Opening Weekend Takeaways from the American
Posted by Jared Kotler on November 16th, 2015The American Athletic Conference opened with 11 contests featuring league squads over the weekend — including two victories for Cincinnati and an easy win for the AAC’s only ranked team at the moment. While exceptionally early, it’s never too soon to make some initial observations. Here are five such thoughts from over the weekend.
- UConn, Cincinnati and SMU are the Teams to Beat: Since the American’s existence as a conference, there has been a clear divide between the top and bottom halves of the league. From this weekend’s results, it appears as if there will be a clear divide between the top three teams and the rest of the conference. UConn, Cincinnati and SMU did exactly what was expected of them — which was to roll over their weaker opponents. It will be interesting to see how these three teams fare as they play some tougher non-conference teams in the coming weeks.
After a promising opening weekend, Farad Cobb looks to lead Cincinnati on the offensive end this year. (USA TODAY Sports)
- Has Cincinnati Found Its Go-To Scorer? As discussed in our opening weekend hopes post, Cincinnati needs to find a go-to player on the offensive end of the floor. Head coach Mick Cronin thought that Troy Caupain might become that player, but senior Farad Cobb surprised everyone this weekend with 11 points in the opener against Western Carolina, including a 3-of-3 performance from behind the arc. To show some consistency, Cobb followed that up with a team-high 15-point outing against Robert Morris on Sunday. If Cobb can consistently perform at this level, the Bearcats become much more dangerous with legitimate perimeter scoring to complement what Gary Clark and Octavious Ellis are doing inside.
- The bottom teams in this league are going to be really bad: The American has struggled for some time with the worst teams dragging down the conference RPI and resulting in a long-term negative impact. Look for this to continue as the weaker teams in the league all lost this weekend; and not only did they lose, but they lost to some of the worst teams in all of college basketball. Most disappointing for the American had to be Tulane who lost on a buzzer-beater in overtime to Alabama A&M. Tulane has a young team and is looking to improve, but ending the game on an 0-of-4 run with three turnovers is not the way you want to tip off the season campaign. South Florida also did the American no favors by blowing a 14-point lead in a loss to Troy.
Could Adonys Henriquez lead UCF to be a sleeper team in the American? (USA TODAY Sports)
- Could UCF be the Surprise Team in the American? Each year brings about a new sleeper pick in the American. Could Central Florida overtake Houston’s presumptive spot as this year’s surprise team? Playing in one of the toughest games of the weekend, UCF lost a close contest to Davidson, last year’s Atlantic 10 regular season champion. Tacko Fall, a 7’6″ freshman center on the Knights’ roster, made his much-anticipated debut with a lackluster four points and three rebounds in only 14 minutes of play, while Adonys Henriquez led things by scoring 18 points in the loss. Still, a loss by only five points against tough competition is encouraging for a team picked to finish 9th in league play.
- Memphis Still Struggling with Its Guard Play: One of the reasons for Memphis’ struggles last year was a lack of consistent production from its guards. Heralded transfer Ricky Tarrant was supposed to be one of the answers, but he disappointed on Saturday with a mere four points against Southern Miss — two of those coming from the free throw line. Avery Woodson provided nine points of his own, but if not for a 15-point, nine-rebound performance from Shaq Goodwin inside, Memphis may have gotten into some trouble. Tarrant in particular needs to find his game, and he’ll have a very tough test upcoming this week against Oklahoma and its All-American candidate, Buddy Hield.
