The AAC basketball league was supposed to be about just two teams. But a third has quietly emerged, thanks in part to a prolific scorer.
This season in the AAC can be divided into three groups. The bottom consists of East Carolina and South Florida, although the Pirates did knock off Memphis just recently. Those same Tigers are part of the middle group, with seven teams having either five or six losses.
That leaves the upper-echelon of the conference, led by Cincinnati, whose unbeaten so far in league play. Wichita State has struggled of late, picking up three losses and losing pace with the Bearcats in the standings. Still, the Shockers are better than the average teams in the AAC.
Which leaves one last team, who despite losing an All-AAC player a year ago, is in good position to make the NCAA tournament. In Busting Bracket’s latest edition of Bracketology, Houston 17-5 (7-3) was projected to get a 10 seed, joining both Wichita and Cincy as the league’s representatives.
The Cougars have wins over Arkansas, LSU, Providence and Wichita State, along with bad losses to Tulane and Drexel. But after losing Damyean Dotson, who averaged 17.4 ppg and 6.9 rpg last year, the expectations were that the team wouldn’t even be in this position.
But the leftover All-AAC player has stepped up his game, with Robert Gray Jr. making a claim for the best overall player in the entire AAC. His average has gone down from 20.6-18.3 ppg, the assist numbers have gone up big time, from 2.9-4.2 apg.
The shooting percentages are roughly the same a year ago. In comparison to the rest of the league, Gray is ranked in the top five in the AAC in just about every offensive category, from the ratings, usage shooting, passing, all the way to the efficiency.
Houston is tied with the Shockers for second place in the AAC, with a ton on the line coming up, including a rematch with Cincinnati. But the bigger issue comes with the number of bad teams that could trip the Cougars up along the way. They’ll need Gray to continue to lead the team, in order for the program to get back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2010.