnati	15	–	3		.833			27	–	7		.794
No. 18 UConn	12	–	6		.667			32	–	8		.800
SMU	12	–	6		.667			27	–	10		.730
Memphis	12	–	6		.667			24	–	10		.706
Houston	8	–	10		.444			17	–	16		.515
Rutgers	5	–	13		.278			12	–	21		.364
UCF	4	–	14		.222			13	–	18		.419
Temple	4	–	14		.222			9	–	22		.290
South Florida	3	–	15		.167			12	–	20		.375
No. 5 Louisville* †	0	–	3		.000			0	–	5		.000
† The American Tournament winner As of March 15th, 2014 *Louisville: 29 reg. season games, 3 postseason games vacated due to sanctions against the program; Disputed Record-(31-6)(15-3); Rankings from AP Poll

In the 2013–14 season, The American consisted of 10 members involved in the rearrangement of conferences between the 2013 and 2014 seasons. (Cincinnati, Connecticut, and South Florida) had been full members of the original Big East. One (Temple) had been a football-only Big East member before entering into full membership in The American. The remaining four schools (Houston, Memphis, SMU, and UCF) had previously been members of Conference USA.[1]

Seeds

All teams in the American qualified for the tournament. Teams were seeded based on conference record and then a tie breaker system was used.[2] Teams seeded 7–10 had to play in the opening round and teams seeded 1–6 received a bye to the second round. Louisville and Cincinnati finished with identical 15-3 records and shared the regular season title. Since the Cardinals and Bearcats had split their meetings during the regular season, a coin toss was held to determine the #1 seed in the tournament, which was won by Cincinnati.[3]

Seed	School	Conference	Overall	Tiebreaker
1^†^‡	Cincinnati	15–3	26–5	Won coin toss
2^†^‡	Louisville	15–3	26–5
3^†	SMU	12-6	23–8	2–0 vs Connecticut
4^†	Connecticut	12–6	24–7	2–0 vs Memphis
5^†	Memphis	12–6	23–8	0–2 vs Connecticut
6^†	Houston	8–10	16–15
7	Rutgers	5–13	11–20
8	Temple	4–14	9–21	1–1 vs. SMU
9	UCF	4–14	12–17	0–2 vs. SMU
10	South Florida	3–15	12–19
‡ – American Athletic Conference regular season champions. † – Received a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Overall record are as of the end of the regular season.

Schedule

All tournament games are nationally televised on an ESPN network:

Session	Game	Time*[4]	Matchup^#	Television	Attendance
First round – Wednesday, March 12
1	1	7:00 pm	#7 Rutgers 72 vs. #10 South Florida 68	ESPNU	12,102
	2	9:30 pm	#8 Temple 90 vs. #9 UCF 94	ESPN2
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 13
2	3	1:00 pm	#3 SMU 64 vs. #6 Houston 68	ESPNU	13,011
	4	3:00 pm	#2 Louisville 92 vs. #7 Rutgers 31
3	5	7:00 pm	#1 Cincinnati 61 vs. #9 UCF 58		13,081
	6	9:00 pm	#4 Connecticut 72 vs. #5 Memphis 53
Semifinals – Friday, March 14
4	7	7:00 pm	#2 Louisville 94 vs. #6 Houston 65	ESPN2	11,888
	8	9:00 pm	#1 Cincinnati 56 vs. #4 Connecticut 58	ESPN2
Championship – Saturday, March 15
5	9	6:00 pm	#4 Connecticut 61 vs. #2 Louisville 71	ESPN	13,554
*Game times in ET. #-Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Bracket

	First round Wednesday, March 12					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 13					Semifinals Friday, March 14					Championship Saturday, March 15
						1	#13 Cincinnati	61
						9	UCF	58
	8	Temple	90
	9	UCF	94^2OT
											1	#13 Cincinnati	56
										4	#21 Connecticut	58
						4	#21 Connecticut	72
						5	#19 Memphis	53
																4	#21 Connecticut	61
																2	#5 Louisville	71
						2	#5 Louisville	92
						7	Rutgers	31
	7	Rutgers	72
	10	South Florida	68
											2	#5 Louisville	94
										6	Houston	65
						3	#25 SMU	64
						6	Houston	68

References

1. "Memphis' FedExForum Will Host 2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Championship".
2. "Seeding & Tie-Breaking Procedures" (PDF). The American. Retrieved March 11, 2014.
3. "Cincinnati Wins Coin Flip, Will Be #1 Seed in AAC Tournament". Retrieved March 8, 2014.
4. "2014 American Athletic Conference Championship Schedule". TheAmerican.org. Retrieved March 8, 2014.