The 2016–17 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2016, followed by the start of the

2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 11, 2016. The first tournament was the 2K Sports Classic, and ended with the Final Four in Glendale, Arizona on April 3, 2017. Practices officially began on September 30, 2 ...

in November. The conference held its media day on October 24, 2016. Conference play began on December 27, 2016 and concluded on March 4, 2017. SMU won the regular season championship by one game over

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. The American Athletic Conference tournament was held from March 9 through March 12 at the

XL Center The XL Center (originally known as the Hartford Civic Center) is a multi-purpose arena and convention center located in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. Owned by the City of Hartford, it is managed by the quasi-public Capital Region Development ...

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. SMU defeated Cincinnati in the tournament championship to earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Simi Ojeleye was named the Tournament MVP. SMU's Semi Ojeleye was also named the conference's Player of the Year. SMU's head coach,

Tim Jankovich Timothy Robert Jankovich (born June 4, 1959) is a former American college basketball coach and former head coach at Southern Methodist University. During his first year (2007–08) at Illinois State, Jankovich led the Redbirds to a 13–5 second-p ...

, was named Coach of the Year. Two AAC teams were invited to the NCAA Tournament, Cincinnati and SMU.

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

and

UCF The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

received bids to the NIT.

Head coaches

Coaching changes

Josh Pastner Joshua Paul Pastner (born September 26, 1977) is an American college basketball coach, and the current head coach of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's basketball, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Pastner was a player on the 1997 Arizona Wildcats ...

left

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

for the

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

job and was replaced by

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

coach

Tubby Smith Orlando Henry "Tubby" Smith (born June 30, 1951) is an American college basketball coach. He was the men's basketball coach at High Point University, his alma mater. Smith previously served in the same role at the University of Tulsa, the Univers ...

. * Larry Brown resigned as SMU coach on July 8, 2016.

, who had been hired along with Brown in 2012 as his top assistant and designated successor, was elevated to the top spot. *

Tulane Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

fired Ed Conroy. Former

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

coach Mike Dunleavy was hired for his first college coaching job, after a six-year hiatus from coaching. *

fired

Donnie Jones Donald Scott Jones Jr. (born July 5, 1980) is a former American football punter. He played college football for Louisiana State University and was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the seventh round of the 2004 NFL Draft. He also played for t ...

was fired on March 10 after six seasons.

Johnny Dawkins Johnny Earl Dawkins Jr. (born September 28, 1963) is an American basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the UCF men's basketball team. From 2008 to 2016, he was the head coach of Stanford. He was a two-time All-American ...

was hired after being fired by

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

Coaches

''Notes:'' * Overall and AAC records are from time at current school and are through the end of 2016–17 season. NCAA records include time at current school only. * AAC records are only from 2013–14 season to present, prior conference records not included. *

Orlando Antigua Orlando Radhames Antigua Fernández (born February 20, 1973), nicknamed "Hurricane", is a former Dominican-American basketball player and is currently an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky under John Calipari. He is widely known as be ...

was fired after the first 13 games of the season amid academic fraud allegations. Murry Bartow was named interim coach for the remainder of the season. * Jeff Lebo underwent hip surgery on January 16, 2017 and missed the rest of the 2016–17 season. Assistant coach Michael Perry took over as head coach in Lebo's absence.

Preseason

Preseason Coaches Poll

20160330 MCDAAG Alterique Gilbert with the ball

AAC Media Day took place October 24, 2016, in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Cincinnati was picked to win the conference's regular season (six votes) with Connecticut a close second (five votes). ''first place votes in parentheses''

Preseason All-AAC Teams

Source

Rankings

Conference matrix

Honors and awards

Semi Ojeleye was an honorable mention AP All-American.

All-AAC awards and teams

On March 7, the AAC announced its conference awards.

Postseason

2017 American Athletic Conference tournament

NCAA tournament

NIT

NBA draft

The following list includes all AAC players who were drafted in the

2017 NBA draft The 2017 NBA draft was held on June 22, 2017, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. ...

References

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