Bracketology Losers: Lumps of coal this Christmas for the Pac-12 and SEC
AAC
Despite the fact that the American lives somewhere between the more “legitimate” mid-majors and the “Power 6”, the AAC has put multiple teams on the tournaments in every year of its existence. Outside of the six top leagues, that kind of consistent representation has been matched only by the Atlantic 10. The conference matched its all-time high with four bids last season—and three of those four hit a roadblock this past week.
John Brannen: "I haven’t coached the Jarron Cumberland that we all know and love. When I say I haven’t coached him yet -- he hasn’t been in the shape and healthy enough to be that guy. It’s coming. It’s coming."
— Fletcher Page (@FletcherPage) December 19, 2019
Cincinnati may be the most notable of the trio, though they actually had a positive week overall. Still, after beating Tennessee, the Bearcats had a chance to add another worthy opponent to its list of conquests. Instead, Iowa came away victorious and now sits in the coaches’ poll.
Last season, Temple snuck in as one of the First Four participants in the NCAA Tournament. But they might not get that far again if they can’t beat teams like Miami. The Hurricanes are going to be in bubble contention, too. Coming from the American, the Owls needs to grab notable wins when it can.
The Golden Knights of UCF spent the first part of December building up a six-game winning streak to pad their record, but there wasn’t much meat on those bones. Once Johnny Dawkins’ bunch got back to playing good teams—something it arguably hasn’t done in six weeks—it faltered. The Knights had chances against Oklahoma but ultimately fell to the Sooners.
On the topic of teams with scores of mostly meaningless victories, SMU piled another one in the wrong column on Friday. The Mustangs lost a double-overtime thriller to Georgia and their star freshman, Anthony Edwards. Tim Jankovich’s team built an impressive-looking 8-0 record to start the year, but haven’t won in three weeks.
With Memphis atop the league and Wichita State hot on their tails, the American has seemingly already met its quota for multiple bids. Not far behind, Houston is angling for a third and have a chance to state their case tonight against Washington. The AAC has three legitimate bid contenders already, so that puts a lot of pressure on the four teams above (and Connecticut) to go out and get results. The Huskies and Bearcats have the advantage for now, but it’s unclear whether either of their non-conference performances will be at-large-worthy on Selection Sunday.
But the AAC isn’t the only league outside of the Power 6 that puts teams into the tournament. Last up is a roundup of the goings-on in other prominent mid-major leagues.