The 2016 American Athletic Conference Tournament remains a wide-open field after a crazy day of action on Friday. We saw one team shore up its resume after an epic quadruple-overtime game, while a double-digit seed pulled an upset win under the most unlikely of circumstances.
American Athletic Conference Tournament 2016 schedule and bracket: UConn, Memphis advance to final
UConn continued its run with an upset of Temple and will meet Memphis in the AAC championship game Sunday.
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By far the best game of the day featured Connecticut taking on Cincinnati. With both teams sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble, they left everything on the court and we didn’t have a winner decided until a fourth overtime period. The Bearcats seemingly had the game won in triple overtime, taking an 88-85 lead with 0.8 seconds left. And then Jalen Adams launched a 70-foot desperation heave that found nothing but net. sending the game to another overtime period that UConn eventually won.
With the win, UConn appears to be on the safe side of the bubble for now, but they’ll have another difficult challenge against top-seeded Temple on Saturday. Meanwhile, Cincy’s fate is now in the hands of the selection committee.
The other crazy game of the night saw No. 10 seed Tulane take down No. 2 Houston in the final seconds. This game took on a strange atmosphere when news broke on Twitter that Green Wave coach Ed Conroy would be fired. During the game, no less -- even fans were telling Conroy about it.
Nevertheless, Tulane pulled off the big upset win and things will probably be awkward at the office over the next few days. They’ll be facing Memphis, which put a huge dent in Tulsa’s at-large resume with an 89-67 shellacking. With this blowout loss, the Golden Hurricane likely dropped to the NIT after being on the bubble fringes most of the season.
Bracket
Follow our continued coverage of the American tournament with the bracket and scores all here.
Schedule (all times Eastern)
Saturday (Semifinals)
Game 7: No. 5 Connecticut 77, No. 1 Temple 62
Game 8: No. 6 Memphis 74, No. 10 Tulane 51
Sunday (Championship)
Game 9: No. 5 Connecticut vs. No. 6 Memphis (3:15 p.m., ESPN)
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