Mick Cronin: AAC a Lock to have 4 teams in the NCAA Tournament

[UC990411]

“The American is a lock to have four teams in the 2018 NCAA Tournament and five is a real possibility,” Cronin said. “I think Wichita State, Cincinnati, and SMU are locks. Temple is an NCAA Tournament team, but nobody talks about them because they fail to understand how good Josh Brown is and the fact that he didn’t play last year. They were building last season for an NCAA run this year and there’s nobody better at that than Coach Dunphy. UCF is also really good and Houston was an NIT team last season.”

The sleeper, according to Cronin?

UConn.

“They’re the ultimate wild card for our league,” Cronin said of the Huskies, who will play Villanova, Arizona, Auburn and Syracuse during the program’s non-conference schedule in addition to three games in the PK 80. “If they win some of their early games against some of the competition they’re playing, they’re a lock to get in.”

The American Athletic Conference has yet to receive legitimate respect since its creation prior to the start of the 2013-14 season and that has directly affected some of the teams that have shined nationally. Cincinnati was forced to play a Sweet 16 caliber game in the Round of 32 last March against UCLA because it was a six seed while SMU faced a loaded USC team as a six seed in another bracket during the Round of 64.

However, Cronin still sees the potential for a breakthrough ahead of the upcoming season.

“It has a chance to be the best season the league has had since the conference began,” Cronin said. “It hurts us that we don’t have any representation on the NCAA selection committee, but the truth is the teams in our league have to prove that we belong nationally. This year, we have the teams to prove just that.”

Jon Rothstein has been a college basketball insider for CBS Sports since 2010 and is the lead college basketbal

Mick Cronin | AAC A Lock To Have 4 Teams In 2018 NCAA Tournament

Wellp

 

[jibsey]

Tulsa is deserving, right?

 

[August_West]

I can't wait to beat Cinci next Friday

 

[gtcam]

Congrats Mick on your win today, it was a great game - now get ready to lose in the AAC tourney as well as the first weekend of the dance
Business as usual

 

[TRest]

I can't wait to beat Cinci next Friday

Now that KO needn’t worry about his job next year we are ready to roll. #KOownsMarch.

 

[The Funster]

This is a better conference than its given credit for. All the coaches should be talking it up.

 

[champs99and04]

This is a better conference than its given credit for. All the coaches should be talking it up.

Yeah. The reason it'll only get 3 bids or so this year is because it has been hammered by injuries. UCF would have been a pretty interesting team nationally if Dawkins and Fall don't go down, then obviously you have SMU's fall which was jump started by I think the Foster injury. And then obviously us losing Gilbert was a big blow, even if you think we would have sucked anyways, and now Memphis just lost their best player.

Can't really blame Cronin for not seeing those things on the horizon.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

If a Tulsa/Memphis/SMU runs the table in the tournament does that bump out Houston or do we get 4?

 

[kobe]

CIGAR MICK CAN DO NO WRONG. DONT YOU DARE QUESTION HIM

 

[A10 fan]

If a Tulsa/Memphis/SMU runs the table in the tournament does that bump out Houston or do we get 4?

Houston's a lock.