AAC Basketball: Way-too-early power rankings for 2022-23 season

By Joey Loose | Jun 9, 2022

Mar 24, 2022; San Antonio, TX, USA; Houston Cougars guard Jamal Shead (1) tries to save a ball from going out of bounds during the first half against the Arizona Wildcats in the semifinals of the South regional of the men's college basketball NCAA Tournament at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports /

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AAC Basketball Tulsa Golden Hurricane guard Sam Griffin Chris Jones-USA TODAY Sports /

10. Tulsa

Former Louisiana Tech coach Eric Konkol takes over this Tulsa program, coming after a really rough 11-20 season in Frank Haith’s final campaign. After surprise success back in 2020, it’s been a backwards slide for the Golden Hurricane, whose defense has been worse with each passing season. Then there’s the matter of fixing this roster.

At the very least, they will get guard Sam Griffin (14.6 ppg last year) back for another season. The Golden Hurricane will need players like Anthony Pritchard and Keyshawn Embery-Simpson to take big steps forward with their contributions in a new system. From the Transfer Portal, Tulsa did manage to land Brandon Betson, a senior guard who was a solid scorer at Chicago State last season but will face a different challenge in the AAC.

There will likely be a time in the coming years where Tulsa is at least competing for conference relevance again, but this roster doesn’t exactly seem capable of doing that this season. It’s possible that everything comes together, the Golden Hurricane adds another talented defender, and everyone comes together and stays healthy, but this doesn’t look like it’s going to be the year in Tulsa.