2018 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament

The 2018 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament ended the 2017–18 season of the American Athletic Conference. It was held March 8–11, 2018, at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida.^[1] Regular-season champion Cincinnati won the tournament and with it the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

2018 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament
Tournament Logo
Classification	Division I
Season	2017–18
Teams	12
Site	Amway Center Orlando, Florida
Champions	Cincinnati (1st title)
Winning coach	Mick Cronin (1st title)
MVP	Gary Clark (Cincinnati)
Attendance	50,259
Television	CBS, ESPNU, ESPN2
American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournaments ← 2017 2019 →

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

Seeds

All 12 conference teams participated in the conference tournament. The top four teams received a bye into the quarterfinals. Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records. Tiebreakers: win–loss record, head-to-head record, record against the highest ranked team outside of the tied teams, record against the second highest ranked team outside of the tied teams, etc.

Seed	School	Conference	Tiebreaker
1	Cincinnati	16–2
2	Wichita State	14–4	1–0 vs. Memphis
3	Houston	14–4	0–1 vs. Memphis
4	Tulsa	12–6
5	Memphis	10–8
6	UCF	9–9
7	Temple	8–10
8	UConn	7–11
9	SMU	6–12
10	Tulane	5–13	1–1 vs. Houston
11	East Carolina	5–13	0–2 vs. Houston
12	South Florida	3–15

Schedule

Game	Time	Matchup	Score	Television	Attendance
First round – Thursday, March 8
1	Noon	No. 8 UConn vs No. 9 SMU	73–80	ESPNU	7,856
2	2:30 pm	No. 5 Memphis vs No. 12 South Florida	79–77
3	7:00 pm	No. 7 Temple vs No. 10 Tulane	82–77		7,918
4	9:30 pm	No. 6 UCF vs No. 11 East Carolina	66–52
Quarterfinals – Friday, March 9
5	Noon	No. 1 Cincinnati vs No. 9 SMU	61–51	ESPN2	8,491
6	2:30 pm	No. 4 Tulsa vs No. 5 Memphis	64–67
7	7:00 pm	No. 2 Wichita State vs No. 7 Temple	89–81	ESPNU	8,680
8	9:30 pm	No. 3 Houston vs No. 6 UCF	84–56
Semifinals – Saturday, March 10
9	1:00 pm	No. 1 Cincinnati vs. No. 5 Memphis	70–60	CBS	8,644
10	3:30 pm	No. 2 Wichita State vs. No. 3 Houston	74-77
Championship – Sunday, March 11
11	3:00 pm	No. 1 Cincinnati vs. No. 3 Houston	56–55	CBS	8,670
Game times in ET. Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Bracket

^[2]

	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

References

1. "American Men's Basketball Semifinals, Championship to be Broadcast on CBS in 2018". American Athletic Conference. May 23, 2017. from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
2. "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.