# 2014–15 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season

The 2014–15 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season took place between November 2014 and March 2015. Practices began in October 2014, with conference play beginning in December, and the season ended with the 2015 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament. The season was the second since the split of the original Big East Conference into two separate leagues.
This was the first season for East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa in American Athletic competition.

## Preseason
### Coaching changes

* Tulsa Hired Frank Haith, after Former Coach Danny Manning took the Wake Forest job
* Kelvin Sampson was hired at Houston after former coach James Dickey resigned for Personal reasons
* Orlando Antigua was hired at USF, after USF rescinded their offer to Steve Masiello after it was reported that he had not graduated from the University of Kentucky, as his resume had stated. Masiello was originally hired to replace Stan Heath, who was fired

### Predicted American Athletic results

At American Athletic Conference media day on October 29, the conference released their predictions for standings and All-Conference teams.
| | Coaches |
| 1. | Connecticut (6) |
| 2. | SMU (5) |
| 3. | Memphis |
| 4. | Cincinnati |
| 5. | Tulsa |
| 6. | Temple |
| 7. | Houston |
| 8. | USF |
| 9. | UCF |
| 10. | East Carolina |
| 11. | Tulane |
 first place votes

### Preseason All-AAC Teams

| First Team | Second Team |
| Ryan Boatright, G, UCONN Shaq Goodwin, F, MEM Austin Nichols, F, MEM Nic Moore, G, SMU Markus Kennedy, F, SMU James Woodard, G, TULSA | Amida Brimah, C, UCONN Anthony Collins, G, USF Chris Perry, F, USF Will Cummings, G, TEM Quenton DeCosey, G, TEM |
American Athletic Preseason Player of the Year: Ryan Boatright, Connecticut American Athletic Preseason Rookie of the Year: Daniel Hamilton, Connecticut

### Preseason Watchlists

| Naismith | John Wooden Award |
| Ryan Boatright, G, UConn Nic Moore, G, SMU | Nic Moore, G, SMU |

## Rankings

Legend :
* Increase in ranking
* Decrease in ranking
* Not ranked previous week
| | | Pre | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 8 | Wk 9 | Wk 10 | Wk 11 | Wk 12 | Wk 13 | Wk 14 | Wk 15 | Wk 16 | Wk 17 | Wk 18 |
| Cincinnati | AP | RV | RV | RV | | | RV | | | | | RV | | | | |
| Cincinnati | C | | RV | RV | | | RV | | | | | RV | | | | |
| Connecticut | AP | 17 | 17 | 24 | RV | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Connecticut | C | 15 | 17 | 22 | 23 | RV | | | | | | | | | | |
| East Carolina | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| East Carolina | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Houston | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Houston | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Memphis | AP | RV | RV | RV | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Memphis | C | RV | RV | RV | RV | | | | | | | | | | | |
| SMU | AP | 22 | 23 | RV | | | | RV | RV | | 22 | 25 | 21 | 21 | 22 | 20 |
| SMU | C | 22 | 22 | RV | RV | | | RV | RV | RV | 22 | 25 | 22 | 21 | 22 | 21 |
| South Florida | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| South Florida | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Temple | AP | | | | | | RV | | | | RV | | | | | |
| Temple | C | | | | | | RV | | | | | | | | | |
| Tulane | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Tulane | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Tulsa | AP | | | | | | | | | RV | RV | | | | | |
| Tulsa | C | | | | | | | | | RV | RV | RV | | | | |
| UCF | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| UCF | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

## AAC regular season

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.
| | Cincinnati | Connecticut | East Carolina | Houston | Memphis | SMU | South Florida | Temple | Tulane | Tulsa | UCF |
| vs. Cincinnati | – | 1-1 | 1-1 | 0-2 | 1-1 | 0-2 | 0–1 | 1-1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 |
| vs. Connecticut | 1-1 | – | 0–2 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0-2 | 2-0 | 0–2 | 1-1 | 0-1 |
| vs. East Carolina | 1-1 | 2–0 | – | 1-1 | 1–1 | 1-0 | 1-1 | 2–0 | 1-0 | 2–0 | 0–2 |
| vs. Houston | 2-0 | 0–1 | 1-1 | – | 2-0 | 2–0 | 1-1 | 1–0 | 1-1 | 2-0 | 2-0 |
| vs. Memphis | 1-1 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 0-2 | – | 2-0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1-1 | 2-0 | 0-2 |
| vs. SMU | 2-0 | 1–1 | 0-1 | 0–2 | 0-2 | – | 0-2 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 0–2 | 0–2 |
| vs. South Florida | 1–0 | 2-0 | 1-1 | 1-1 | 1–0 | 2-0 | – | 2-0 | 2-0 | 2-0 | 1–1 |
| vs. Temple | 1-1 | 0-2 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 2-0 | 0-2 | – | 0-2 | 2–0 | 0-2 |
| vs. Tulane | 1–1 | 2–0 | 0-1 | 1–1 | 1-1 | 1-0 | 0-2 | 2-0 | – | 2–0 | 2-0 |
| vs. Tulsa | 1–0 | 1-1 | 0–2 | 0-2 | 0-2 | 2–0 | 0-2 | 0–2 | 0-2 | – | 0-1 |
| vs. UCF | 2–0 | 1-0 | 2-0 | 0-2 | 2-0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 2-0 | 0-2 | 1-0 | – |
| Total | 13–5 | 10–8 | 6–12 | 4-14 | 10–8 | 15–3 | 3–15 | 13–5 | 6–12 | 14–4 | 5–13 |

## Postseason

* March 12–15, 2015 at the XL Center in Hartford, CT
2015 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament seeds and results :
| Seed | School | Conf. | Over. | Tiebreaker | First round March 12 | Quarterfinals March 13 | Semifinals March 14 | Championship March 15 |
| 1. | SMU ‡† | 15-3 | 24-6 | | Bye | vs. #8 East Carolina - W, 74-68 | vs. #4 Temple - W, 69-56 | vs. #6 Connecticut - W, 62-54 |
| 2. | Tulsa † | 14-4 | 21-9 | | Bye | vs. #10 Houston - W, 59-51 | vs. #6 Connecticut - L, 42–47 | |
| 3. | Cincinnati † | 13-5 | 22-9 | 2-0 vs. SMU | Bye | vs. #6 Connecticut - L, 54–57 | | |
| 4. | Temple† | 13-5 | 22-9 | 0-2 vs. SMU | Bye | vs. #5 Memphis - W, 80-75 | vs. #1 SMU - L, 56–69 | |
| 5. | Memphis† | 10-8 | 18-13 | 2-0 vs. CONN | Bye | vs. #4 Temple - L, 75–80 | | |
| 6. | Connecticut | 10-8 | 17-13 | 0-2 vs. MEM | vs. #11 South Florida - W, 69-43 | vs. #3 Cincinnati - W, 47-44 | vs. #2 Tulsa - W, 47-42 | vs. #1 SMU - L, 54–62 |
| 7. | Tulane | 6-12 | 15-15 | 1-0 vs. ECU | vs. #10 Houston - L, 60–66 | | | |
| 8. | East Carolina | 6-12 | 13-18 | 0-1 vs. TULN | vs. #9 UCF - W, 81-80 OT | vs. #1 SMU - L, 68–74 | | |
| 9. | UCF | 5-13 | 12-17 | | vs. #8 East Carolina - L, 80–81 OT | | | |
| 10. | Houston | 4-14 | 12-18 | | vs. #7 Tulane - W, 66-60 | vs. #2 Tulsa - L, 51-59 | | |
| 11. | South Florida | 3-15 | 9-22 | | vs. #6 Connecticut - L, 43-69 | | | |
| ‡ – American regular season champions, and tournament No. 1 seed. † – Received a single-bye in the conference tournament. ||||||||||

### NCAA tournament

| Seed | Region | School | First Four | Round of 64 | Round of 32 | Sweet 16 | Elite Eight | Final Four | Championship |
| 6 | South | SMU | Bye | vs. #11 UCLA - L, 59-60 | | | | | |
| 8 | Midwest | Cincinnati | Bye | vs. #9 Purdue - W, 66-55 OT | vs. #1 Kentucky - L, 64-51 | | | | |
| | | W–L (%): | 0–0 – | 1–1 .500 | 0–1 .000 | 0–0 – | 0–0 – | 0–0 – | 0–0 – Total: 1–2 .333 |

### National Invitation tournament

| Seed | Bracket | School | First round | Second round | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals |
| 1 | Temple | Temple | vs. #8 Bucknell - W, 73-67 | vs. #5 George Washington - W, 90-77 | vs. #3 Louisiana Tech - W, 77-59 | vs. #2 Miami (FL) - L, 57-60 | |
| 2 | Old Dominion | Tulsa | vs. #7 William & Mary - W, 70-67 | vs. #3 Murray State - L, 62-83 | | | |
| 4 | Richmond | Connecticut | vs. #5 Arizona State - L, 61-68 | | | | |
| | | W–L (%): | 2–1 .667 | 1–1 .500 | 1–0 1.000 | 0–1 .000 | 0–0 – Total: 4–3 .571 |

## Awards and honors
### Conference awards and teams

All Conference and All Rookie teams were announced on March 10, Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man Award, Most Improved Player, and Sportsmanship Award were announced on March 11. Player of the Year and Coach of the year were announced on March 12
2015 American Athletic Conference Basketball Individual Awards :
| Award | Recipient(s) |
| American Athletic Conference Player of the Year | Nic Moore G., SMU |
| Coach of the Year | Fran Dunphy , TEMP |
| Rookie of the Year | Daniel Hamilton G/F., CONN |
| Scholar-Athlete of the Year | Pat Lenehan G., CONN |
| Most Improved Player | Yanick Moreira C., SMU |
| Sixth Man Award | Markus Kennedy F., SMU |
| Sportsmanship Award | Shaq Goodwin F., MEMPHIS |
2015 American Athletic Conference All-Conference Teams| :
| First Team | Second Team | Honorable Mention | All-Rookie Team |
| Ryan Boatright $^†$, G., CONN Austin Nichols, F., MEMPH Nic Moore $^†$, G., SMU Will Cummings, G., TEMP James Woodard, G., TULSA | Octavius Ellis, F., CIN Markus Kennedy, F., SMU Yanick Moreira, C., SMU Louis Dabney, G., TULN Shaquille Harrison, G., TULSA | Troy Caupain, G., CIN Amida Brimah, C., CONN Daniel Hamilton, G/F., CONN Jaylen Bond, F., TEMP | Adonys Henriquez, G., UCF B. J. Taylor, G., UCF Gary Clark, F., CIN Daniel Hamilton $^†$, G/F., CONN B. J. Tyson $^†$, G., ECU |
| $^†$ - denotes unanimous selection ||||