Smu was the surprise victor of the American Athletic Conference, and they'll look to add a tournament title to that resume when they begin play against eighth-seeded East Carolina on Friday afternoon. The Mustangs pummeled Memphis last time out to become the outright winners of the regular season title. The Pirates knocked off Temple in the second round of the tournament. SMU has won the last six meetings against ECU. Tipoff is set for 12:00 PM Eastern time and the game can be seen on ESPN2 and online with WatchESPN and the ESPN app.
No. 8 East Carolina (15-17, 6-12 AAC)
The Pirates will be heavy underdogs in this matchup and that comes as a surprise to nobody. Their opponent is coming in red-hot offensively while East Carolina has jumped their average to 67.8 points in the last five games. They've also struggled away from home all season. Their lone road win in AAC play was over second-to-last place Tulane by three points.
Kentrell Barkley (12.8 ppg, 7.7 rpg) will be the hardest player to stop. He put up a stunning 26 points and 16 rebounds in a dominant win over Temple. Keep an eye on Caleb White (11.6 ppg). While he finished with 11 points and 4 rebounds, he had a tremendous streak of scoring 21.6 points on average in three games at the end of February.
No. 1 SMU (27-4, 17-1 AAC)
Latest ESPN projections show the Mustangs as a 5 seed in the NCAA tournament. They've truly done everything they could to win the committee over. Only a minimal loss to Cincinnati haunts them from having a perfect record in the AAC. Expect SMU to be hanging around throughout the weekend.
Sterling Brown (12.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg) had the best overall game in the blowout win against Memphis.
He hit 9-of-13 shots from the field and finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds. Semi Ojeleye (18.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg) has scored 18 or more points in six of his last seven games.
All games in the AAC tournament take place at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. SMU is favored by a whopping 17 points and the O/U is set at 127 points. The Mustangs are 20-5-1 against the spread this season.
