The first ever American Athletic Conference Tournament begins on Wednesday at the FedExForum in Memphis. It is a pretty standard tournament format, with the bottom four teams opening in the first round and the rest of the conference joining the action in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
American Athletic Conference Tournament 2014 schedule and bracket: 1st ever AAC Tournament starts on Wednesday
The bottom four teams of the AAC get the tournament started on Wednesday.
Jim O’Connor-USA TODAY Sports
The first round of the AAC Tournament might be an ugly affair. There was a bit of a difference in the quality of basketball at the top and the lack thereof at the bottom. No. 7 Rutgers and No. 10 South Florida lead off the first of two games on Wednesday night. It is a good thing that Rutgers faces off against South Florida, because that is the only opponent the Scarlet Knights have beaten since the beginning of February. Rutgers beat Houston on Feb. 1, but lost every other conference game since then to teams other than USF. Kadeem Jack was the star in both games, scoring 31 points and 20 points.
The No. 8 Temple Owls and the No. 9 Central Florida Knights are the second game of the evening. The Owls are in the midst of their worst season since 2006-07 and haven't won so few games since 1975-76. Temple needed overtime to best Central Florida in the teams' last meeting. Dalton Pepper led all scorers with 26 points in the game. Central Florida went through a rough patch in conference play, losing nine straight. The Knights ended the season on a positive note, however, tying a season high with 104 points in a win over Houston.
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Here is the schedule for the AAC Tournament games on Wednesday:
No. 7 Rutgers vs. No. 10 South Florida, 7 p.m. ET, ESPNU
No. 8 Temple vs. No. 9 Central Florida, 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
A link to the full bracket can be viewed here.
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