The American Athletic Conference. This is only the second conference that the CTC has ever “added,” and the first one – the Great West – is now defunct. It is pretty amazing that a new conference could be created and it could be an elite league. And, that is exactly what the American is this year. Yes, this league has all year been a league of “haves” and “have-nots”, but there isn’t a league in the country whose 5th best team is better than Memphis. And, all those “have-nots” don’t exactly make up the dregs of most conferences in the country. TCU is worlds worse than anyone in the AAC. So is Virginia Tech. I would take UCF, USF, and Temple over USC, Washington State, and Oregon State. And, is Houston really any worse than the 3rd-place SEC team from Athens, GA? I’m not even sure why I feel like I have to defend this league – people know it’s good. And, this inaugural tournament in the BK should be a fun one.
Shockingly, only one person in the CTC took top-seeded Cincinnati to win this tournament. One person also took #4 UConn and one more took #5 Memphis. No one took #3 SMU. The other 22 people all have Louisville, the 2nd-seed, winning this tournament. Temple is a sleeper semifinalist for one. And, since this is the first year of the American, the first ever American CTC crown will be awarded this week.
CHAMPIONSHIP (March 15th – 60 points)
#2 Louisville vs #4 Connecticut
Two teams playing very well will meet up in the first ever American Athletic Conference tournament championship. Louisville has been historically good, beating Rutgers by 61 and then Houston by 29. UConn doesn’t have the impressive margins of victory, but they have much more impressive pelts on the wall, beating Memphis (on their home floor) and then #1 Cincinnati. Louisville swept the Huskies in the regular season, including an 81-49 drubbing a week ago today.
Lynch is the only person with UConn here, so he can pick up a free and clear 120 points with a Huskies win. PapaCim and WaTers have already lost this game, but the other 22 all have L’ville. Obviously, Lynch will grab the CTC crown here if UConn wins, while GrossJr and Stri will share the first ever American title if Louisville comes through.
SEMIFINALS (March 14th – 40 points each)
#2 Louisville vs #6 Houston
Have you ever seen anything like the destruction that was the Louisville-Rutgers quarterfinal on Thursday? 92-31 is not a misprint. Can I say that it wasn’t that close? Wow. Anyway, the Cards move on to face a Houston team that mustered enough juice to upset Larry Brown’s Mustangs. They may have wished they didn’t after Pitino gets a hold of them.
Lynch and WaTers have already lost this game with SMU. The other 23 people all have L’ville, including 22 of them that have the Cardinals taking this title.
Louisville 94 – Houston 65
#1 Cincinnati vs #4 Connecticut
A very impressive win for UConn over Memphis on Thursday night was preceded by a very unimpressive win for Cincinnati over UCF. But, today is a new day and nothing matters but this one.
Surprisingly, only 10 people (Alexi, Becks, Bry, Caleb, Colton, Doogan, Gersh, Scoot, Stritts, WaTers) have #1 Cincinnati winning this game, with WaTers taking them to win it all. Lohse, PapaCim, Primm, and Stumpf have already lost with Memphis. The other 11 all actually have the underdog UConn here with Lynch taking the Huskies to win the tournament.
Connecticut 58 – Cincinnati 56
QUARTERFINALS (March 13th – 20 points each)
#3 SMU vs #6 Houston
How amazing is Larry Brown? I have said for years that if we to win one basketball game to save the world, Larry Brown should be on the sidelines coaching that team. He’s a genius. And, what he has done with this SMU program – in JUST HIS SECOND YEAR – might be his best act to date. Oh, and by the way, they have the best recruit in the country committed for next season. This year he is led by spectacular play from two sophomore transfers, Marcus Kennedy (from Villanova) and Nic Moore (from Illinois State). This Mustang team is for real and could be a tough out in the next tournament, as well. As for Houston, they were playing better, having won 4 in a row, including a win over Memphis, until they let UCF drop 104 on them in their final regular season game. The Cougars can score, but they also play zero defense. They are the best of the “have-nots” in this conference, but the have-nots don’t beat the haves this year.
7 people (Caleb, GrossJr, GrossSr, Lohse, PapaCim, RDoc, Stri) went with a decent upset pick of Houston here. Lynch and WaTers have the most to lose with SMU, as they have them going to the finals.
Houston 68 – SMU 64
#2 Louisville vs #7 Rutgers
While the Louisville Cardinals don’t have the resume for a 1-seed in the Big Dance, but can you really tell me that there are 4 teams playing better than the defending champs right now? I am not advocating for them to be a 1-seed just that I would probably take them on a neutral court against Villanova, Virginia, Michigan, or whomever else might get that fourth 1-seed. The Scarlet Knights opened the American tournament on Wednesday with an ugly win over USF.
All 25 entries have L’ville winning this game. Lynch and WaTers are the only 2 that don’t have L’ville in the finals, so they should be rooting for Rutgers here. PapaCim is the only other one that doesn’t have them winning this tournament.
Louisville 92 – Rutgers 31
#1 Cincinnati vs #9 Central Florida
Mick Cronin can flat-out coach. Another great season for Coach Cronin, as the Bearcats – who are rostered with grown men – are looking like a legitimate contender to make a deep tournament run. The first ever American tournament title would be a nice thing to pick up along the way. The manliest of these men is Sean Kilpatrick, who should probably be in the discussion for National Player of the Year Runner-Up (since that’s the award that Doug McDermott is going to let someone else have). I would actually vote Kilpatrick over both Russ Smith and Shabazz Napier as American POY. The Bearcats open their American run with a UCF team that put this Temple season out of its misery well after midnight last night with an incredibly ugly double-OT win.
24 people have Cincy here, with RDoc having already lost it with Temple. WaTers is the only one that has Cincy winning this tournament, so it’s important for him that they stay alive here in the quarters.
Cincinnati 61 – Central Florida 58
#4 Connecticut vs #5 Memphis
And, we save the best for last on a great day of American hoops. The host Memphis Tigers versus a very good UConn team. In fact, I might venture to say that the two best backcourts in America will be facing off against one another in this FANTASTIC game. UConn’s Ryan Boatright and Shabazz Napier are dynamic and explosive. And, maybe as a result of a poor frontcourt, they also hit the glass – especially Napier, who is leading the Huskies in rebounding. As for Memphis, they throw a host of truly dynamic guards at you in waves. Joe Jackson is the best of them, as he has gone from a seemingly over-hyped freshman into the C-USA POY as a junior and now a grizzled vet who is one of the best guards in the best guard conference in America. Imagine that – an 18-year old needed a couple years to hit his potential. They also have Chris Crawford and Geron Johnson as well as former Missouri point guard, Michael Dixon, who’s a much better basketball player than he is a human being, but that isn’t saying a whole lot. This game should be fantastic and might get the main attention in a night of wall-to-wall hoops.
As expected, this is a total toss-up game in the CTC. 13 people took Memphis, while 12 took UConn (Caleb, Chris, Dave, GrossJr, GrossSr, J, Lazarow, Lynch, Mac, RDoc, Stri, Teddy). Shockingly, everyone that took UConn here except Caleb has the Huskies winning again to go to the finals. Lynch actually has them winning the tournament. The Memphis supporters, though there are slightly more of them, are not nearly as ardent. Only 4 (Lohse, PapaCim, Primm, Stumpf) have the Tigers reaching the finals. PapaCim thinks Josh Pastner will be cutting down his own nets on Saturday.
Connecticut 72 – Memphis 53
OPENING ROUND (March 12th – 10 points each)
#8 Temple vs #9 Central Florida
It was a rough year up on North Broad, and I really hope that this isn’t the beginning of a down era. I don’t think it is because the team was very young and lost a lot of pretty close games. I really like Will Cummings and if Anthony Lee can stay on the floor (healthy and out of foul trouble), then he’s an excellent big. I also really like FR Mark Williams and Josh Brown. The team will certainly be better next year (and, Lord I hope so after 9-21 this year), but it might be a few years before a return to the Dance. As for UCF, their entry into the American wasn’t all that pretty. Their 4 conference wins consisted of beating the other 4 “have-nots” at home. While Isaiah Sykes is a really unique talent, the rest of the team is rather bad. The winner of this game faces top-seeded Cincinnati in the quarters.
9 people (Alexi, Caleb, Chris, Dave, Doogan, Grossjr, Lynch, Stri, Stumpf) took the minor upset of UCF here. RDoc is the only one that has either of these teams beating Cincy, as he went with Temple to get to the semis.
Central Florida 94 – Temple 90 (2 OT)
And, there goes the TU season, as they finish with 9 whole wins. I’ll save my analysis for a later post, as this game was all about Isaiah Sykes, who went for 36 & 9. Wow. And, wow, was this a terribly-played game. Let’s just move on. UCF gets Cincy in the quarters.
9 people got this one right. RDoc lost a semifinalist with the Owls.
#7 Rutgers vs #10 South Florida
The good news for Rutgers is that no one had any cameras rolling at practice this year. The bad news is that cameras were rolling during their games. The Scarlet Knights were pretty bad, despite some intriguingly talented athletes, yet very few basketball players. USF, who enters the tournament on an 8-game losing streak was really just decimated by injuries this year, particularly their star point guard, Anthony Collins. They do still have a healthy Victor Rudd, who plays a really unique style of basketball and can score in bunches. The winner here will try to stay within 30 of #2 Louisville on Thursday.
10 people (Bry, Chris, Dave, Doogan, Gersh, GrossSr, J, Lynch, Stritts, Teddy) went with USF here. The other 15 went with Rutgers. No one has either team beating Louisville.
Rutgers 72 – South Florida 68
And, the first ever American Athletic Conference tournament game goes to…Rutgers – who will officially be a member of the Big Ten as soon as they lose here in Brooklyn. It almost happened on this night, but Kadeem Jack was too much for an undermanned USF team that can blame injuries for a bad year, when, in reality, they probably weren’t going to do much anyway.
15 people got this one right.
CTC UPDATE
Championship Picks
- #1 Cincinnati (1) – WaTers
- #2 Louisville (22)
- #3 SMU (0)
- #4 Connecticut (1) – Lynch
- #5 Memphis (1) – PapaCim
Biggest Upsets
- R1 – #10 South Florida (many)
- QF – #8 Temple (RDoc)
- SF – #5 Memphis (Lohse, PapaCim, Primm, Stumpf)
2014 Scores
