NCAA Basketball: AAC, Michigan State, and Saint Joseph’s headline Mailbag
By Bryan Mauro
1. Can the American Athletic Conference get multiple at-large bids? – Tristan Freeman (@hoopsnut351)
The American is a conference that has drastically underachieved this year. Perennial powers like Cincinnati are not having a good year at all and are nowhere near the tournament. Memphis was at one time thought of a potential second-weekend team and they have looked bad at points and are headed for their second straight season with no tournament for Penny Hardaway. Tulsa is Tulsa, they have some good wins and some head-scratching losses.
The final team that has not been nearly as good as I thought was SMU. SMU has the resume of a strict bubble team. They have a couple of bad losses to Memphis and Cincinnati, and they have a decent win over Dayton. However, in both of their opportunities against Houston, they lost the game and those were huge opportunities missed as the Cougars are the sure-fire lock from this conference.
Even with those losses, SMU puts itself in an okay position to lock up a bid in the conference tournament. They currently have a NET of 59 which is firmly in the bubble conversation. They are 0-3 in Quad 1 and 4-0 in Quad 2. They do have another chance at a Quad 1 win coming up when they face Wichita State at the end of the season if they win that game and fare well in the tournament. A win over Houston would help tremendously, they have a chance. The Mustangs are likely going to be left at home unless they win the tournament.
Wichita State is another team that has a tremendous chance to grab an at-large bid. They have a win over Houston which is a great win and they also do not have a single loss in Quad 3 and Quad 4. The Shockers are really playing well right now and look like they are going to make a deep run in the conference tournament in a few weeks. The Shockers currently sit at 68 in the NET and are 2-2 in both quad 1 and 2. That win against Houston is going to go a long way.
Outside of Wichita State and Houston and maybe SMU the league is going to have to have someone rise up and win the tournament. If that happens will that team bump the Shockers? The reality is Wichita State and Houston are the best two teams in this conference and are the two likely teams to win this league. So, one will get the auto bid and the other will receive the at-large bid. Outside of that, the league is going to likely send a few teams to the NIT.