The American Conference lost a quality basketball program in Houston to the Big 12, along with Cincinnati and UCF. However, the AAC brought in Florida Atlantic, who ended last season on a buzzer beater in the Final Four. Also joining the AAC for this season are North Texas, Rice, Charlotte, UAB and UTSA.

FAU was selected as the favorite in the preseason coaches’ poll, while Tulsa was picked to finish 10th in the 14-team league.

“All six teams from Conference USA, I’m very familiar with and competed against all of them before,” said Tulsa head coach Eric Konkol. “But you look at the type of seasons that they had, from of course FAU going to the Final Four, and they bring really everybody back other than Michael Forrest, who was a key player for them, but came off the bench.

“North Texas had some changes. They have a new coach in Ross Hodge, but he was there as a part of their program as an assistant, as associate head coach for a number of years. But their program is one that goes and wins the NIT. UAB has got a lot of new faces but really talented. They go to the NIT championship last year. Then Charlotte won the CBI and had one of their highest win totals.

“So, you could look and say, ‘hey we've lost some really good teams’ and we have, but the overall number going to 14 teams, we're actually deeper, and we've got some teams with some success and some experience under their belt. It's going to make for a very, very challenging conference play.”