A midsummer’s look at American Athletic Conference men’s basketball

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The American Athletic Conference had four NBA draft picks in June, including a pair of first-rounders. Heck, one of them was from Tulane, of all places.

That’s a nice, positive anecdote for a league constantly in search of more respect. But there’s a flip side: All four of those players are now gone from the league. As is the reigning Player of the Year, league scoring champion and just about the entire Wichita State roster.

What’s left is a league that could be a bit down this season, which has kind of been the AAC’s modus operandi: Up one year, down the next. In its inaugural season in 2014, four teams earned tourney berths and UConn won a national title. The following year, the league got just two bids.

In 2016, four teams made the tourney and SMU would have if it hadn’t been banned. In 2017, just two bids again.

There were only three bids last year, but it quite possibly would have been five if not for mass, devastating injuries to SMU and UCF.

Jalen Adams could be the American Athletic Conference’s best player this season. Jalen Adams could be the American Athletic Conference’s best player this season. Photo: David Borges / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: David Borges / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close A midsummer’s look at American Athletic Conference men’s basketball 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

It’s looking like a two- or three-bid league again this season. But while the overall strength may be down, remarkable parity will make the conference fascinating in 2018-19. Or just try to pick the top team in the American this season. We dare ya.

Go with a perennial contenders like Cincinnati or Wichita State? The Bearcats have been to eight straight NCAA tourneys and the Shockers seven straight. But Cincy has lost three stalwarts, including first-round draft pick Jacob Evans and league Player of the Year Gary Clark, and replacing them won’t be easy. Wichita has lost all five starters and 89 percent of the offense from last year’s league runners-up, including first-round pick Landry Shamet.

OK, how about Houston, fresh off its first NCAA tourney win since Phi Slamma Jamma and moving into a sparkling new home building? League scoring champ Rob Gray, Jr. has graduated.

UCF will be a popular pick, with perhaps the best returning trio in the league in B.J. Taylor, 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall and Aubrey Dawkins, the coach’s son. But Dawkins missed all last year with injury and Taylor and Fall were also injury-riddled, sharing the court for exactly one game last winter.

And it is, after all, UCF.

SMU? No more Shake Milton. Tulsa, which has won the third-most league games since joining the conference in 2014-15? Probably a year away.

Temple? Maybe. Tulane? ECU? South Florida? Please.

Which brings us to UConn and Memphis, the league’s two most decorated programs who have fallen on hard times recently. They bring in sexy new coaches in Dan Hurley and Penny Hardaway, and they are the league’s ultimate wild cards this season.

Hurley’s already turned around two other programs, and he’s got the talent here to do it again. Jalen Adams is the league’s best player. Alterique Gilbert could be AAC preseason Rookie of the Year a third straight season. Christian Vital averaged nearly 15 per game last season.

But there are question marks galore. Can Gilbert finally stay healthy? Can Adams be the best player on the court every night? Can a big man or two (Josh Carlton? Eric Cobb?) step up? Will a team dogged by bad habits and questionable poor work ethic the past couple of years buy into Hurley’s no-nonsense, high-energy style? (It’s telling that not a single player transferred after Hurley replaced Kevin Ollie).

At Memphis, the question is simple: Can Hardaway coach? He’s already brought in a terrific recruiting class, coaxing four-stars Alex Lomax and Antwann Jones out of letters-of-intent with Wichita State and Texas A&M, respectively, and getting Tyler Harris, one of the top scorers in Memphis high school history, to stay home.

But Hardaway, the Memphis native and former NBA superstar, has never coached a game above the prep level. And his coaching staff (Sam Mitchell, Mike Miller) is a bit NBA-centric. The college game is simply different (as Ollie learned).

Cincy coach Mick Cronin is putting a positive spin on the upcoming season.

“I think the league will be just as good, if not better (than last year),” Cronin told Hearst Connecticut Media. “With the infusion of Penny Hardaway and Danny Hurley at Memphis and Connecticut, Central Florida’s got a great team ... Unfortunately, if you don’t have five-star recruits coming in, it doesn’t excite people. But Landry Shamet and Jacob Evans were not five-stars.”

And those two players, among many others, are no longer here.

“That’s what makes college basketbal fun,” Cronin added, “the opportunity for the next group of guys to do their thing.”

So while most of the focus this time of the year is on college football previews, here’s a midsummer’s look at how AAC men’s basketball might shape up this season:

1. CINCINNATI

Best player: Jarron Cumberland, a decent shooter in a strong safety’s body.

Best newcomer: Rashawn Fredericks, an athletic swingman who averaged a double-double the past two seasons and was a 2017-18 NJCAA first-team All-American.

Biggest losses: Gary Clark, the league’s Player of the Year, Jacob Evans, a first-round NBA draft pick, and Kyle Washington, a double-figures scorer.

Biggest question marks: Will the alarming choke job in last year’s NCAA tourney second-round loss to Nevada have any lingering effects? Can East Hartford’s Cane Broome regain the scorer’s mentality he had while finishing eighth in the nation in scoring a few years ago at Sacred Heart?

2. UCF

Best player: Aubrey Dawkins, coach’s son who possesses athleticism not often seen in this league.

Best newcomer: Collin Smith, a super-athletic, 6-foot-11 forward who sat out last year after transferring from George Washington.

Biggest loss: A.J. Davis

Biggest question marks: Can they stay healthy? That’s it, really.

3. HOUSTON

Best player: Corey Davis, Jr., who averaged 13.1 per game last year and hit a 3 in 29 straight games.

Best newcomer: Nate Hinton, a four-star guard, is one of program’s most decorated incoming recruits in a long time.

Biggest losses: Rob Gray, Jr., the reigning AAC scoring champ, and Devin Davis.

Biggest question mark: Will better overall depth trump the loss of top scorer (Gray) and rebounder (Davis)?

4. WICHITA STATE

Best player: Markis McDuffie, who led the Shockers in scoring and rebounding two years ago.

Best newcomer: Rickey Torres, a first-team NJCAA All-America point guard who ranked third nationally in assists.

Biggest losses: Landry Shamet, a first-round NBA draft pick, Shaquille Morris, Conner Frankamp, Darral Willis, Jr., Austin Reaves, Rashard Kelly, Zach Brown … basically everyone but McDuffie.

Biggest question mark: Can McDuffie get back to form after being dogged by injuries last season.

5. UCONN

Best player: Jalen Adams, who Dan Hurley wants (needs) to live up to that moniker every day in practice and in games.

Best newcomers: Brendan Adams, a freshman and brother of Jaylen (not Jalen), and A-10 Sixth Man of the Year Tarin Smith, a grad transfer from Duquesne who played for Hurley’s dad, Bob, at St. Anthony’s.

Biggest loss: Terry Larrier

Biggest question mark: Can Alterique Gilbert, after missing nearly all the past two seasons with shoulder woes, remain healthy? That’s the key to it all.

6. TEMPLE

Best player: Quinton Rose

Best newcomer: Arashma Parks is the only incoming frosh, and he’s not likely to see much time.

Biggest losses: Obi Enechionya, Josh Brown.

Biggest question mark: Why is Fran Dunphy sticking around for one more season before handing the reins to Aaron McKie?

7. SMU

Best player: Jarrey Foster, a defensive force who missed the final two months last year with injury.

Best newcomers: Isiaha Mike, who averaged 11.3 per game two years ago as a frosh at Duquesne, and Feron Hunt, a 6-foot-8 freshman workhorse who should make an immediate impact.

Biggest losses: Shake Milton, Ben Emelogu, Akoy Agau.

Biggest question mark: Will Foster and Everett Ray be back to form after season-ending injuries in ’17-18? Will depth continue to be an issue in SMU’s final year of scholarship reductions (11 total) due to penalties under Larry Brown?

8. MEMPHIS

Best player: Jeremiah Martin, who led the AAC in scoring almost all of last year until Rob Gray, Jr. overtook him at the very end.

Best newcomer: Alex Lomax, who backed out of an LOI with Wichita State to play for his high school coach, Penny Hardaway, and Tyler Harris, Tennessee’s Mr. Basketball in 2018 after Lomax had won it prior two years.

Biggest loss: Jimario Rivers

Biggest question mark: Can Penny coach? And if so, can he also meld the ultra-talented newcomers with the returnees?

9. TULSA

Best player: Sterling Taplin, one of those guys who seems to have been at a school forever.

Best newcomer: Jeriah Horne, a Nebraska transfer who red-shirted last year and will be asked to replace Junior Etou down low.

Biggest losses: Junior Etou and Corey Henderson, who averaged 10.5 per game but who UConn made look like Steph Curry.

Biggest question mark: Can Tulsa, which has outplayed its preseason ranking its first four years in the league, confound the experts again?

10. TULANE

Best player: Ray Ona Embo, a French native who averaged 10.1 per game and led team in assists.

Best newcomer: Moses Wood, a lengthy swingman and “3-D” (hit 3’s, play D) player.

Biggest losses: Melvin Frazier, a second-round NBA draft pick, and Cameron Reynolds, who signed with Sacremento.

Biggest question mark: Can Green Wave replace two NBA players who combined for 31 points per game last year?

11. ECU

Best player: Shawn Williams, the league’s reigning Rookie of the Year.

Best newcomer: Coach Joe Dooley, who returns to the helm nearly 20 years after his first stint.

Biggest losses: B.J. Tyson, Kentrell Barkley.

Biggest question mark: Can Dooley, the winningest coach in school history (albeit in the Colonial), begin the program’s rebuild?

12. SOUTH FLORIDA

Best player: LaQuincy Rideau, a defensive-minded point guard.

Best newcomer: Michael Durr, a 6-10 big out of Atlanta.

Biggest losses: Stephan Jiggets, Payton Banks, Isaiah Manderson, Terrence Samuel

Biggest question mark: Who are these guys? Will they win a single league game?

PREDICTIONS

AAC FIRST TEAM

Jarron Cumberland, Cincinnati 6-5 215 Jr. G

Corey Davis, Jr., Houston 6-1 190 Sr. G

Jalen Adams, UConn 6-3 195 Sr. G

Quinton Rose, Temple 6-8 185 Jr. G

B.J. Taylor, UCF 6-2 205 R-Sr. G

AAC SECOND TEAM

Jeremiah Martin, Memphis 6-3 184 Sr. G

Aubrey Dawkins, UCF 6-6 205 R-Jr. G/F

Jarrey Foster, SMU 6-6 220 Sr. F

Markis McDuffie, Wichita State 6-8 203 Jr. F

Tacko Fall, UCF 7-6 295 Sr. C

Player of the Year: Jalen Adams, UConn

Rookie of the Year: Alex Lomax, Memphis

Defensive Player of the Year: Tacko Fall, UCF

Sixth Man of the Year: Samir Sehic, Tulane

david.borges

@hearstmediact.com