AAC Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2021-22 season
By Joey Loose
We already know that Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF will be joining the Big 12 in the coming years, though we don’t know who else could be leaving or joining the conference in the coming years. AAC Basketball remains one of the strongest conferences, though it’s disappointing to consider a future without those three programs in it. We saw last season that Houston remains a power in the world of college basketball, with intriguing campaigns by Memphis and Wichita State will make this another interesting year in the conference.
The AAC has some intrigue from top to bottom, though there shouldn’t be too much change in the overall order of the league. There are a lot of changes to the teams near the bottom of the conference and it may be a year or two before those programs can take a major step forward.
Most of the AAC is dealing with big roster moves, but there are also a few teams that return much of their talent and are in great position moving forward. With the season just about three weeks away, we’ll take a quick look at the state of these AAC programs and try to rank them as they currently stand.
There are no guarantees of course, though we’ll try to put forth some reasonable expectations from the eleven teams in the AAC. Without further ado, let’s get right into the rankings from the bottom.
11. East Carolina
Three years have equally three 11th place finishes in the AAC for coach Joe Dooley, who has initially struggled to make the Pirates a competitive program. Last year started much more brightly, but the season came undone in the final few months, especially as the Pirates got into the meat of conference play. This season, most of the roster is completely redone, with a host of transfers and freshmen trying to pick up the pieces left behind, with the loss of Jayden Gardner (18.3 ppg, 8.3 rpg) to Virginia the biggest blow.
Not everybody is gone, but the Pirates will lean heavily on new pieces, like guard Wynston Tabbs (13.3 ppg) from Boston College and former SEC forwards Vance Jackson and Alanzo Frink, who had limited opportunities at Arkansas and South Carolina respectively.
In recent seasons, the Pirates have ranked near the bottom of the nation in efficient field goal percentage and rank as one of the worst long-range shooting teams. Dooley needs a bit of a step forward, but it’s hard to imagine throwing together a brand new roster into a conference winner, especially if they again cannot find their shooting touch.