The American Athletic Conference’s inaugural tournament moves into its semifinal round on Friday with top-ranked Cincinnati set to play fourth-ranked Connecticut and second-seeded Louisville facing off against No. 6 seed Houston.
American Athletic Conference Tournament schedule and bracket: Semifinals take place on Friday
Four teams, including defending national champion Louisville, will do battle in the American Athletic Conference’s semifinals on Friday.
Joe Murphy
After crushing Rutgers 92-31 on Thursday, Louisville heads into its semifinal matchup with Houston on Friday with tons of momentum. The Cardinals have gone 15-3 since the new year on the back of a stifling defense that held Rutgers to just 12 field goal makes in the quarterfinals. With a convincing 81-48 victory over UConn in its last game of the regular season, Louisville is riding high at the moment, as the team's two starting guards, Chris Jones and Russ Smith, lead a formidable squad that has climbed to fifth overall in both the AP and USA Today Coaches polls.
Houston earned an impressive 68-64 upset over SMU on Thursday, but the Cougars will have their work cut out for them against Rick Pitino and Louisville. In their prior two meetings this season, the Cardinals blew out Houston at home 91-52 in January and scored a second victory over the Cougars in a 77-62 win on the road in February. With its national championship aspirations growing, Louisville will be looking to advance to the AAC’s first conference championship game on Saturday.
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In Friday’s second semifinal contest, Cincinnati and UConn will square off in what should be a tightly contested matchup. Cincinnati, the tournament’s top seed, defeated Central Florida 61-58 in a nail-biter on Thursday, getting a big 21-point, nine-rebound performance from guard Sean Kilpatrick. The Bearcats will be playing UConn for the third time this season after the two teams split their regular season matchups in two games decided by a total of 11 points.
After dispatching Memphis 72-53, UConn will be looking to avenge its most recent loss (63-58 back in February) to Cincinnati. UConn is led by senior guard Shabazz Napier, who averaged 17.6 points and 5.1 assists this season, though he was held to just 11 points against Memphis on Thursday. Niels Giffey will also help lead the UConn attack after scoring a game-high 24 points, including six three-pointers, against Memphis.
Thursday’s schedule of games:
No. 6 Houston vs. No. 2 Louisville, 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2
No. 4 Connecticut vs. No. 1 Cincinnati, 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2
Here is a link to the AAC Tournament bracket.
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