2019 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament

The 2019 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the American Athletic Conference. It was held March 14 through March 17, 2019, at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee. Cincinnati defeated Houston 69–57 in the championship to earn the American Athletic Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.^[1] It was the second consecutive tournament championship for Cincinnati.

2019 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2018–19
Teams	12
Site	FedExForum Memphis, Tennessee
Champions	Cincinnati Bearcats (2nd title)
Winning coach	Mick Cronin (2nd title)
MVP	Jarron Cumberland (Cincinnati)
Television	ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN2
American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournaments ← 2018 2020 →

2018–19 American Athletic Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 11 Houston	16	–	2		.889			33	–	4		.892
No. 22 Cincinnati †	14	–	4		.778			28	–	7		.800
Temple	13	–	5		.722			23	–	10		.697
UCF	13	–	5		.722			24	–	9		.727
Memphis	11	–	7		.611			22	–	14		.611
Wichita State	10	–	8		.556			22	–	15		.595
Tulsa	8	–	10		.444			18	–	14		.563
South Florida	8	–	10		.444			24	–	14		.632
UConn	6	–	12		.333			16	–	17		.485
SMU	6	–	12		.333			15	–	17		.469
East Carolina	3	–	15		.167			10	–	21		.323
Tulane	0	–	18		.000			4	–	27		.129
† 2019 AAC tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

Seeds

All 12 conference teams will participate in the conference tournament. The top four teams receive a bye into the quarterfinals. Teams are 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.^[2]

Seed	School	Conf. record	Tiebreaker
1	Houston	16–2
2	Cincinnati	14–4
3	Temple	13–5	1–0 vs. Wichita State
4	UCF	13–5	0–1 vs. Wichita State
5	Memphis	11–7
6	Wichita State	10–8
7	Tulsa	8–10	1–0 vs. USF
8	South Florida	8–10	0–1 vs. Tulsa
9	UConn	6–12	1–1 vs. Wichita State
10	SMU	6–12	0–2 vs. Wichita State
11	East Carolina	3–15
12	Tulane	0–18

Schedule

Game	Time	Matchup	Score	Television	Attendance
First round – Thursday, March 14
1	1:00 pm	No. 8 South Florida vs No. 9 UConn	73–80	ESPNU	8,046
2	3:00 pm	No. 5 Memphis vs No. 12 Tulane	83–68
3	8:00 pm	No. 7 Tulsa vs No. 10 SMU	65–74		7,476
4	10:00 pm	No. 6 Wichita State vs No. 11 East Carolina	73–57
Quarterfinals – Friday, March 15
5	12:00 pm	No. 1 Houston vs No. 9 UConn	84–45	ESPN2	7,610
6	2:00 pm	No. 4 UCF vs No. 5 Memphis	55–79
7	7:00 pm	No. 2 Cincinnati vs No. 10 SMU	82–74	ESPNU	7,356
8	9:00 pm	No. 3 Temple vs No. 6 Wichita State	74–80
Semifinals – Saturday, March 16
9	3:00 pm	No. 1 Houston vs. No. 5 Memphis	61–58	ESPN2	7,819
10	5:00 pm	No. 2 Cincinnati vs. No. 6 Wichita State	66–63
Championship – Sunday, March 17
11	3:15 pm	No. 1 Houston vs. No. 2 Cincinnati	57–69	ESPN	7,223
Game times in ET. Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Bracket

	First round Thursday, March 14					Quarterfinals Friday, March 15					Semifinals Saturday, March 16					Championship Sunday, March 17
						1	Houston	84
						9	UConn	45
	8	South Florida	73
	9	UConn	80
											1	Houston	61
											5	Memphis	58
						4	UCF	55
						5	Memphis	79
	5	Memphis	83
	12	Tulane	68
																1	Houston	57
																2	Cincinnati	69
						2	Cincinnati	82
						10	SMU	74
	7	Tulsa	65
	10	SMU	74
											2	Cincinnati	66
											6	Wichita State	63
						3	Temple	74
						6	Wichita State	80
	6	Wichita State	73
	11	East Carolina	57

^[3]