AAC Basketball: 2024 conference tournament preview and predictions

With the college basketball regular season wrapped up, it's time to preview the conference tournaments. One of the final ones to tip off this season is the AAC Tournament.

Entering the season, it seemed like the AAC was going to be a two-team race between Florida Atlantic and Memphis. They each disappointed - to different degrees - but a few teams nobody really saw coming ascended to the top of the conference.

Programs such as Charlotte and South Florida came out of thin air to compete for the top of the league. That's put surprising squads in pole position for an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament next week.

The tournament taking place at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, feels wide open. Looking at the bracket, there are more teams to make an argument in favor of winning the conference tournament title than not.

Part of the tournament's intrigue also stems from how different the AAC is from a year ago. Last year's victors, the Tigers, are still around. But two of the four semifinalists from 2023 have since moved on to the Big 12 (Houston and Cincinnati), leaving a power vacuum atop the league.

The five-round bonanza is scheduled to tip off on Wednesday, March 13. From there, there will be games every day, concluding with the championship game on ESPN on Sunday afternoon, which will end shortly before Selection Sunday begins.

Let's take a look at all things 2024 AAC Tournament, starting with the key players to watch.