2017–18 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season

The 2017–18 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2017 followed by the start of the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. The conference held its media day in October 2017. Conference play begin in December 2017 and concluded on March 3, 2018.

2017–18 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Duration	November 2017 through March 2018
Number of teams	12
TV partner(s)	ESPN, CBS
Regular season
Season champions	Cincinnati
Season MVP	Gary Clark, Cincinnati
Tournament
Champions	Cincinnati
Runners-up	Houston
Finals MVP	Gary Clark, Cincinnati
American Athletic Conference men's basketball seasons
← 2016–17 2018–19 →

2017–18 American Athletic Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 6 Cincinnati †	16	–	2		.889			31	–	5		.861
No. 21 Houston	14	–	4		.778			27	–	8		.771
No. 16 Wichita State	14	–	4		.778			25	–	8		.758
Tulsa	12	–	6		.667			19	–	12		.613
Memphis	10	–	8		.556			21	–	13		.618
UCF	9	–	9		.500			19	–	13		.594
Temple	8	–	10		.444			17	–	16		.515
UConn	7	–	11		.389			14	–	18		.438
SMU	6	–	12		.333			17	–	16		.515
Tulane	5	–	13		.278			14	–	17		.452
East Carolina	4	–	14		.222			10	–	20		.333
South Florida	3	–	15		.167			10	–	22		.313
† 2018 AAC tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

Cincinnati won the regular season championship by two games over Houston and Wichita State. The American Athletic tournament was held at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida from March 8–11, 2018.^[1][2][3] Cincinnati also won the AAC tournament championship, defeating Houston in the championship game.

Cincinnati's Gary Clark was named the AAC player of the year while Houston's Kelvin Sampson was named coach of the year.

Cincinnati, Houston, and Wichita State all received bids to the NCAA tournament, but none made it past the Second Round as the conference went 2–3 in the Tournament.

Temple received a bid to the National Invitation Tournament, but lost in the first round.

The season marked the first season with Wichita State as a member of the AAC, having joined on July 1, 2017.^[4][5] As a result, the conference included 12 teams for the first time.^[6]

Head coaches

Coaching changes

South Florida head coach Orlando Antigua was fired after the first 13 games of the 2016–17 season amid academic fraud allegations.^[7][8] Interim head coach Murry Bartow coach was not retained by the school following the season. On March 14, 2017, the school hired Brian Gregory as the next head coach.^[9]

Coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	AAC record	AAC titles	NCAA tournaments	NCAA Final Fours	NCAA Championships
Cincinnati	Mick Cronin	Murray State	12	268–140	72–18	2	8	0	0
Connecticut	Kevin Ollie	Connecticut (asst.)	6	127–79	49–41	2	2	1	1
East Carolina	Jeff Lebo	Auburn	8	124–138	20–52	0	0	0	0
Houston	Kelvin Sampson	Houston Rockets (asst.)	4	81–48	42–32	0	1	0	0
Memphis	Tubby Smith	Texas Tech	2	38–26	19–17	0	0	0	0
SMU	Tim Jankovich	SMU (asst.)	3	58–21	23–13	1	1	0	0
South Florida	Brian Gregory	Michigan State (advisor)	1	10–22	3–15	0	0	0	0
Temple	Fran Dunphy	Penn	12	247–152	46–44	1	7	0	0
Tulane	Mike Dunleavy	Los Angeles Clippers	2	20–42	8–28	0	0	0	0
Tulsa	Frank Haith	Missouri	4	77–52	46–26	0	1	0	0
UCF	Johnny Dawkins	Stanford	2	43–25	20–16	0	0	0	0
Wichita State	Gregg Marshall	Winthrop	11	286–98	14–4	0	7	1	0

Notes:

• Overall and AAC records are from time at current school and are through the end of 2017–18 season. NCAA records include time at current school only.
• AAC records are only from 2013–14 season to present, prior conference records not included.

Preseason

Preseason Coaches Poll

AAC Media Day took place October 15, 2017, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cincinnati was picked to win the conference's regular season (seven votes) with Wichita State a close second (five votes).^[10]

Rank	Team
1.	Cincinnati (7)
2.	Wichita State (5)
3.	UCF
4.	SMU
5.	Connecticut
6.	Houston
7.	Temple
8.	Tulsa
9.	Memphis
10.	Tulane
11.	East Carolina
12.	USF

first place votes in parentheses

Preseason All-AAC teams

Honor	Recipient
Preseason Player of the Year	Shake Milton, SMU
Preseason All-AAC First Team
	Shake Milton, SMU
	Jalen Adams, Connecticut
	Rob Gray, Houston
	Landry Shamet, Wichita State
	B. J. Taylor, UCF
Preseason All-AAC Second Team
	Gary Clark, Cincinnati
	Junior Etou, Tulsa
	Jacob Evans, Cincinnati
	Tacko Fall, UCF
	Kyle Washington, Cincinnati
Preseason Rookie of the Year	Alterique Gilbert, Connecticut

Regular season

Rankings

Legend

		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		Not ranked previous week

Main article: 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

		Pre	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Wk 17	Wk 18	Wk 19	Final
Cincinnati	AP	12	12	12	11	17	25	20	21	19	14	12	9	8	6	5	11	10	8	6
	C	13	13	13	9	17	RV	22	22	20	13	11	8	8	6	5	11	10	8	10	12
Connecticut	AP
	C
East Carolina	AP
	C
Houston	AP						RV						RV	RV	RV	RV	23	25	21	21
	C						RV							RV	RV	RV	23	RV	21	19	22
Memphis	AP
	C
SMU	AP	RV	RV			RV	RV	RV	RV
	C	RV		RV	RV	RV
South Florida	AP
	C
Temple	AP			RV
	C			RV
Tulane	AP
	C
Tulsa	AP
	C
UCF	AP	RV
	C
Wichita State	AP	7	6	6	8	6	3	11	8	9	5	7	17	16	22	19	13	11	11	16
	C	8	8	6	8	3	11	10	10	9	5	4	16	16	16	18	12	11	14	16	25

Conference matrix

	Cincinnati	Connecticut	East Carolina	Houston	Memphis	SMU	South Florida	Temple	Tulane	Tulsa	UCF	Wichita State
vs. Cincinnati	—	0–2	0–1	1–1	0–2	0–2	0–1	0–2	0–0	0–1	0–2	1–0
vs. Connecticut	2–0	—	0–2	0–0	2–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	0–1	2–0	1–1	2–0
vs. East Carolina	1–0	2–0	—	2–0	0–1	2–0	0–2	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	1–0
vs. Houston	0–1	0–0	0–2	—	1–0	0–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	0–1	0–1	1–1
vs. Memphis	2–0	0–2	1–0	0–1	—	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–2	1–1	2–0	1–0
vs. SMU	2–0	1–0	0–2	1–0	1–0	—	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–1	1–1
vs. South Florida	1–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	—	1–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	1–0
vs. Temple	2–0	0–1	0–1	2–0	1–0	0–1	0–1	—	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–1
vs. Tulane	0–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–1	—	2–0	0–0	1–0
vs. Tulsa	1–0	0–2	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–	0–2	1–0	0–2	—	0–1	2–0
vs. UCF	2–0	1–1	0–1	1–0	0–2	1–1	0–2	1–1	0–0	1–0	—	1–0
vs. Wichita State	1–1	0–2	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	0–2	0–1	—
Total	14–2	6–10	4–12	12–4	9–7	6–10	1–15	8–8	5–11	10–6	8–8	13–3

Player of the week

Throughout the regular season, the American Athletic Conference named a player and rookie of the week.

Week	Player(s) of the week	Rookie of the week
November 13, 2017^[11]	Shake Milton, SMU	Ethan Chargois, SMU
November 20, 2017^[12]	Melvin Frazier, Tulane	Ceasar DeJesus, UCF
November 27, 2017^[13]	Gary Clark, Cincinnati	Fabian White Jr., Houston
December 4, 2017^[14]	Shake Milton (2), SMU	Shawn Williams, ECU
December 11, 2017^[15]	Landry Shamet, Wichita State	Jamal Johnson, Memphis
December 18, 2017^[16]	Jacob Evans, Cincinnati	Ethan Chargois (2), SMU
December 26, 2017^[17]	Tacko Fall, UCF	David Nickelberry, Memphis
January 2, 2018^[18]	Junior Etou, Tulsa	Ceasar DeJesus (2), UCF
January 8, 2018^[19]	Jacob Evans (2), Cincinnati	Ceasar DeJesus (3), UCF
January 15, 2018^[20]	Jeremiah Martin, Memphis	Nate Pierre-Louis, Temple
January 22, 2018^[21]	Shake Milton (3), SMU Gary Clark (2), Cincinnati	Shawn Williams (2), ECU
January 29, 2018^[22]	Gary Clark (3), Cincinnati	Fabian White Jr. (2), Houston
February 5, 2018^[23]	Junior Etou (2), Tulsa	Shawn Williams (3), ECU
February 12, 2018^[24]	Armoni Brooks, Houston	J. P. Moorman II, Temple
February 19, 2018^[25]	Shaquille Morris, Wichita State	Shawn Williams (4), ECU
February 26, 2018^[26]	Raynere Thornton, Memphis	Caleb Daniels, Tulane
March 5, 2018^[27]	Rob Gray, Houston	David Collins, USF

Honors and awards

All-AAC Awards and teams

Honor	Recipient
Player of the Year	Gary Clark, Cincinnati
Coach of the Year	Kelvin Sampson, Houston
Scholar-Athlete of the Year	Obi Enechionyia, Temple
Rookie of the Year	Shawn Williams, East Carolina
Defensive Player of the Year	Gary Clark, Cincinnati
Most Improved Player	Melvin Frazier, Tulane
Sixth Man of the Year	Armoni Brooks, Houston
Sportsmanship Award	Gary Clark, Cincinnati
All-AAC First Team
	Gary Clark, Cincinnati*
	Jacob Evans, Cincinnati
	Rob Gray, Houston
	Landry Shamet, Wichita State
	Shaquille Morris, Wichita State
All-AAC Second Team
	Jalen Adams, Connecticut
	Junior Etou, Tulsa
	Melvin Frazier, Tulane
	Jeremiah Martin, Memphis
	Shake Milton, SMU
All-AAC Honorable Mention
	A. J. Davis, UCF
	Quinton Rose, Temple
	Kyle Washington, Cincinnati
All-Rookie Team
	Ethan Chargois, F, SMU
	David Collins, G, USF
	Nate Pierre-Louis, G, Temple
	Fabian White Jr., F, Houston
	Shawn Williams, G, ECU*

* Unanimous Selection

Postseason

American Athletic Conference tournament

Main article: 2018 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament

^[28]

	First round Thursday, March 8					Quarterfinals Friday, March 9					Semifinals Saturday, March 10					Championship Sunday, March 11
						1	Cincinnati	61
						9	SMU	51
	8	UConn	73
	9	SMU	80
											1	Cincinnati	70
											5	Memphis	60
						4	Tulsa	64
						5	Memphis	67
	5	Memphis	79
	12	South Florida	77
																1	Cincinnati	56
																3	Houston	55
						2	Wichita State	89
						7	Temple	81
	7	Temple	82
	10	Tulane	77
											2	Wichita State	74
											3	Houston	77
						3	Houston	84
						6	UCF	56
	6	UCF	66
	11	East Carolina	52

NCAA tournament

Main article: 2018 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

The winner of the AAC tournament, Cincinnati, received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Seed	Region	School	First Four	First round	Second round	Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
2	South	Cincinnati	N/A	defeated (15) Georgia State 68–53	eliminated by (7) Nevada 73–75
4	East	Wichita State	N/A	eliminated by (13) Marshall 75–81
6	West	Houston	N/A	defeated (11) San Diego State 67–65	eliminated by (3) Michigan 63–64
		W–L (%):	0–0 (–)	2–1 (.667)	0–2 (.000)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–) Total: 2–3 (.400)

NIT

Main article: 2018 National Invitation Tournament

Temple received an at-large bid to the NIT.

Seed	Bracket	School	First round	Second round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
5	Notre Dame	Temple	eliminated by (4) Penn State 57–63
		W–L (%):	0–1 (.000)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–) Total: 0–1 (.000)

NBA draft

The following list includes all AAC players who were drafted in the 2018 NBA draft.

Player	Position	School	Round	Pick	Team
Landry Shamet	PG	Wichita State	1	26	Philadelphia 76ers
Jacob Evans	SG	Cincinnati	1	28	Golden State Warriors
Melvin Frazier	SF	Tulane	2	35	Orlando Magic
Shake Milton	PG	SMU	2	54	Dallas Mavericks

References

1. "American Men's Basketball Semifinals, Championship to be Broadcast on CBS in 2018". theamerican.org. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
2. "Hartford's XL Center Set to Host 2017 American Men's Basketball Championship". theamerican.org. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
3. Funschelle, Aliyah. "The Sunflower : CBS Sports to broadcast 2018 AAC men's basketball semifinals and championship". thesunflower.com. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
4. "AAC votes to add Wichita St. for '17-18 season". ESPN.com. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
5. "Wichita State joining American Athletic Conference from Missouri Valley". USA TODAY. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
6. "What Wichita State's conference move means for the AAC, Missouri Valley". USA TODAY. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
7. "Struggling South Florida fires coach Antigua". ESPN.com. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
8. "South Florida fires Orlando Antigua amid academic fraud investigation". UPI. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
9. "South Florida hires Brian Gregory as head coach". USA TODAY. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
10. "Cincinnati Selected as 2017–18 American Men's Basketball Preseason Favorite" (Press release). American Athletic. October 16, 2017. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
11. "SMU's Milton, Chargois Collect Initial Weekly Honors". Retrieved January 30, 2018.
12. "Frazier, DeJesus Earn Men's Basketball Weekly Honors". Retrieved January 30, 2018.
13. "Clark, White Jr. Earn Weekly Honors". Retrieved January 30, 2018.
14. "Milton, Williams Collect Weekly Honors". Retrieved January 30, 2018.
15. "Shamet, Johnson Take Home Weekly Honors". Retrieved January 30, 2018.
16. "Cincinnati's Evans, SMU's Chargois Earn Weekly Honors". Retrieved January 30, 2018.
17. "UCF's Fall, Memphis' Nickelberry Earn Weekly Awards". Retrieved January 30, 2018.
18. "Tulsa's Etou, UCF's DeJesus Collect Weekly Honors". Retrieved January 30, 2018.
19. "Cincinnati's Evans, UCF's DeJesus Collect Weekly Honors". Retrieved January 30, 2018.
20. "Memphis' Martin, Temple's Pierre-Louis Earn Weekly Accolades". Retrieved January 30, 2018.
21. "SMU's Milton Cincinnati's Clark, ECU's Williams Earn Weekly Accolades". Retrieved January 30, 2018.
22. "Cincinnati's Clark, Houston's White Jr. Earn Weekly Honors". Retrieved January 30, 2018.
23. "Etou, Williams Snare Weekly Honors". Retrieved February 23, 2018.
24. "Houston's Brooks, Temple's Moorman II Earn Weekly Accolades". Retrieved February 23, 2018.
25. "Wichita State's Morris, ECU's Williams Collect Weekly Honors". Retrieved February 23, 2018.
26. "American Athletic Conference - Memphis' Thornton, Tulane's Daniels Collect Weekly Awards". theamerican.org. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
27. "Houston's Gray, USF's Collins Collect Final Men's Basketball Weekly Honors". theamerican.org. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
28. "2018 Aaron's American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Championship" (PDF). American Athletic Conference. (PDF) from the original on November 19, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2022.