No. 7 seeded Tulsa will play No. 10 seeded SMU at 7 p.m. Thursday on ESPNU in the opening round of the American Athletic Conference Basketball Championship in Memphis, Tennessee.
If Tulsa wins, they will play No. 2 seed Cincinnati at 6 p.m. Friday. Cincinnati, ranked No. 20 in the nation, drew a bye in the first round.
The good news for Tulsa is that No. 12 Houston (the No. 1 seed in the tournament) and No. 25 Central Florida (No. 4 seed) are in the opposite bracket. Two wins for Tulsa would probably match the Golden Hurricane against Temple in the semifinals.
In their only meeting this season, Tulsa (18-13, 8-10) lost to SMU (14-16, 6-12), 57-77, in Dallas on January 12. SMU’s Jahmal McMurray scored 22 points, including six three-point shots.
SMU (13-16, 6-12 American) battled through injuries this season but with Jarrey Foster in the lineup the Mustangs were 9-4 overall.
He made a second return from injury two games ago and helped SMU to a win Sunday in its regular-season finale at USF.
SMU has lost nine of their last 11 games, including four of the last five. Tulsa has won two of the last three and six of their last 10.
Curran Scott led Tulsa with 13 points, but Memphis got 20 points from Jeremiah Martin and the Tigers got a 66-63 win over the Golden Hurricane in the regular-season finale for both teams Saturday night.
Lawson Korita also finished in double-figures with 12 points to go along with seven rebounds for the Golden Hurricane (18-13, 8-10), while Martins Igbanu neared a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds.
In addition, Sterling Taplin scored nine points and had five assists. Now with 1,025 points and 402 assists, he became just the fourth player in program history with at least 1,000 points and 400 assists in his career.
Tyler Harris came off the bench to score 16 points for the Tigers (19-12, 11-7).
Houston (29-2, 16-2 American) won its first conference regular-season crown since 1992. The Cougars are one of only three two-loss teams in the country and are tied with Gonzaga for the best record in the nation. Houston has been a top-three seed in Cincinnati (25-6, 14-4 American) has won at least 14 conference games in five of their six years in the league. UC also posted its third-straight season with at least 25 wins.
Temple (23-8, 13-5 American) had their ninth 20-win season in 13 years under head Fran Dunphy.
The University of Central Florida (23-7, 13-5 American) clinched a bye earlier this week with a win over Cincinnati and matches its highest seed in American history as the Knights also were seeded No. 4 in 2017.
No. 5 Memphis (19-12, 10-8 American) earned the fifth spot at the conference championship for the third-straight season, but this season will feature first-year head coach Penny Hardaway as well as the Tigers’ home court in FedExForum. The Tigers have won 19 games in each of the last three years and will look to reach 20 on Thursday.
Wichita State (17-13, 10-8 American) enters the tournament as one of the hottest teams in the field as the Shockers have won nine of their last 11 games after starting conference play 1-6. Wichita State also has three wins on last second shots after its latest at Tulane in the regular-season finale.
USF (19-11, 8-10 American) boasts one the nation’s best turnarounds with nine more wins overall, five more in conference play compared to last season. The Bulls played their last two games without starting point guard Laquincy Rideau who should be ready to make his return on Thursday.
The University of Connecticut (15-16, 6-12 American) suffered through an injury-plagued season but got a huge boost in the return of Jalen Adams, who dished out 12 assists against ECU Sunday to become just the fourth American player to reach 500 career assists.
ECU (10-20, 3-15 American) battled all season long with a young squad under returning head coach Joe Dooley and boasts an early-season conference win over No. 2 Cincinnati. Freshman Jayden Gardner is the only player in The American to rank in the top-10 in scoring and rebounding.
Tulane (4-26, 0-18 American) nearly earned its first conference win of the season on Saturday but a corner 3-pointer off an in-bounds play with 0.5 seconds left by Wichita State, spoiled a 36-point performance from sophomore Caleb Daniels.