36. Houston: The top of the AAC will have a rotation of teams. UCF took a hit with a home loss to Florida Atlantic and Cincinnati lost at home to Ohio State. The Cougars played a weaker opponent in Alabama A&M but cruised to a 101-54 win behind Armoni Brooks’ six 3s for 24 points.
https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/1061804582463004672
https://twitter.com/TomPenders/status/1062147497316020230
https://twitter.com/TomPenders/status/1062150182765236224
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I missed that FAU beat UCF. Ugh…that feels like a typical AAC football OOC loss in the early season (I am looking at you Temple!). I know basketball is different but I am hoping the Coogs can take care of business against the unranked teams.
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Really couldn’t believe that prognosticators picked UCF to win it all this year. American is a tough conference with solid coaches. I know a lot of good players left, but that doesn’t mean that those teams (specifically Cincy and Houston) didn’t reload.
UCF’s never been a favorite before and it showed against FAU. They led by 20 at the half, and ended up giving up 49 points in the 2nd half to a team that was 12-19 last year. The defense fell apart when it mattered most and UCF couldn’t put Fall out there because FAU was burying threes left and right on them. Reminds me somewhat of our bad early loss last year or our struggles early the two previous years. I think they’ll be a solid 3rd or 4th place team in the conference, might pull off an upset or two, but Cincy and Houston should probably have been the picks to win the conference this year.
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By the way…was really odd that Katz had Wichita State at 26 in his rankings based solely on beating Providence. I mean, that’s a decent win, but they also lost to Louisiana Tech.
We take care of our business and we will be fine. All that gnashing of teeth last year and we were a desperation heave from the Sweet 16
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Katz has always been higher on us than others, and it has worked out. I don’t think other national writers are down on the AAC, they’re just not sure who is going to rise to the top.
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I concur…
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Unlike so many of our fans that proclaimed our season over after Drexel, Katz who had witnessed that game maintained that we were a Tourney team
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We stay at 36, yet UCF, who wasn’t ranked last week, jumps back in:
Up to 17 in Katz’s rankings
https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2018-12-03/college-basketball-gonzaga-virginia-michigan-top-power-36
17. Houston (30) : The Cougars are on a roll, 6-0 and held off Oregon by four behind AAC player of the year candidate Armoni Brooks. I’ll be interested to see if Houston can get another true road win at Oklahoma State this Saturday after winning at BYU two weeks ago.