By Bill Koch
With UC preparing to face Temple to begin its final American Athletic Conference Tournament on Friday afternoon, I’m reminded of the first AAC basketball media day on October, 2013.
At the time, schools such as UC, South Florida and UConn were still reeling from the breakup of the old Big East, leaving those three schools with few viable options outside of becoming a charter member of the AAC.
The first media day was held in Memphis’ FedEx Center. It had quite a different feel from the Big East media days in Madison Square Garden, which were attended by every national media outlet in the country that was serious about college basketball.
Now, under the leadership of commissioner Mike Aresco, a new league was trying to get off the ground. Aresco began his selling job immediately as he tried to convince the gathered media representatives that the AAC deserved major conference status from the outset.
“We feel we are a power conference from day one,” Aresco said.
He had a pretty good case to make, even if most of the national media big wigs weren’t around to hear it. Not many new leagues could boast the defending national champion (Louisville) in its first year, even though the Cardinals were short-timers who were set to move to the Atlantic Coast Conference after one year in the AAC. Rutgers, which was scheduled to join the Big Ten the following year, was also a one-year wonder.
That didn’t stop Louisville coach Rick Pitino from playing along.
“I think it’s as good as any conference in college basketball,” Pitino said.
UC coach Mick Cronin acknowledged the missing swarm of national media that routinely attended Big East media day.
“It’s different,” Cronin said. “But you have to embrace the change.”
The new league consisted of five schools from the Big East – UC, UConn, Louisville, Rutgers and South Florida; four from Conference USA – Central Florida, Houston, Memphis and SMU, plus Temple, which played the previous year in the Atlantic 10.
“This is a top-level basketball league,” said Memphis coach Josh Pastner. “I think us and the ACC are the two best basketball leagues in the country. I’d be shocked if six teams from our league aren’t in the NCAA Tournament.”
By the end of the season, the new league had lived up to its expectations. UConn won the national championship. Four teams played in the NCAA Tournament, and three players from the league – UC’s Sean Kilpatrick, UConn’s Shabazz Napier, and Louisville’s Russ Smith – were AP first-team All-Americans.
UC shared the inaugural league title with Louisville, Cronin was the Coach of the Year, and Justin Jackson was Defensive Player of the Year. But Kilpatrick, despite leading the league in scoring with 20.6 points per game, was not the Player of the Year. That honor went to UConn’s Napier.
Indeed, the future was bright for the new league, despite the departure of Louisville and Rutgers the following year. There was just one problem: From the beginning, many of the teams in the league, including UC, were looking for a way out.
It took 10 years, but three of them – UC, Houston and UCF – finally got over the wall. They’re all headed to the Big 12 next season.
With UC preparing to face Temple to begin its final American Athletic Conference Tournament on Friday afternoon, I’m reminded of the first AAC basketball media day on October, 2013.
At the time, schools such as UC, South Florida and UConn were still reeling from the breakup of the old Big East, leaving those three schools with few viable options outside of becoming a charter member of the AAC.
The first media day was held in Memphis’ FedEx Center. It had quite a different feel from the Big East media days in Madison Square Garden, which were attended by every national media outlet in the country that was serious about college basketball.
Now, under the leadership of commissioner Mike Aresco, a new league was trying to get off the ground. Aresco began his selling job immediately as he tried to convince the gathered media representatives that the AAC deserved major conference status from the outset.
“We feel we are a power conference from day one,” Aresco said.
He had a pretty good case to make, even if most of the national media big wigs weren’t around to hear it. Not many new leagues could boast the defending national champion (Louisville) in its first year, even though the Cardinals were short-timers who were set to move to the Atlantic Coast Conference after one year in the AAC. Rutgers, which was scheduled to join the Big Ten the following year, was also a one-year wonder.
That didn’t stop Louisville coach Rick Pitino from playing along.
“I think it’s as good as any conference in college basketball,” Pitino said.
UC coach Mick Cronin acknowledged the missing swarm of national media that routinely attended Big East media day.
“It’s different,” Cronin said. “But you have to embrace the change.”
The new league consisted of five schools from the Big East – UC, UConn, Louisville, Rutgers and South Florida; four from Conference USA – Central Florida, Houston, Memphis and SMU, plus Temple, which played the previous year in the Atlantic 10.
“This is a top-level basketball league,” said Memphis coach Josh Pastner. “I think us and the ACC are the two best basketball leagues in the country. I’d be shocked if six teams from our league aren’t in the NCAA Tournament.”
By the end of the season, the new league had lived up to its expectations. UConn won the national championship. Four teams played in the NCAA Tournament, and three players from the league – UC’s Sean Kilpatrick, UConn’s Shabazz Napier, and Louisville’s Russ Smith – were AP first-team All-Americans.
UC shared the inaugural league title with Louisville, Cronin was the Coach of the Year, and Justin Jackson was Defensive Player of the Year. But Kilpatrick, despite leading the league in scoring with 20.6 points per game, was not the Player of the Year. That honor went to UConn’s Napier.
Indeed, the future was bright for the new league, despite the departure of Louisville and Rutgers the following year. There was just one problem: From the beginning, many of the teams in the league, including UC, were looking for a way out.
It took 10 years, but three of them – UC, Houston and UCF – finally got over the wall. They’re all headed to the Big 12 next season.
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