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The RPI is what it is,” Cronin told FanRag Sports after Cincinnati’s Thursday practice. “It matters and it didn’t reflect very well on the American Conference last season. That’s one of the main reasons why both us and SMU wound up as six seeds in the NCAA Tournament. It’s human nature. The truth is the injuries at UConn and Temple as well as the rebuilding situation at Memphis hurt our league. People look at how low our conference RPI was and they think that the only reason why the two teams at the top were as good as we were was because we were beating up on everyone else in the league.”
That won’t be so easy this season, though. Thanks to the addition of Wichita State, and the rehabilitated rosters at both UConn and Temple, Cronin sees a major breakthrough for the American Athletic Conference in 2018.
“The American is a lock to have four teams in the 2018 NCAA Tournament and five is a real possibility,” Cronin said. “I think Wichita State, Cincinnati, and SMU are locks. Temple is an NCAA Tournament team, but nobody talks about them because they fail to understand how good Josh Brown is and the fact that he didn’t play last year. They were building last season for an NCAA run this year and there’s nobody better at that than Coach Dunphy. UCF is also really good and Houston was an NIT team last season.”

Cronin speaks the truth.

You go Mick.

Why even play the season-Cincy's Coach says they are a lock for the NCAA

regardless of seedings, the AAC has performed poorly in post-season so until we prove ourselves we aren't going to be respected as a conference. Really need to win more non-conference games against P5 programs, especially ranked opponents. Looks like SMU will at least have some opportunities to contribute to the AAC's credibility this season

If they seeded ‘properly/fairly’ that may not have been the case.

Charleston Pony wrote:regardless of seedings, the AAC has performed poorly in post-season so until we prove ourselves we aren't going to be respected as a conference. Really need to win more non-conference games against P5 programs, especially ranked opponents. Looks like SMU will at least have some opportunities to contribute to the AAC's credibility this season

CP, I believe you're forgetting about 2014. Louisville made it to the sweet 16 and UConn won the national championship.

So thankful for our basketball conference. Really, everything basketball.

Some good stuff from Mick right there.

But I definitely don't see us as a lock. Too many unknowns and too brutal of an OOC schedule plus Wichita State now.

You're not exactly Mr. Optimism.

My take is we're not a lock by any means because of those unknowns, but I think Jank will find a way to get these guys to jell enough that we dance this year.

smusic 00 wrote:If they seeded ‘properly/fairly’ that may not have been the case.

Post season you've got to beat whoever is on the other side of the draw. Both UCLA and USC were game we could have or should have won. I disliked the seeding as much as anyone but I won't ever use it as an excuse. You get your cred by doing one thing and one thing alone: beating people.

And...in response to another comment here: I don't see us as a lock this year either. But I do really dig it that Mick does!

It can be both --- we were underseeded AND we should have won both of those games.
I also agree with Mick, I think the conference gets four teams in and UCONN is a wild card.

Mick knows how to promote the conference.

I think you have to earn a top 4/16 seed to get any break in the tourney. At 5/6, you are going to get a quality opponent capable of winning a game or two and it happens every year. If someone dominates the American and wins both regular season and tourney titles, they might get into that 4 line depending on what they accomplish in non-conference play. Even when SMU dominated AAC play, we just didn't have the quality wins in non-conference so I've never really complained about our seeding. Like another poster said, we could have won both the UCLA and USC games but didn't play our best ball in either game. Hopefully the program is to a point where we will get opportunities year after year to build on our bball reputation.

Love this. Cronin doing his best Mack Brown impersonation