2021–22 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season

The 2021–22 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2021, followed by the start of the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball season on November 9, 2021. Conference play began December 15, 2021, and concluded with the 2022 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament, held March 10–13, 2022, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

2021–22 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Duration	November 2021 through March 2022
Number of teams	11
TV partner(s)	CBS, ESPN, ESPN+
Regular season
Season champions	Houston
Season MVP	Kendric Davis, SMU
Tournament
Champions	Houston
Runners-up	Memphis

2021–22 American Athletic Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 15 Houston †	15	–	3		.833			32	–	6		.842
SMU	13	–	4		.765			24	–	9		.727
Memphis	13	–	5		.722			22	–	11		.667
Temple	10	–	7		.588			17	–	12		.586
Tulane	10	–	8		.556			14	–	15		.483
UCF	9	–	9		.500			18	–	12		.600
Wichita State	6	–	9		.400			15	–	13		.536
Cincinnati	7	–	11		.389			18	–	15		.545
East Carolina	6	–	11		.353			15	–	15		.500
Tulsa	4	–	14		.222			11	–	20		.355
South Florida	3	–	15		.167			8	–	23		.258
† 2022 AAC tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

Scheduling returned to the previous format: an 18-game schedule in which every team in The American played eight of its 10 conference opponents twice and the other two opponents once—one at home and one on the road.^[1]

Previous season

Wichita State won the regular season championship. The 2021 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament was held at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, which was won by Houston. Houston and Wichita State received bids to the NCAA tournament. Wichita State lost in the First Four to Drake, while Houston advanced to the Final Four before losing to eventual National Champion Baylor. The conference finished 4–2 overall. Memphis and SMU received bids to the 2021 National Invitation Tournament. SMU lost to Boise State in the first round, while Memphis won the NIT defeating Mississippi State in the Championship game. The conference went 4–1 overall in the NIT.

Quentin Grimes from Houston and Tyson Etienne from Wichita State were named the co-AAC Players of the Year. Wichita State's Isaac Brown was named Coach of the Year.^[2]

Coaches

Coaching changes

Coach	School	Reason	Replacement
John Brannen	Cincinnati	Cincinnati fired Brannen after 2 seasons on April 9, 2021, following an internal review of unspecified allegations related to Brannen and the program. The investigation was triggered after six players entered the NCAA transfer portal within three days of the Bearcats' final game of the season.[3]	Wes Miller.[4]

Head coaches

Note: Stats are through the beginning of the season. All stats and records are from time at current school only.

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	AAC record	AAC titles	NCAA tournaments*	NCAA Final Fours	NCAA Championships
Cincinnati	Wes Miller	UNC Greensboro	0	0–0	0–0	0	0	0	0
East Carolina	Joe Dooley	Florida Gulf Coast	7	94–106	10–35	0	0	0	0
Houston	Kelvin Sampson	Houston Rockets (asst.)	7	167–64	85–40	2	3	1	0
Memphis	Penny Hardaway	East HS	3	63–32	31–19	0	0	0	0
SMU	Tim Jankovich	SMU (asst.)	6	101–55	45–38	1	1	0	0
South Florida	Brian Gregory	Michigan State (advisor)	4	57–66	23–46	0	0	0	0
Temple	Aaron McKie	Temple (asst.)	2	19–28	10–22	0	0	0	0
Tulane	Ron Hunter	Georgia State	2	22–31	8–26	0	0	0	0
Tulsa	Frank Haith	Missouri	7	127–87	74–50	1	1	0	0
UCF	Johnny Dawkins	Stanford	5	94–60	48–42	0	1	0	0
Wichita State	Isaac Brown	Wichita State (asst.)	1	16–6	11–2	1	1	0	0

Notes:

• Overall and AAC records are from time at current school and are through the end of 2020–21 season. NCAA records include time at current school only.
• AAC records only, prior conference records not included.
• *In current job

Preseason

Recruiting classes

2021 Recruiting classes rankings

Team	ESPN[5]	Rivals[6]	247 Sports[7]	Signees
Cincinnati	-	-	-	-
East Carolina	-	No. 46	No. 107	5
Houston	-	-	No. 44	3
Memphis	-	-	No. 1	6
SMU	-	No. 33	No. 36	4
South Florida	-	No. 55	No. 101	1
Temple	-	No. 46	No. 77	2
Tulane	-	-	-	-
Tulsa	-	No. 32	No. 62	3
UCF	-	No. 26	No. 88	3
Wichita State	-	No. 55	No. 66	3

Preseason watchlists

Below is a table of notable preseason watch lists.

	Wooden[8][9]	Naismith[10]	Cousy[11]	West[12]	Erving[13]	Malone[14]	NABC[15]	Abdul-Jabbar[16]
Emoni Bates, Memphis	Y	Y
Kendric Davis, SMU	Y	Y	Y
Jalen Duren, Memphis	Y	Y						Y
Tyson Etienne, Wichita State	Y
Marcus Sasser, Houston	Y	Y
DeAndre Williams, Memphis						Y

Preseason media poll

On October 13, The American released the preseason Poll and other preseason awards.^[17]

Coaches Poll
Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Houston	98 (8)
2	Memphis	92 (3)
3	SMU	77
4	Wichita State	76
5	UCF	66
6	Cincinnati	52
7	Tulsa	43
8	Temple	37
T-9	South Florida	25
T-9	Tulane	25
11	East Carolina	14

Preseason All-AAC

Honor	Recipient
Preseason Player of the Year	Tyson Etienne, Wichita State
Preseason Rookie of the Year	Jalen Duren, Memphis
Preseason All-AAC First Team
	Marcus Sasser, Houston
	Jalen Duren, Memphis
	Landers Nolley II, Memphis
	Kendric Davis, SMU*
	Tyson Etienne, Wichita State*
Preseason All-AAC Second Team
	Brandon Mahan, UCF
	Emoni Bates, Memphis
	DeAndre Williams, Memphis
	Jeremiah Davenport, Cincinnati
	Jaylen Forbes, Tulane
*Unanimous selections

Regular season

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play, There were 3 games which were postponed that weren't made up, resulting in unbalanced conference schedules^[18]

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

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	Freshman of the week	Ref.
Week 1 – Nov 15	Marcus Sasser, Houston	Emoni Bates, Memphis	[19]
Week 2 – Nov 22	Kendric Davis, SMU	Jalen Duren, Memphis	[20]
Week 3 – Nov 29	Khalif Battle, Temple	Kenny Pohto, Wichita State	[21]
Week 4 – Dec 6	Kendric Davis (2), SMU	Viktor Lakhin, Cincinnati	[22]
Week 5 – Dec 13	Vance Jackson, East Carolina	Zhuric Phelps, SMU	[23]
Week 6 – Dec 20	Kendric Davis (3), SMU	Jalen Duren (2), Memphis	[24]
Week 7 – Dec 27	Zach Hicks, Temple	Kenny Pohto (2), Wichita State	[25]
Week 8 – Jan 3	Jalen Cook, Tulane	Josh Minott, Memphis	[26]
Week 9 – Jan 10	Josh Carlton, Houston Damian Dunn, Temple	Jahlil White, Temple	[27]
Week 10 – Jan 17	Kyler Edwards, Houston	Jahlil White (2), Temple	[28]
Week 11 – Jan 24	Kyler Edwards (2), Houston	Darius Johnson, UCF	[29]
Week 12 – Jan 31	Marcus Weathers, SMU Jalen Cook (2), Tulane	Josh Minott (2), Memphis	[30]
Week 13 – Feb 7	Fabian White Jr., Houston	Jalen Duren (3), Memphis	[31]
Week 14 – Feb 14	Marcus Weathers (2), SMU	Jalen Duren (4), Memphis	[32]
Week 15 – Feb 21	Tai Strickland, Temple	Darius Johnson (2), UCF	[33]
Week 16 – Feb 28	Fabian White Jr. (2), Houston	Jalen Duren (5), Memphis	[34]
Week 17 – Mar 7	Michael Weathers, SMU	Jalen Duren (6), Memphis	[35]

All-AAC Awards and teams

Honor	Recipient
Player of the Year	Kendric Davis, SMU
Coach of the Year	Kelvin Sampson, Houston
Freshman of the Year	Jalen Duren, Memphis*
Defensive Player of the Year	Dexter Dennis, Wichita State
Most Improved Player	Kevin Cross, Tulane
Sixth Man of the Year	Ricky Council IV, Wichita State
Sportsmanship Award	Darien Jackson, Tulsa
All-AAC First Team
	Josh Carlton, Houston
	Fabian White Jr., Houston
	Jalen Duren, Memphis
	Kendric Davis, SMU*
	Jalen Cook, Tulane
All-AAC Second Team
	Tristen Newton, East Carolina
	Kyler Edwards, Houston
	DeAndre Williams, Memphis
	Marcus Weathers, SMU
	Damian Dunn, Temple
	Jaylen Forbes, Tulane
All-AAC Third Team
	Darin Green Jr., UCF
	David DeJulius, Cincinnati
	Jamal Shead, Houston
	Kevin Cross, Tulane
	Tyson Etienne, Wichita State
All-Freshman Team
	Darius Johnson, UCF
	Jalen Duren, Memphis*
	Josh Minott, Memphis
	Zach Hicks, Temple
	Jahlil White, Temple
*Unanimous selections

Source:^[36]

Postseason

American Athletic Conference tournament

Main article: 2022 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament

* – Denotes overtime period

	First round Thursday, March 10					Quarterfinals Friday, March 11					Semifinals Saturday, March 12					Championship Sunday, March 13
						1	#18 Houston	69
	8	Cincinnati	74			8	Cincinnati	56
	9	East Carolina	63								1	#18 Houston	86
											5	Tulane	66
						4	Temple	60
						5	Tulane	69
																1	#18 Houston	71
																3	Memphis	53
						2	SMU	83
	7	Wichita State	67			10	Tulsa	58
	10	Tulsa	73								2	SMU	63
											3	Memphis	70
						3	Memphis	85
	6	UCF	60			6	UCF	69
	11	South Florida	58

This section is transcluded from 2022 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament. (edit | history)

NCAA tournament

Main article: 2022 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

Two teams from the conference were selected to participate:

Seed	Region	School	First Four	First Round	Second Round	Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
5	South	Houston	N/A	defeated (12) UAB, 82–68	defeated (4) Illinois, 68–53	defeated (1) Arizona, 72–60	eliminated by (2) Villanova, 44–50	–	–
9	West	Memphis	N/A	defeated (8) Boise State, 64–53	eliminated by (1) Gonzaga, 78–82	–	–	–	–
		W–L (%):	0–0 (–)	2–0 (1.000)	1–1 (.500)	1–0 (1.000)	0–1 (.000)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–) Total: 4–2 (.667)

National Invitation tournament

Main article: 2022 National Invitation Tournament

One team from the conference was selected to participate:

Seed	Bracket	School	First Round	Second Round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
1	SMU	SMU	defeated Nicholls, 68–58	eliminated by (4) Washington State, 63–75
		W–L (%):	1–0 (1.000)	0–1 (.000)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–) Total: 1–1 (.500)

NBA draft

The following list includes all AAC players who were drafted in the 2022 NBA draft.

Player	Position	School	Round	Pick	Team
Jalen Duren	C	Memphis	1	13	Charlotte Hornets
Josh Minott	SF	Memphis	2	45	Charlotte Hornets