2019–20 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season

The 2019–20 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2019 followed by the start of the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. The conference held its media day in October 2019. Conference play began in December 2019 and concluded in March 2020.

2019–20 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Duration	November 2019 through March 2020
Number of teams	12
TV partner(s)	ESPN, CBSSN, CBS
Regular Season
Season champions	Cincinnati, Houston, Tulsa
Season MVP	Precious Achiuwa, Memphis
Tournament

2019–20 American Athletic Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Cincinnati	13	–	5		.722			20	–	10		.667
No. 22 Houston	13	–	5		.722			23	–	8		.742
Tulsa	13	–	5		.722			21	–	10		.677
Wichita State	11	–	7		.611			23	–	8		.742
UConn	10	–	8		.556			19	–	12		.613
Memphis	10	–	8		.556			21	–	10		.677
SMU	9	–	9		.500			19	–	11		.633
UCF	7	–	11		.389			16	–	14		.533
South Florida	7	–	11		.389			14	–	17		.452
Temple	6	–	12		.333			14	–	17		.452
East Carolina	5	–	13		.278			11	–	20		.355
Tulane	4	–	14		.222			12	–	18		.400
Note: The 2020 AAC tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rankings from AP poll

Head coaches

Coaching changes

• Cincinnati hired former Northern Kentucky coach John Brannen after coach Mick Cronin departed for the same role at UCLA.^[1]
• Tulane fired Mike Dunleavy after 3 seasons and replaced him with former Georgia State head coach Ron Hunter.^[2]
• Temple head coach Fran Dunphy retired at the end of the 2018–19 season and was succeeded by assistant coach and Temple alum Aaron McKie.^[3]

Coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	AAC record	AAC titles	NCAA Tournaments*	NCAA Final Fours	NCAA Championships
Cincinnati	John Brannen	Northern Kentucky	1	20–10	13–5	1	0	0	0
Connecticut	Dan Hurley	Rhode Island	2	35–29	16–20	0	0	0	0
East Carolina	Joe Dooley	Florida Gulf Coast	7	78–93	8–27	0	0	0	0
Houston	Kelvin Sampson	Houston Rockets (asst.)	6	138–59	71–37	2	2	0	0
Memphis	Penny Hardaway	East HS	2	43–24	21–15	0	0	0	0
SMU	Tim Jankovich	SMU (asst.)	5	90–46	38–31	1	2	0	0
South Florida	Brian Gregory	Michigan State (advisor)	3	48–53	18–36	0	0	0	0
Temple	Aaron McKie	Temple (asst.)	1	14–17	6–12	0	0	0	0
Tulane	Ron Hunter	Georgia State	1	12–18	4–14	0	0	0	0
Tulsa	Frank Haith	Missouri	6	116–76	67–41	1	1	0	0
UCF	Johnny Dawkins	Stanford	4	83–48	40–32	0	1	0	0
Wichita State	Gregg Marshall	Winthrop	13	337–119	35–19	0	7	1	0

Notes:

• Overall and AAC records are from time at current school and are through the end of 2019–20 season. NCAA records include time at current school only.
• AAC records only, prior conference records not included.
• *In current job

Preseason

Preseason Coaches Poll

The AAC Coaches poll was released on October 14, 2019, with the Cougars predicted to finish first in the AAC.^[4]

Coaches poll
Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
T–1	Houston	113 (7)
T–1	Memphis	113 (4)
3	Cincinnati	94 (1)
4	Wichita State	88
5	USF	79
6	UConn	75
7	Temple	72
8	SMU	47
9	UCF	40
10	Tulsa	36
11	East Carolina	20
12	Tulane	15

Preseason All-AAC Teams

Honor	Recipient
Preseason Player of the Year	Jarron Cumberland, Cincinnati
Preseason All-AAC First Team[4]
	Jarron Cumberland, Cincinnati
	Quinton Rose, Temple
	DeJon Jarreau, Houston
	James Wiseman, Memphis
	Laquincy Rideau, USF
Preseason All-AAC Second Team
	Alexis Yetna, USF
	Jayden Gardner, ECU
	Nate Pierre-Louis, Temple
	Alterique Gilbert, UConn
	David Collins, USF
	Christian Vital, UConn
Preseason Rookie of the Year	James Wiseman, Memphis

Regular season

Rankings

Legend

		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		Not ranked previous week

Main article: 2019–20 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
Memphis	AP	14	13	16	16	15	13	11	9	9	21	22	20	RV
	C	15	15	20	20	18	17T	13	10	11	22	22	20	RV
Wichita State	AP							RV	RV	24	23	16	RV	23	RV
	C				RV	RV	RV	RV	25	23	23	16	22	22	RV
Houston	AP	RV	RV							RV	RV	RV	25	21	25	20	22	25	21	22-T	22
	C	RV	RV							RV	RV	RV	24	20	25	19	22	RV	21	24	23
Cincinnati	AP	RV			RV											RV	RV
	C	RV	RV	RV	RV											RV	RV
SMU	AP					RV								RV
	C
Tulsa	AP													RV	RV
	C													RV	RV	RV

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play. Each team will play 18 conference games: one game vs. four opponents and two games against seven opponents.

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

Note: table updated through end of 2019–20 season

Player of the week

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

Week	Player of the week	Rookie of the week	Reference
Week 1 – Nov 11	Nate Pierre-Louis – Temple	James Wiseman – Memphis	[5]
Week 2 - Nov 18	Brandon Rachal – Tulsa	Lester Quiñones – Memphis	[6]
Week 3 - Nov 25	Precious Achiuwa – Memphis	James Bouknight – UConn	[7]
Week 4 - Dec 2	Quinton Rose – Temple	Boogie Ellis – Memphis	[8]
Week 5 - Dec 9	Quentin Grimes – Houston	Tyson Etienne – Wichita State	[9]
Week 6 - Dec 16	Erik Stevenson – Wichita State	Caleb Mills – Houston	[10]
Week 7 - Dec 23	Jayden Gardner – East Carolina	Precious Achiuwa – Memphis	[11]
Week 8 - Dec 30	Fabian White Jr. – Houston	Grant Sherfield – Wichita State	[12]
Week 9 - Jan 6	Erik Stevenson (2) – Wichita State	Precious Achiuwa (2) – Memphis	[13]
Week 10 - Jan 13	Jayden Gardner (2) – East Carolina	Precious Achiuwa (3) – Memphis	[14]
Week 11 - Jan 20	Brandon Rachal (2) – Tulsa	D. J. Jeffries – Memphis	[15]
Week 12 - Jan 27	Martins Igbanu – Tulsa	Caleb Mills (2) – Houston	[16]
Week 13 - Feb 3	Elijah Joiner – Tulsa	Precious Achiuwa (4) – Memphis	[17]
Week 14 - Feb 10	James Bouknight – UConn	Darin Green Jr. – UCF	[18]
Week 15 - Feb 17	Trevon Scott – Cincinnati	James Bouknight (2) – UConn	[19]
Week 16 - Feb 24	Teshaun Hightower – Tulane	Precious Achiuwa (5) – Memphis	[20]
Week 17 - March 2	Christian Vital – UConn	Marcus Sasser – Houston	[21]
Week 18 - March 9	Christian Vital (2) – UConn	Precious Achiuwa (6) – Memphis	[22]

Honors and awards

All-AAC Awards and Teams

Honor	Recipient
Player of the Year	Precious Achiuwa, Memphis
Coach of the Year	Frank Haith, Tulsa
Freshman of the Year	Precious Achiuwa, Memphis
Defensive Player of the Year	Trevon Scott, Cincinnati
Most Improved Player	Trevon Scott, Cincinnati
Sixth Man of the Year	Martins Igbanu, Tulsa
Sportsmanship Award	Trevon Scott, Cincinnati
All-AAC First Team
	Precious Achiuwa, Memphis*
	Jarron Cumberland, Cincinnati
	Martins Igbanu, Tulsa
	Trevon Scott, Cincinnati
	Christian Vital, UConn
All-AAC Second Team
	Jaime Echenique, Wichita State
	Jayden Gardner, East Carolina
	Nate Hinton, Houston
	Caleb Mills, Houston
	Quinton Rose, Temple
All-AAC Third Team
	James Bouknight, UConn
	Kendric Davis, SMU
	Tyson Jolly, SMU
	Isiaha Mike, SMU
	Brandon Rachal, Tulsa
All-Freshman Team
	Precious Achiuwa, Memphis*
	James Bouknight, UConn*
	Caleb Mills, Houston*
	Lester Quiñones, Memphis
	Marcus Sasser, Houston

* Unanimous Selection

^[23][24]

Postseason

American Athletic Conference tournament

Main article: 2020 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament

Due to the coronavirus pandemic the tournament was cancelled on March 12, 2020 – only minutes before the first game was set to begin.^[25]

	First round Thursday, March 12					Quarterfinals Friday, March 13					Semifinals Saturday, March 14					Championship Sunday, March 15
						1	Cincinnati
	8	UCF
	9	South Florida
						4	Wichita State
	5	UConn
	12	Tulane
						2	#22 Houston
	7	SMU
	10	Temple
						3	Tulsa
	6	Memphis
	11	East Carolina

^[26]

NCAA Tournament

Main article: 2020 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

On March 12, the tournament, as well as all other postseason tournaments for the remainder of the academic season, was cancelled in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. It was the first time the tournament had been cancelled since its creation in 1939.

NBA draft

The following list includes all AAC players who were drafted in the 2020 NBA draft.

Player	Position	School	Round	Pick	Team
James Wiseman	C	Memphis	1	2	Golden State Warriors
Precious Achiuwa	PF	Memphis	1	20	Miami Heat