In its first year of existence, the American Athletic Conference is certainly providing some excitement.
The Player of the Year race is an exciting three-man contest between UConn’s Shabazz Napier, Louisville’s Russ Smith and Cincinnati’s Sean Kilpatrick, who went off for 34 points Thursday when the No. 15 Bearcats beat No. 20 Memphis, 97-84, on Senior Night at Cincinnati.
Cincinnati and Louisville are now tied atop the league at 14-3 with one game to play, and it could come down to a coin flip for the No. 1 seed in next week’s postseason tournament in Memphis.
Here are the postseason scenarios according to league spokesman Chuck Sullivan:
**If Louisville, Cincinnati and Memphis win Saturday, we flip a coin for the No. 1 seed (between Louisville and Cincinnati). Both teams would be declared regular-season co-champions.
Those results would create a three-way tie at 12-6 between SMU, UConn and Memphis. Both Louisville and Cincinnati would be 4-2 against that collective group and they both swept every other team in succession in the standings. SMU would be the No. 3 seed, UConn the 4 and Memphis the 5.
**If Louisville and Cincinnati both win Saturday, then Louisville would get the tiebreaker if SMU beats Memphis (since Louisville would be 4-0 against SMU/UConn; Cincinnati 2-2 against that group).
Here’s the link to the league tiebreaker rule.
Personally, I think it would be pretty entertaining if it came down to a coin flip for the No. 1 seed.
Photo: AP
