2014–15 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season

2014–15 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season
2014–15 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Duration	November 2014; through March 2015
Number of teams	11
TV partner(s)	ESPN, CBS
Regular Season
Season MVP	Nic Moore
Tournament
American Athletic Conference men's basketball seasons
	← 2013–14 2015–16 →

2014–15 American Athletic Conference men's basketball standings
v t	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 18 SMU †	15	–	3	.833	27	–	7	.794
Tulsa	14	–	4	.778	23	–	11	.676
Temple	13	–	5	.722	26	–	11	.703
Cincinnati	13	–	5	.722	23	–	11	.676
UConn	10	–	8	.556	20	–	15	.571
Memphis	10	–	8	.556	18	–	14	.563
Tulane	6	–	12	.333	15	–	16	.484
East Carolina	6	–	12	.333	14	–	19	.424
UCF	5	–	13	.278	12	–	18	.400
Houston	4	–	14	.222	13	–	19	.406
South Florida	3	–	15	.167	9	–	23	.281

† The American Tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

The 2014–15 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season took place between November 2014 and March 2015. Practices began in October 2014, with conference play beginning in December, and the season ended with the 2015 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament. The season was the second since the split of the original Big East Conference into two separate leagues.

This was the first season for East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa in American Athletic competition.

Preseason

Coaching changes

Tulsa Hired Frank Haith, after Former Coach Danny Manning took the Wake Forest job
Kelvin Sampson was hired at Houston after former coach James Dickey resigned for Personal reasons
Orlando Antigua was hired at USF, after USF rescinded their offer to Steve Masiello after it was reported that he had not graduated from the University of Kentucky, as his resume had stated. Masiello was originally hired to replace Stan Heath, who was fired

Predicted American Athletic results

At American Athletic Conference media day on October 29, the conference released their predictions for standings and All-Conference teams.^[1]

	Coaches
1.	Connecticut (6)
2.	SMU (5)
3.	Memphis
4.	Cincinnati
5.	Tulsa
6.	Temple
7.	Houston
8.	USF
9.	UCF
10.	East Carolina
11.	Tulane

() first place votes

Preseason All-AAC Teams

First Team	Second Team
Ryan Boatright, G, UCONN Shaq Goodwin, F, MEM Austin Nichols, F, MEM Nic Moore, G, SMU Markus Kennedy, F, SMU James Woodard, G, TULSA	Amida Brimah, C, UCONN Anthony Collins, G, USF Chris Perry, F, USF Will Cummings, G, TEM Quenton DeCosey, G, TEM

American Athletic Preseason Player of the Year: Ryan Boatright, Connecticut
American Athletic Preseason Rookie of the Year: Daniel Hamilton, Connecticut

Preseason Watchlists

Naismith^[2]	John Wooden Award^[3]
Ryan Boatright, G, UConn Nic Moore, G, SMU	Nic Moore, G, SMU

Rankings

**Legend**
		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		Not ranked previous week

		Pre	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Wk 17	Wk 18
Cincinnati	AP	RV	RV	RV			RV					RV
Cincinnati	C		RV	RV			RV					RV
Connecticut	AP	17	17	24	RV
Connecticut	C	15	17	22	23	RV
East Carolina	AP
East Carolina	C
Houston	AP
Houston	C
Memphis	AP	RV	RV	RV
Memphis	C	RV	RV	RV	RV
SMU	AP	22	23	RV				RV	RV		22	25	21	21	22	20
SMU	C	22	22	RV	RV			RV	RV	RV	22	25	22	21	22	21
South Florida	AP
South Florida	C
Temple	AP						RV				RV
Temple	C						RV
Tulane	AP
Tulane	C
Tulsa	AP									RV	RV
Tulsa	C									RV	RV	RV
UCF	AP
UCF	C

AAC regular season

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

	Cincinnati	Connecticut	East Carolina	Houston	Memphis	SMU	South Florida	Temple	Tulane	Tulsa	UCF
vs. Cincinnati	–	1-1	1-1	0-2	1-1	0-2	0–1	1-1	1–1	0–1	0–2
vs. Connecticut	1-1	–	0–2	1–0	2–0	1–1	0-2	2-0	0–2	1-1	0-1
vs. East Carolina	1-1	2–0	–	1-1	1–1	1-0	1-1	2–0	1-0	2–0	0–2
vs. Houston	2-0	0–1	1-1	–	2-0	2–0	1-1	1–0	1-1	2-0	2-0
vs. Memphis	1-1	0–2	1–1	0-2	–	2-0	0–1	1–0	1-1	2-0	0-2
vs. SMU	2-0	1–1	0-1	0–2	0-2	–	0-2	0-2	0-1	0–2	0–2
vs. South Florida	1–0	2-0	1-1	1-1	1–0	2-0	–	2-0	2-0	2-0	1–1
vs. Temple	1-1	0-2	0–2	0–1	0–1	2-0	0-2	–	0-2	2–0	0-2
vs. Tulane	1–1	2–0	0-1	1–1	1-1	1-0	0-2	2-0	–	2–0	2-0
vs. Tulsa	1–0	1-1	0–2	0-2	0-2	2–0	0-2	0–2	0-2	–	0-1
vs. UCF	2–0	1-0	2-0	0-2	2-0	2–0	1–1	2-0	0-2	1-0	–
Total	13–5	10–8	6–12	4-14	10–8	15–3	3–15	13–5	6–12	14–4	5–13

Postseason

March 12–15, 2015 at the XL Center in Hartford, CT

Seed	School	Conf.	Over.	Tiebreaker	First round March 12	Quarterfinals March 13	Semifinals March 14	Championship March 15
2015 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament seeds and results
1.	SMU ‡†	15-3	24-6		Bye	vs. #8 East Carolina - W, 74-68	vs. #4 Temple - W, 69-56	vs. #6 Connecticut - W, 62-54
2.	Tulsa †	14-4	21-9		Bye	vs. #10 Houston - W, 59-51	vs. #6 Connecticut - L, 42–47
3.	Cincinnati †	13-5	22-9	2-0 vs. SMU	Bye	vs. #6 Connecticut - L, 54–57
4.	Temple†	13-5	22-9	0-2 vs. SMU	Bye	vs. #5 Memphis - W, 80-75	vs. #1 SMU - L, 56–69
5.	Memphis†	10-8	18-13	2-0 vs. CONN	Bye	vs. #4 Temple - L, 75–80
6.	Connecticut	10-8	17-13	0-2 vs. MEM	vs. #11 South Florida - W, 69-43	vs. #3 Cincinnati - W, 47-44	vs. #2 Tulsa - W, 47-42	vs. #1 SMU - L, 54–62
7.	Tulane	6-12	15-15	1-0 vs. ECU	vs. #10 Houston - L, 60–66
8.	East Carolina	6-12	13-18	0-1 vs. TULN	vs. #9 UCF - W, 81-80 OT	vs. #1 SMU - L, 68–74
9.	UCF	5-13	12-17		vs. #8 East Carolina - L, 80–81 OT
10.	Houston	4-14	12-18		vs. #7 Tulane - W, 66-60	vs. #2 Tulsa - L, 51-59
11.	South Florida	3-15	9-22		vs. #6 Connecticut - L, 43-69
‡ – American regular season champions, and tournament No. 1 seed. † – Received a single-bye in the conference tournament.

NCAA tournament

Seed	Region	School	First Four	Round of 64	Round of 32	Sweet 16	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
6	South	SMU	Bye	vs. #11 UCLA - L, 59-60
8	Midwest	Cincinnati	Bye	vs. #9 Purdue - W, 66-55 OT	vs. #1 Kentucky - L, 64-51
		W–L (%):	0–0 –	1–1 .500	0–1 .000	0–0 –	0–0 –	0–0 –	0–0 – Total: 1–2 .333

National Invitation tournament

Seed	Bracket	School	First round	Second round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
1	Temple	Temple	vs. #8 Bucknell - W, 73-67	vs. #5 George Washington - W, 90-77	vs. #3 Louisiana Tech - W, 77-59	vs. #2 Miami (FL) - L, 57-60
2	Old Dominion	Tulsa	vs. #7 William & Mary - W, 70-67	vs. #3 Murray State - L, 62-83
4	Richmond	Connecticut	vs. #5 Arizona State - L, 61-68
		W–L (%):	2–1 .667	1–1 .500	1–0 1.000	0–1 .000	0–0 – Total: 4–3 .571

Awards and honors

Conference awards and teams

All Conference and All Rookie teams were announced on March 10, Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man Award, Most Improved Player, and Sportsmanship Award were announced on March 11. Player of the Year and Coach of the year were announced on March 12

Award	Recipient(s)
2015 American Athletic Conference Basketball Individual Awards
American Athletic Conference Player of the Year	Nic Moore G., SMU
Coach of the Year	Fran Dunphy , TEMP
Rookie of the Year	Daniel Hamilton G/F., CONN
Scholar-Athlete of the Year	Pat Lenehan G., CONN
Most Improved Player	Yanick Moreira C., SMU
Sixth Man Award	Markus Kennedy F., SMU
Sportsmanship Award	Shaq Goodwin F., MEMPHIS

First Team	Second Team	Honorable Mention	All-Rookie Team
2015 American Athletic Conference All-Conference Teams\|^[4]
Ryan Boatright ^†, G., CONN Austin Nichols, F., MEMPH Nic Moore ^†, G., SMU Will Cummings, G., TEMP James Woodard, G., TULSA	Octavius Ellis, F., CIN Markus Kennedy, F., SMU Yanick Moreira, C., SMU Louis Dabney, G., TULN Shaquille Harrison, G., TULSA	Troy Caupain, G., CIN Amida Brimah, C., CONN Daniel Hamilton, G/F., CONN Jaylen Bond, F., TEMP	Adonys Henriquez, G., UCF B. J. Taylor, G., UCF Gary Clark, F., CIN Daniel Hamilton ^†, G/F., CONN B. J. Tyson ^†, G., ECU
^† - denotes unanimous selection

References

^ "UConn Chosen as Men's Basketball Preseason Favorite". Retrieved November 17, 2014.
^ "Naismith Trophy Men's 50 Watch List". Naismith Trophy. Archived from the original on December 3, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
^ Medcalf, Myron. "Wooden Top 50 watch list unveiled". ESPN.com. ESPN. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
^ "2015 American Athletic Conference All-Conference Teams". theAmerican.org. Sidearmsports. Retrieved March 10, 2015.

[1] "UConn Chosen as Men's Basketball Preseason Favorite". Retrieved November 17, 2014.

[2] "Naismith Trophy Men's 50 Watch List". Naismith Trophy. Archived from the original on December 3, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2014.

[3] Medcalf, Myron. "Wooden Top 50 watch list unveiled". ESPN.com. ESPN. Retrieved November 17, 2014.

[4] "2015 American Athletic Conference All-Conference Teams". theAmerican.org. Sidearmsports. Retrieved March 10, 2015.

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v t American Athletic Conference men's basketball
Teams	Charlotte 49ers East Carolina Pirates Florida Atlantic Owls Memphis Tigers North Texas Mean Green Rice Owls South Florida Bulls Temple Owls Tulane Green Wave Tulsa Golden Hurricane UAB Blazers UTSA Roadrunners Wichita State Shockers
Championships & awards	Conference tournament Player of the Year Rookie of the Year Coach of the Year
Seasons	2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24