2022–23 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season explained

The 2022–23 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2022, followed by the start of the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's basketball season on November 7, 2022. Conference play began December 27, 2022, and concluded with the 2023 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament, held March 9–12, 2023, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

Scheduling stayed in the current format: an 18-game schedule in which every team in The American played eight of its 10 conference opponents twice and the other two opponents once—one at home and one on the road.^[1]

Previous season

Houston won the regular season championship. The 2022 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament was held at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, where it was also won by Houston. Houston and Memphis received bids to the NCAA tournament. Memphis lost in the second round to Gonzaga, while Houston advanced to the Elite Eight before losing to Villanova. The conference finished 4–2 overall. SMU received a bid to the 2022 National Invitation Tournament. SMU lost to Washington State in the second round. The conference went 1–1 overall in the NIT.

Kendric Davis from SMU was named the AAC Player of the Year. Houston's Kelvin Sampson was named Coach of the Year.^[2]

Coaches

Coaching changes

!Coach!School!Reason!Replacement

Joe Dooley	East Carolina	East Carolina fired Dooley after 4 seasons on March 11, 2022. It was his second stint with the program, having previously been the head coach from 1995–1999.[3]	Michael Schwartz.[4]
Frank Haith	Tulsa	On March 12, 2022, Haith announced that he was resigning after 8 seasons.[5]	Eric Konkol.[6]
Tim Jankovich	SMU	Jankovich announced his retirement after 6 seasons on March 22, 2022.[7]	Rob Lanier.[8]

Head coaches

Note: Stats are through the beginning of the season. All stats and records are from time at current school only.

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	AAC record	AAC titles	NCAA tournaments*	NCAA Final Fours	NCAA Championships
style=	Cincinnati	Wes Miller	UNC Greensboro	1	18–15	7–11	0	0	0	0
style=	East Carolina	Michael Schwartz	Tennessee (asst.)	0	0–0	0–0	0	0	0	0
Houston	Kelvin Sampson	Houston Rockets (asst.)	8	199–70	100–43	3	4	1	0
style=	Memphis	Penny Hardaway	East HS	4	85–43	45–24	0	1	0	0
style=	SMU	Rob Lanier	Georgia State	0	0–0	0–0	0	0	0	0
style=	South Florida	Brian Gregory	Michigan State (advisor)	5	65–89	26–61	0	0	0	0
style=	Temple	Aaron McKie	Temple (asst.)	3	36–40	20–29	0	0	0	0
style=	Tulane	Ron Hunter	Georgia State	3	36–46	18–34	0	0	0	0
style=	Tulsa	Eric Konkol	Louisiana Tech	0	0–0	0–0	0	0	0	0
style=	UCF	Johnny Dawkins	Stanford	6	112–72	57–51	0	1	0	0
style=	Wichita State	Isaac Brown	Wichita State (asst.)	2	31–19	17–11	1	1	0	0

Notes:

• Overall and AAC records are from time at current school and are through the end of 2021–22 season. NCAA records include time at current school only.
• AAC records only, prior conference records not included.
• In current job

Preseason

Recruiting classes

Team!ESPN^[9] !Rivals^[10] !247 Sports^[11] !Signees

style=	Cincinnati	-	No. 39	No. 35	3
style=	East Carolina	-	-	No. 139	6
style=	Houston	-	No. 16	No. 30	3
style=	Memphis	-	-	-	-
style=	SMU	-	-	-	-
style=	South Florida	-	No. 73	No. 138	2
style=	Temple	-	No. 97	No. 134	1
style=	Tulane	-	-	No. 110	1
style=	Tulsa	-	No. 58	No. 115	3
style=	UCF	-	No. 52	No. 60	2
style=	Wichita State	-	-	-	-

Preseason watchlists

Below is a table of notable preseason watch lists.

Preseason media poll

On October 12, The American released the preseason Poll and other preseason awards.^[20]

Coaches Poll
1	Houston	100 (10)
2	Memphis	87 (1)
3	Cincinnati	82
4	Tulane	74
5	Temple	66
6	UCF	51
7	SMU	43
8	Wichita State	35
9	South Florida	33
10	Tulsa	21
11	East Carolina	13

Preseason All-AAC

Preseason Player of the Year	Marcus Sasser, Houston
Preseason Rookie of the Year	Jarace Walker, Houston*
Preseason All-AAC First Team
Marcus Sasser, Houston*
Kendric Davis, Memphis*
DeAndre Williams, Memphis
Damian Dunn, Temple
Jalen Cook, Tulane*
Preseason All-AAC Second Team
	David DeJulius, Cincinnati
	Jamal Shead, Houston
	Khalif Battle, Temple
	Kevin Cross, Tulane
	Jaylen Forbes, Tulane
Unanimous selections

Regular season

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

	style= width="75"	Cincinnati	style= width="75"	East Carolina	Houston	Memphis	SMU	South Florida	Temple	Tulane	Tulsa	style= width="75"	UCF	style= width="75"	Wichita State
ECU	UH	MEM	SMU	USF	TEM	TULN	TULS	UCF	WSU -->	vs. Cincinnati	–	1–1	2–0	2–0	0–2	0–2	1–1	1–1	0–1	0–2	0–1
vs. East Carolina	1–1	–	1–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	1–1	0–2	2–0	1–1
vs. Houston	0–2	0–1	–	0–2	0–2	0–1	1–1	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2
vs. Memphis	0–2	0–1	2–0	–	0–2	0–2	0–2	2–0	0–1	1–1	0–2
vs. SMU	2–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	–	1–1	0–1	2–0	0–2	1–0	2–0
vs. South Florida	2–0	0–2	1–0	2–0	1–1	–	2–0	1–0	0–2	0–2	2–0
vs. Temple	1–1	0–2	1–1	2–0	1–0	0–2	–	2–0	0–2	0–2	1–0
vs. Tulane	1–1	1–1	2–0	0–2	0–2	0–1	0–2	–	1–1	0–1	1–1
vs. Tulsa	1–0	2–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	1–1	–	2–0	2–0
vs. UCF	2–0	0–2	2–0	1–1	0–1	2–0	2–0	1–0	0–2	–	0–2
vs. Wichita State	1–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	0–2	0–2	0–1	1–1	0–2	2–0	–	ECU	UH	MEM	SMU	USF	TEM	TULN	TULS	UCF	WSU -->
Total	11–7	6–12	17–1	13–5	5–13	7–11	10–8	12–6	1–17	8–10	9–9

Player of the week

Throughout the regular season, the American Athletic Conference named a player and rookie of the week.

Week	Player of the week	Freshman of the week	Ref.
Week 1 – Nov 14	David DeJulius, Cincinnati	Jarace Walker, Houston	[21]
Week 2 – Nov 21	Marcus Sasser, Houston	Taylor Hendricks, UCF	[22]
Week 3 – Nov 28	Kendric Davis, Memphis	Taylor Hendricks (2), UCF	[23]
Week 4 – Dec 5	Khalif Battle, Temple	Taylor Hendricks (3), UCF	[24]
Week 5 – Dec 12	Kendric Davis (2), Memphis	Taylor Hendricks (4), UCF	[25]
Week 6 – Dec 19	Kendric Davis (3), Memphis	Jarace Walker (2), Houston	[26]
Week 7 – Dec 26	Zhuric Phelps, SMU	Emanuel Sharp, Houston	[27]
Week 8 – Jan 2	Kendric Davis (4), Memphis	Taylor Hendricks (5), UCF	[28]
Week 9 – Jan 9	Jaylen Forbes, Tulane	Jarace Walker (3), Houston	[29]
Week 10 – Jan 16	Kendric Davis (5), Memphis Jaylen Forbes (2), Tulane	Taylor Hendricks (6), UCF	[30]
Week 11 – Jan 23	DeAndre Williams, Memphis	Jarace Walker (4), Houston	[31]
Week 12 – Jan 30	Kendric Davis (6), Memphis Khalif Battle (2), Temple	Jarace Walker (5), Houston	[32]
Week 13 – Feb 6	Jalen Cook, Tulane	Jarace Walker (6), Houston	[33]
Week 14 – Feb 13	DeAndre Williams (2), Memphis	Taylor Hendricks (7), UCF	[34]
Week 15 – Feb 20	Jalen Cook (2), Tulane	Ezra Ausar, East Carolina	[35]
Week 16 – Feb 27	DeAndre Williams (3), Memphis	Taylor Hendricks (8), UCF	[36]
Week 17 – Mar 6	Jamal Shead, Houston	Taylor Hendricks (9), UCF	[37]

All-AAC Awards and teams

Player of the Year	Marcus Sasser, Houston
Coach of the Year	Kelvin Sampson, Houston
Freshman of the Year	Jarace Walker, Houston
Defensive Player of the Year	Jamal Shead, Houston
Most Improved Player	J'Wan Roberts, Houston
Sixth Man of the Year	Reggie Chaney, Houston
Sportsmanship Award	Ludgy Debaut, East Carolina Sion James, Tulane
All-AAC First Team
	Landers Nolley II, Cincinnati
	Marcus Sasser, Houston*
	Kendric Davis, Memphis*
	DeAndre Williams, Memphis
	Jalen Cook, Tulane
All-AAC Second Team
	Taylor Hendricks, UCF
	Jamal Shead, Houston
	J'Wan Roberts, Houston
	Jarace Walker, Houston
	Jaylen Forbes, Tulane
All-AAC Third Team
	David DeJulius, Cincinnati
	Tyler Harris, South Florida
	Damian Dunn, Temple
	Kevin Cross, Tulane
	Craig Porter Jr., Wichita State
All-Freshman Team
	Taylor Hendricks, UCF*
	Ezra Ausar, East Carolina*
	Jarace Walker, Houston*
	Terrance Arceneaux, Houston
	Emanuel Sharp, Houston
Unanimous selections

Source:^[38]

Postseason

American Athletic Conference tournament

See main article: 2023 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament.

NCAA tournament

See main article: 2023 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

Seed	Region	School	First Four	First Round	Second Round	Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
1	Midwest	Houston	N/A	defeated (16) Northern Kentucky, 63–52	defeated (9) Auburn, 81–64	eliminated by (5) Miami (FL), 75–89	–	–	–
8	East	Memphis	N/A	eliminated by (9) Florida Atlantic, 65–66	–	–	–	–	–
		W–L (%):							Total:

National Invitation tournament

See main article: 2023 National Invitation Tournament.

Seed	Bracket	School	First Round	Second Round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
4	Rutgers	Cincinnati	defeated Virginia Tech, 81–72	defeated Hofstra, 79–65	eliminated by Utah Valley, 68–74	–	–
–	Oregon	UCF	defeated (4) Florida, 67–49	eliminated by (1) Oregon, 54–68	–	–	–
		W–L (%):	2–0	1–1	0–1	0–0	0–0 Total: 3–2

NBA draft

The following list includes all AAC players who were drafted in the 2023 NBA draft.

Player	Position	School	Round	Pick	Team
Jarace Walker	PF	Houston	1	8	Washington Wizards
Taylor Hendricks	PF	UCF	1	9	Utah Jazz
Marcus Sasser	SG/PG	Houston	1	25	Memphis Grizzlies

Notes and References

1. Web site: The American Announces 2022-23 Men's Basketball Schedule . theAmerican.org . American Athletic Conference . 21 November 2022 . September 21, 2022.
2. Web site: American Athletic Conference Announces Men’s Basketball Honors. theamerican.org. en. 9 Mar 2022. 21 Nov 2022.
3. News: ECU parts ways with head basketball coach Joe Dooley. 247sports.com. Stephen. Igoe. March 11, 2022. November 21, 2022.
4. Web site: Tennessee assistant Michael Schwartz hired as East Carolina head coach. 247sports.com. Nick. Kosko. March 14, 2022. November 21, 2022.
5. News: Tulsa men's basketball coach Frank Haith resigns, 'will cherish the memories we have made'. abcnews.go.com. Jeff. Borzello. March 12, 2022. November 21, 2022.
6. Web site: Eric Konkol accepts head coach job at University of Tulsa. crescentcitysports.com. Kane. McGuire. March 21, 2022. November 21, 2022.
7. News: SMU men's basketball coach Tim Jankovich announces retirement. abcnews.go.com. Jeff. Borzello. March 22, 2022. November 21, 2022.
8. Web site: Lanier hired as next SMU head men’s basketball coach. 247sports.com. Jordan. Hofeditz. March 27, 2022. November 21, 2022.
9. Web site: 2022-04-20. 2022 men's college basketball recruiting class rankings: Who rose and who fell after the Final Four?. ESPN.com. en. Borzello, John. Finkelstein, Adam.
10. Web site: 2022 Team Rankings. rivals.com.
11. Web site: 2022 Recruit Rankings. 247Sports.
12. Web site: JOHN R. WOODEN AWARD PRESENTED BY WENDY'S ANNOUNCES 2022-23 PRESEASON TOP 50 WATCH LIST. woodenaward.com . November 15, 2022.
13. Web site: Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe Headlines 2023 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Preseason Watch List . naismithtrophy.com . Atlanta Tip Off Club.
14. Web site: 2023 Cousy Award Preseason Watch List . hoophallawards.com.
15. Web site: 2023 West Award Preseason Watch List . hoophallawards.com.
16. Web site: 2023 Erving Award Preseason Watch List . hoophallawards.com.
17. Web site: 2023 Malone Award Preseason Watch List . hoophallawards.com.
18. Web site: Preseason Watch List Named for NABC Division I Player of the Year . nabc.com . National Association of Basketball Coaches. November 3, 2022.
19. Web site: 2023 Abdul-Jabbar Award Preseason Watch List . hoophallawards.com.
20. Web site: Houston Picked as 2022-23 American Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Favorite. theAmerican.org. 21 November 2022.
21. Web site: Cincinnati's DeJulius, Houston's Walker Earn Weekly Honors. 2022-11-21. theamerican.org. en.
22. Web site: Houston's Sasser, UCF's Hendricks Earn Weekly Honors. 2022-11-21. theamerican.org. en.
23. Web site: Memphis' Davis, UCF's Hendricks Earn Weekly Honors. 2022-11-28. theamerican.org. en.
24. Web site: Temple's Battle, UCF's Hendricks Earn Weekly Honors. 2022-12-05. theamerican.org. en.
25. Web site: Memphis' Davis, UCF's Hendricks Earn Weekly Honors. 2022-12-12. theamerican.org. en.
26. Web site: Memphis' Davis, Houston's Walker Earn Weekly Honors. 2022-12-19. theamerican.org. en.
27. Web site: SMU's Phelps, Houston's Sharp Earn Weekly Awards. 2022-12-26. theamerican.org. en.
28. Web site: Memphis' Davis, UCF's Hendricks Earn Weekly Honors. 2023-01-02. theamerican.org. en.
29. Web site: Tulane's Forbes, Houston's Walker Earn Weekly Awards. 2023-01-09. theamerican.org. en.
30. Web site: Memphis' Davis, Tulane's Forbes, UCF's Hendricks Earn Weekly Honors. 2023-01-16. theamerican.org. en.
31. Web site: Memphis' Williams, Houston's Walker Earn Weekly Honors. 2023-01-23. theamerican.org. en.
32. Web site: Memphis' Davis, Temple's Battle, Houston's Walker Earn Weekly Honors. 2023-01-30. theamerican.org. en.
33. Web site: Tulane's Cook, Houston's Walker Earn Weekly Honors. 2023-02-06. theamerican.org. en.
34. Web site: Memphis' Williams, UCF's Hendricks Earn Weekly Honors. 2023-02-13. theamerican.org. en.
35. Web site: Tulane's Cook, East Carolina's Ausar Earn Weekly Honors. 2023-02-20. theamerican.org. en.
36. Web site: Memphis' Williams, UCF's Hendricks Earn Weekly Honors. 2023-02-27. theamerican.org. en.
37. Web site: Houston's Shead, UCF's Hendricks Earn Final Weekly Honors of the Season. 2023-03-06. theamerican.org. en.
38. Web site: The American Announces Men's Basketball Honors . theamerican.org . American Athletic Conference . 8 March 2023 . March 8, 2023.