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1. Will this conference finally get the national respect it deserves?

It all depends on what happens in November and December. The American Athletic Conference has had one fewer team in the NCAA Tournament than it has deserved in each of the past two seasons (Temple in 2015, SMU in 2014) and in order for that to change, this league needs to do major damage in the non-conference portion of the schedule. On paper, the American looks comparable to the Big East in terms of potential NCAA bids for 2016, but will need to perform well against other leagues head-to-head in November and December to truly move the needle nationally. For this conference to be rewarded in March, programs like SMU, UConn, Cincinnati and Memphis need to spend large portions of time in the Top 25 during the upcoming season. Another thing that should help the American? The bottom of this conference has caught up to the middle. Houston, South Florida and Central Florida should all be vastly improved from where they were a year ago and that should help overall league RPI by the time conference play starts in early January

•If Larry Brown is going to go on a deep NCAA Tournament run at SMU, 2016 is the year. The Mustangs return arguably two of the top five players in the American Conference in Nic Moore and Markus Kennedy along with a quality glue guy in Sterling Brown. Brown is also bullish on Duke transfer Semi Ojeleye, who is expected to log minutes at small forward next to Kennedy and Texas Tech transfer Jordan Tolbert up front. A former Top-50 recruit, Ojeleye will be eligible starting in December.

What does the NCAA have on SMU and will it impact the Mustangs' 2016 postseason?

Allegations of academic improprieties have created a Dallas-sized elephant in the room for Larry Brown's surging SMU program. The NCAA issued a Notice of Allegations in the midst of a breakthrough season for the Mustangs -- the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1993 -- and the on-court success, even without key players many thought would be in the mix, overtook the NCAA news in the college basketball consciousness.

Receiving the Notice of Allegations in January suggests, according to a typical timeline, that a Committee on Infractions meeting could come as early as June. Well, June has come and gone, and we still don't know what, if any, sanctions are coming for SMU. In the case of Syracuse, the ruling from the NCAA brought an immediate decision to forego the postseason. If that happens for the Mustangs, it would be an immediate halt to an otherwise impressive start to the American's first era of existence.

EARLY GUESS AT LEAGUE STANDINGS (TEAM COMMENTARY IN 140 CHARACTERS OR LESS)

1. SMU: Nic Moore and Markus Kennedy headline the league favorites. Can the goaltending call count as a self-imposed NCAA penalty?

2. UConn: Huskies fans have been eyeing 2016 since November. Adding Gibbs and All-Ivy forward Shonn Miller have only raised expectations.

3. Cincinnati: Bringing back a great defensive team has me thinking Cincinnati can compete with anyone, but winning a title will require a scorer.

4. Tulsa: James Woodard and Shaq Harrison were one of the best one-two combos in the AAC last year. Tulsa just needs consistency to dance.

5. Temple: Replacing Will Cummings is the only question for the reigning Coach of the Year and an Owls team looking for another 20+ season.

6. Memphis: Memphis fans trying to erase the bad taste of the Nichols situation? Let dreams of the Lawson family youth movement reset your palate.

7. East Carolina: Freshman B.J. Tyson was one of the few bright spots in a disappointing first season of AAC play for the Pirates.

8. UCF: Rising soph's B.J. Taylor and Adonys Henriquez give the Knights a talented core for a team that loses just one senior.

9. Houston: Cougs shot it well from outside as a team but lost its best bomber with Jherod Stiggers exit. Won 4-of-5 to close in Sampson's first year.

10. USF: This young group is studying abroad in August. We'll see if they come back with any on-court improvement from when we last saw them in 2015.

11. Tulane: There's no good pick for the bottom. Tulane could finish 11th or as high as 7th. A rough finish and struggling offense has them here

Thanks, Harry.

I don't think there is any question it is our conference to lose this year assuming Markus is back - and if he is doing interviews it means he is in the second summer session which is good...

Whatever happened to Keith Frazier? Did I miss something? (other than the usual)

All I know is KF:
worked SMU kids camps
has been practicing with the team
twitter acct makes zero sense to anyone over age 19
name still listed on roster

Looks like he is staying?!?!

Kwhiz may well be onto something

I assume Frazier is still in school since he is still listed as a student in the SMU directory, which also means he still has a chance to be eligible for the fall.

Hope things are going well academically for both Markus and Keith.

With this depth, skill-set and no seven footers we are going to be match-up hell for the competition.