We are just under 4 weeks away from the Tiger’s tip off. As the Tigers look to win the conference and make a tournament run, let's take a look at their competition, and rank the conference.
1: FAU: FAU shocked the college basketball world last season with their magical run to the final four. A gritty team returns most starters including leading scorers Alijah Martin and Johnell Davis. A new addition to the conference, FAU looks to make their presence known.
2: Memphis: While the Tigers season ended last year thanks to costly turnovers (and the first team on the list), they made key additions in the offseason. The most important being Caleb Mills from FSU, Mills has veteran experience and will improve the offense.
3: UAB: Another new addition to the AAC. UAB went 25-9 in the regular season, while losing in the NIT championship. Despite losing a few pieces in Jordan Walker and Trey Jemison, this is a winning program.
4: Tulane: Coming off a 20-11 2022-2023 season Tulane looks to stay at the top of the conference. After recent struggles Tulane returns a lot of players, a team that doesnt receive much national attention but a very solid basketball team.
5: North Texas: The NIT champions come to the AAC. Despite losing players to the transfer portal and their head coach, this team still has key coaching pieces. They elevated Ross Hodge to head coaching position after losing Grant McCasland. A program used to winning usually continues winning.
6: East Carolina: After an underwhelming 2022-2023 season, the Pirates added two key players in guard Bobby Pettiford Jr. and wing Ta'Korrie Faison. The Pirates hope to continue building towards a chance for contending in the conference.
7: Wichita State: Wichita State is a team you can count on to be competitive. They made a coaching upgrade in hiring Paul Mills. Despite losing leading scorer Jaykwon Walton to Memphis, this is still a top 10 conference team.
8:SMU: SMU was not very good last year, going 10-22. Returning a lot of players could open the door to an improved season, but not any star additions in the portal is concerning for the Mustangs.
9: South Florida: With the addition of head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim USF is taking strides toward success. Despite a weak roster, adding a good coach like Rahim can flip teams, probably not great this year, but the future is bright.
10:Temple: The Owls finished 5th in the conference last year, but lost 3 key pieces to the transfer portal. Damian Dunn, Khalif Battle and Zach Hicks. Expect Temple to take a step back at least for now.
11: Charlotte: After success under head coach Ron Sanchez, who left for an associate coaching job at UVA, they have promoted from within, hiring Aaron Fearne. Charlotte lost their top scorer to Nebraska, but besides that a winning culture should stick around.
12: Rice: Rice went 18-15 and won a discount tire CBI game. The level of competition was not very good, but anytime a team can put together a winning season and keep a majority of their lineup, they have a chance to compete.
13: Tulsa: Tulsa won 5 games last year, and only 1 in conference win. Tulsa added Cobe Williams, and Isiah Barnes, both good additions that should help the Golden Hurricanes.
14: UTSA: UTSA started the 2022-2023 season going 7-8, but then went on an 11 game losing streak. With no major additions to the roster this team along with Tulsa are probably AAC bottom dwellers.
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