# 2017 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season

The 2017 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season was the 5th season of men's varsity soccer in the conference. The season began on August 25 and concluded on November 12, 2017.
Defending regular season champions, SMU, retained their title, and won the 2017 American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament. The Mustangs were the conference's sole berth in the NCAA Tournament, where they reached the round of 16. There, they lost to North Carolina.

## Background
### Head coaches

| Team | Head coach | Previous job | Years at school | Overall record | Record at school | American record | NCAA Tournaments | NCAA College Cups | NCAA Titles |
| Cincinnati | Hylton Dayes | Wright State | 18 | 229–229–62 (.500) | 131–144–42 (.479) | 7–27–4 (.237) | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Connecticut | Ray Reid | Southern Connecticut | 21 | 434–124–73 (.746) | 288–107–58 (.700) | 26–11–9 (.663) | 16 | 2 | 1 |
| Memphis | Richard Mulrooney | Memphis (asst.) | 4 | 24–32–11 (.440) | 24–32–11 (.440) | 11–20–7 (.382) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SMU | Kevin Hudson | SMU (asst.) | 3 | 38–14–6 (.707) | 38–14–6 (.707) | 14–5–3 (.705) | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| South Florida | Bob Butehorn | Florida Gulf Coast | 1 | 135–100–31 (.566) | 6–6–4 (.500) | 3–3–2 (.500) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Temple | Dave MacWilliams | Philadelphia KiXX | 18 | 140–161–34 (.469) | 140–161–34 (.469) | 12–19–7 (.408) | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Tulsa | Tom McIntosh | Tulsa (asst.) | 21 | 244–164–48 (.588) | 244–164–48 (.588) | 15–11–4 (.567) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| UCF | Scott Calabrese | FIU | 1 | 93–73–22 (.553) | 8–6–2 (.563) | 4–2–1 (.643) | 3 | 0 | 0 |

## Preseason
### Recruiting

National Rankings :
| Team | CSN | TDS |
| Cincinnati | NR | NR |
| Connecticut | NR | 17 |
| Memphis | NR | NR |
| SMU | NR | NR |
| South Florida | NR | 31 |
| Temple | NR | NR |
| Tulsa | NR | NR |
| UCF | NR | NR |

### Preseason poll

| | Team ranking | First place votes | Raw points |
| 1. | Connecticut | 4 | 45 |
| 2. | Tulsa | 1 | 43 |
| 3. | South Florida | 2 | 34 |
| 4. | UCF | 0 | 29 |
| 5. | SMU | 1 | 27 |
| 6. | Temple | 0 | 20 |
| 7. | Cincinnati | 0 | 18 |
| 8. | Memphis | 0 | 8 |

### Preseason All-AAC Teams

| Honor | Recipient |
| Preseason Offensive Player of the Year | Matias Pyysalo, UCF |
| Preseason Defensive Player of the Year | Patrick Nielsen, Cincinnati |
| Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year | Michael Nelson, SMU |

#### Preseason All-AAC Team

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | GK | USA | Michael Nelson (SMU) |
| — | DF | DEN | Patrick Nielsen (Cincinnati) |
| — | DF | USA | Jacob Hauser-Ramsey (Connecticut) |
| — | DF | USA | Dylan Greenberg (Connecticut) |
| — | DF | USA | Jordan Cano (SMU) |
| — | DF | USA | Zack Stavrou (Tulsa) |
| — | MF | USA | Jackson Morse (Memphis) |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | MF | USA | Ricardo Gomez (South Florida) |
| — | MF | ESP | Mauro Cichero (SMU) |
| — | MF | FIN | Matias Pyysalo (UCF) |
| — | FW | SEN | Abdou Mbacke Thiam (Connecticut) |
| — | FW | USA | Garrett McLaughlin (SMU) |
| — | FW | FIN | Joonas Jokinen (Temple) |
| — | FW | USA | Juan Sánchez (Tulsa) |

## Regular season
### Rankings

Legend :
| | Increase in ranking |
| | Decrease in ranking |
| | Not ranked previous week |
| UCS | United Soccer Coaches poll |
| TDS | Top Drawer Soccer poll |
| | | Pre | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 | Wk 7 | Wk 8 | Wk 9 | Wk 10 | Wk 11 | Wk 12 | Wk 13 | Wk 14 | Wk 15 | Wk 16 | Final |
| Cincinnati | UCS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Cincinnati | TDS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Connecticut | UCS | 24 | RV | | | | | | | RV | | | | | | | | |
| Connecticut | TDS | RV | | | | | | | | 25 | | | | | | | | |
| Memphis | UCS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Memphis | TDS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| SMU | UCS | | RV | RV | RV | 19 | RV | 25 | 17 | 14 | 12 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| SMU | TDS | | | | | | | | 24 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 10 |
| South Florida | UCS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| South Florida | TDS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Temple | UCS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Temple | TDS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Tulsa | UCS | | | | 20 | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Tulsa | TDS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| UCF | UCS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| UCF | TDS | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Sources: TopDrawer Soccer, United Soccer Coaches

## Postseason
### AAC Tournament

| Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Finals | Finals | Finals |
| 1 | SMU | 4 | | | |
| 4 | Temple | 0 | | | |
| 4 | Temple | 0 | 1 | SMU | 2 |
| | | | 2 | UCF | 1 |
| 2 | UCF | 1 | 2 | UCF | 1 |
| 3 | Connecticut | 0 | | | |

### NCAA Tournament

| Seed | Region | School | 1st Round | 2nd Round | 3rd Round | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Championship |
| — | Chapel Hill | SMU | W, 2–0 vs. Central Arkansas – (Dallas) | W, 2–1 $^{2OT}$ vs. No. 14 Georgetown – (Washington, D.C.) | L, 0–2 vs. No. 3 North Carolina – (Cary) | | | |

## Records against other conferences

| Conference | Record |
| Atlantic 10 | 1–2–0 |
| ACC | 0–5–1 |
| Atlantic Sun | 5–1–1 |
| Big East | 3–4–2 |
| Big South Conference | 1–0–0 |
| Big Ten | 1–1–1 |
| Big West | 1–0–0 |
| CAA | 3–1–1 |
| Conference USA | 2–4–0 |
| Horizon | 4–2–1 |
| Ivy | 3–1–0 |
| MAAC | 1–3–0 |
| Mid-American | 1–2–1 |
| Missouri Valley | 2–1–0 |
| Pac-12 | 1–1–0 |
| Patriot | 1–0–0 |
| Southland | 1–0–0 |
| Summit | 3–0–0 |
| West Coast | 3–0–0 |
| WAC | 0–0–1 |
| Total | 37–27–10 |

## Awards
### Regular season awards
#### Players of the Week

| Week | Offensive | Offensive | Offensive | Defensive | Defensive | Defensive | Goalkeeper | Goalkeeper | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie | Ref. |
| Week | Player | Position | Team | Player | Position | Team | Player | Team | Player | Position | Team | Ref. |
| August 28 | Mauro Cichero | MF | SMU | Malik Suleman | MF | Cincinnati | Noah Lawrence | Cincinnati | Darryn Commissiong | MF | Cincinnati |
| September 4 | Garrett McLaughlin | FW | SMU | Nkosi Burgess | DF | Connecticut | Scott Levene | Connecticut | Adrian Billhardt | FW | South Florida |
| September 11 | Rollie Rocha | MF | Tulsa | Jonathan Dean | DF | UCF | Marcel Da Silva | Tulsa | Luke Biasi | MF | Memphis |
| September 18 | Sean Clarke | MF | Cincinnati | Jordan Cano | DF | SMU | Pearce Skinner | Cincinnati | Sean Clarke | MF | Cincinnati |
| September 25 | Abdou Mbacke Thiam | FW | Connecticut | Gustavo Vargas | DF | Tulsa | Scott Levene | Connecticut | Chris Mikus | MF | Memphis |
| October 2 | Alan Camacho Soto | FW | Temple | Jared Rice | DF | SMU | Scott Levene | Connecticut | Alan Camacho Soto | FW | Temple |
| October 9 | Ricardo Gomez | MF | South Florida | Jake Hauser-Ramsey | DF | Connecticut | Scott Levene | Connecticut | Jackson Brady | DF | Memphis |
| October 16 | Matias Pyysalo | MF | UCF | Jake Hauser-Ramsey | DF | Connecticut | Michael Nelson | SMU | Josh Burnett | MF | Connecticut |
| October 23 | Cal Jennings | FW | UCF | Jordan Cano | DF | SMU | Michael Nelson | SMU | Alan Camacho Soto | FW | Temple |
| October 30 | Matias Pyysalo | MF | UCF | Andreas Steinegar | DF | UCF | Christian Knight | South Florida | Brantley Bice | FW | Memphis |
| November 2 | Garrett McLaughlin | FW | SMU | Jordan Cano | DF | SMU | Michael Nelson | SMU | Chase Bromstedt | MF | Tulsa |

### Postseason awards
#### All-AAC awards and teams

2017 AAC Men's Soccer Individual Awards :
| Award | Recipient(s) |
| Offensive Player of the Year | Matias Pyysalo, UCF |
| Defensive Player of the Year | Jordan Cano, SMU |
| Goalkeeper of the Year | Michael Nelson, SMU |
| Rookie of the Year | Adrian Billhardt, South Florida |
| Coach of the Year | Kevin Hudson, SMU |
| Academic Excellent Team | Memphis |
| Team Fair Play Award | UCF |
2017 AAC Men's Soccer All-Conference Teams :
| First Team | Second Team | Rookie Team |
| Cal Jennings, F, So., UCF Matias Pyysalo, M/F, Sr., UCF Yoni Sorokin, M, Fr., UCF Jacob Hauser-Ramsey, B, Jr., UConn Abdou Mbacke Thiam, F, Jr., UConn Adrian Billhardt, F, Fr., USF Ricardo Gomez, M, Sr., USF Jordan Cano, B, Sr., SMU Mauro Cichero, M, Sr., SMU Garrett McLaughlin, F, So., SMU Michael Nelson, GK, R-Sr., SMU Divin Fula Luzolo, B, Sr., Temple | Hattabiou Barry, M, Fr., UCF Louis Perez, M, Fr., UCF Andreas Steineger, B, Jr., UCF David Sanz, M, So., Cincinnati Dylan Greenberg, B, R-Sr., UConn Scott Levene, GK, R-Sr., UConn Ben Roberts, B, So., Memphis David Zalzman, M, Jr., Memphis Jared Rice, B/M, Sr., SMU Alan Camacho Soto, F, Fr., Temple Thibault Candia, F, So., Temple Rollie Rocha, M, Sr., Tulsa | Hattabiou Barry, M, UCF Louis Perez, M, UCF Yoni Sorokin, M, UCF Josh Burnett, M, UConn Blaise N’Gague, M, UConn Adrian Billhardt, F, USF Josue Monge, M, USF Talen Maples, B, SMU Alan Camacho Soto, F, Temple Darri Sigthorsson, B, Temple Joe Ruiz, M, Tulsa |

#### All-Americans
##### College Soccer News

Three players in the conference were named All-Americans by CollegeSoccerNews.com.
* Mauro Cichero, SMU — 1st Team All-American
* Michael Nelson, SMU — 1st Team All-American
* Jordan Cano, SMU — 3rd Team All-American

##### United Soccer Coaches

Three players in the conference were named All-Americans by United Soccer Coaches.
* Mauro Cichero, SMU — 1st Team All-American
* Jordan Cano, SMU — 3rd Team All-American
* Garrett McLaughlin, SMU — 3rd Team All-American

## MLS SuperDraft

Two players from the conference were selected in the 2018 MLS SuperDraft. This included Michael Nelson and Mauro Cichero, both of SMU.

### Total picks by school

| Team | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Total |
| Cincinnati | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Connecticut | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Memphis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SMU | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| South Florida | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Temple | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tulsa | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| UCF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

### List of selections

| Round | Pick # | MLS team | Player | Position | College | Other | Ref. |
| 1 | 20 | Houston Dynamo | Michael Nelson | GK | SMU | | |
| 2 | 29 | FC Dallas | Mauro Cichero | FW | SMU | | |

### Homegrown contracts

| Original MLS team | Player | Position | College | Notes | Ref. |
| FC Dallas | Jordan Cano | Defender | SMU | 2017 AAC Defender of the Year | |