The 2017–18 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2017 followed by the start of the
2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
The 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 10, 2017. The first tournament was the 2K Sports Classic and the season ended with the Final Four in San Antonio on April 2, 2018. Practices officially began on September 2 ...
in November. The conference held its media day in October 2017. Conference play begin in December 2017 and concluded on March 3, 2018.
Cincinnati won the regular season championship by two games over
Houston and
Wichita State. The
American Athletic tournament was held at the
Amway Center in
Orlando, Florida
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...
from March 8–11, 2018. Cincinnati also won the
AAC tournament championship, defeating Houston in the championship game.
Cincinnati's
Gary Clark was named the AAC player of the year while Houston's
Kelvin Sampson was named coach of the year.
Cincinnati, Houston, and Wichita State all received bids to the
NCAA tournament, but none made it past the Second Round as the conference went 2–3 in the Tournament.
Temple received a bid to the
National Invitation Tournament
The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...
, but lost in the first round.
The season marked the first season with Wichita State as a member of the AAC, having joined on July 1, 2017. As a result, the conference included 12 teams for the first time.
Head coaches
Coaching changes
South Florida
South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...
head coach
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
2016–17 season amid academic fraud allegations. Interim head coach
Murry Bartow
Murry Linn Bartow (born August 18, 1961) is an American college basketball coach who most recently was the interim head coach for the UCLA Bruins men's basketball, UCLA Bruins. As the head coach of the East Tennessee State Buccaneers men's basket ...
coach was not retained by the school following the season. On March 14, 2017, the school hired
Brian Gregory
Brian Francis Gregory (born December 15, 1966) is an American college basketball coach who was most recently the head men's basketball coach at South Florida. He was previously serving as a consultant to Tom Izzo at Michigan State after being le ...
as the next head coach.
Coaches
''Notes:''
* Overall and AAC records are from time at current school and are through the end of 2017–18 season. NCAA records include time at current school only.
* AAC records are only from 2013–14 season to present, prior conference records not included.
Preseason
Preseason Coaches Poll
AAC Media Day took place October 15, 2017, in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cincinnati was picked to win the conference's regular season (seven votes) with Wichita State a close second (five votes).
Preseason All-AAC teams
Regular season
Rankings
Conference matrix
Player of the week
Throughout the regular season, the American Athletic Conference named a player and rookie of the week.
Honors and awards
All-AAC Awards and teams
* Unanimous Selection
Postseason
American Athletic Conference tournament
NCAA tournament
The winner of the
AAC tournament, Cincinnati, received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
NIT
Temple received an at-large bid to the NIT.
NBA draft
The following list includes all AAC players who were drafted in the
2018 NBA draft
The 2018 NBA Draft was held on June 21, 2018, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible players, including inte ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2017-18 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season