Field Set For 2015 American Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Championship

From the American Athletic Conference:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – After emerging from a winner-take-all game for the American Athletic Conference regular-season title with a 67-62 victory Sunday, SMU has earned the No. 1 seed for the 2015 American Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Championship.

The Mustangs entered the final day of the regular season tied with Tulsa for the top spot in the conference standings, but rode a 16-point, seven rebound effort by forward Markus Kennedy to the five-point win against the Golden Hurricane, giving SMU its first regular-season conference title since 1993.

The American Athletic Conference Championship takes place March 12-15 at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Tickets are available online at XLCenter.com, in person at the XL Center box office, or by telephone at 877-522-8499.

The tournament will be televised in its entirety on the ESPN Networks, with Sunday’s final scheduled for 3:15 p.m. ET on ESPN. Saturday’s semifinals will be televised on ESPN2, while Friday’s four quarterfinals will be on ESPN2 and ESPNU. ESPNU and ESPNews will provide coverage of Thursday’s three first-round games.

Additionally, all games of the tournament will have national radio distribution by IMG College and will be carried on SiriusXM satellite radio (XM 202, Sirius 218 and 92). Westwood One will have additional national coverage of Sunday’s tournament final. The American Digital Network will provide coverage throughout the week, including postgame press conferences and interviews with coaches and players.

As the No. 1 seed, SMU will play its first game of the tournament March 13 at noon ET, when the Mustangs face the winner of Thursday’s first-round matchup between No. 9-seeded UCF and No. 8-seeded East Carolina.

Tulsa, which fell to SMU in Sunday’s regular-season finale, enters the tournament as the No.2 seed, pairing the Golden Hurricane in a quarterfinal game against the winner of the first-round matchup between No. 10 Houston and No. 7 Tulane.

Cincinnati and Temple finished tied for the third in the conference standings and split their two regular-season meetings. But Cincinnati earned the No. 3 seed in the tournament based on the Bearcats’ two wins against SMU. Cincinnati will face the winner of Thursday’s first-round game between No. 11 USF and No. 6 UConn.

Temple is the No. 4 seed and will face Memphis, the No. 5 seed, in a Friday quarterfinal matchup at 2 p.m. ET.

All 11 American Athletic Conference teams will compete for the league title, including 2014 NCAA champion UConn, which is one of the six conference teams that have reached the NCAA Final Four. The 11 teams that comprise the American Athletic Conference have a combined six NCAA titles, made 22 Final Four appearances, 67 Sweet Sixteen appearances and 173 NCAA tournament appearances.
2015 AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN’S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
XL CENTER • HARTFORD, CONN.

Thursday, March 12 – First Round (ESPNU/ESPNews)
3:30 p.m. No. 9 UCF (12-17) vs. No. 8 East Carolina (13-18) – ESPNU
6 p.m. No. 10 Houston (11-18) vs. No. 7 Tulane (15-15) – ESPNews
8 p.m. No. 11 USF (9-22) vs. No. 6 UConn (17-13) – ESPNews

Friday, March 13 – Quarterfinals (ESPN2/ESPNU)
Noon UCF/East Carolina winner vs. No. 1 SMU (24-6) – ESPN2
2 p.m. No. 5 Memphis (18-13) vs. No. 4 Temple (22-9) – ESPN2
7 p.m. Houston/Tulane winner vs. No. 2 Tulsa (21-9) – ESPNU
9 p.m. USF/UConn winner vs. No. 3 Cincinnati (22-9) – ESPNU

Saturday, March 14 – Semifinals (ESPN2)
3 p.m. Friday afternoon winners
5 p.m. Friday evening winners

Sunday, March 15 – Final (ESPN)
3:15 p.m. Semifinal winners

all times Eastern

Photos – AAC WBB: UConn Huskies vs East Carolina Pirates – 3/8/15

Here is a photo gallery from the 2015 American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament semifinal between the UConn women’s basketball team and the East Carolina Pirates. The UConn Huskies routed East Carolina 106-56.

To see full size picture or slide show, please click on image
(mobile/tablet users: to scroll through photos, you can swipe left or right; to remove caption, tap photo.)

photo credits: ©2015 Ian Bethune

Video: UConn Women Advance To Finals With 50 Point Rout of ECU

There’s many a reason why players choose to play for the UConn women’s basketball team. One of them is to win championships, whether it be a regular season title, in-season tournament title, conference tournament or the big one.

Well, the UConn Huskies will get a chance to play for their second straight American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament title after shellacking the East Carolina Pirates 106-56 in front of 6,531 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT on Sunday night.

Kaleena Mosqueda-LewisUConn (31-1) will play the South Florida Bulls in Monday night’s championship game. The Bulls defeated Tulane in the nightcap. East Carolina (21-10) will not wait until next Monday to find out whether they made the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis had 19 of her 21 points in the first half to pace the Huskies. Moriah Jefferson, who turned 21 on Sunday, gave herself a nice birthday present with 20 points and six assists. Breanna Stewart just missed a double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds while blocking five shots.

Morgan Tuck and Gabby Williams each added 15 and 12 points respectively.

Kiah Stokes became the all-time single season leader in blocks with four in the game. She now has 132 this season which passed Rebecca Lobo’s record of 131.

I’Tiana Taylor led the Pirates with 17 points. Jada Payne added 15 points and a team-high seven rebounds while Abria Trice had 11 points.

UConn Huskies vs East Carolina Pirates 2015 AAC Women’s Basketball Tournament semifinal box score

Here are UConn’s postgame quotes.

Here are East Carolina’s postgame quotes.

Photos – AAC WBB: UConn Huskies vs Cincinnati Bearcats – 3/7/15

Here is a photo gallery from the 2015 American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament quarterfinal between the UConn women’s basketball team and the Cincinnati Bearcats. The UConn Huskies won the game 93-34.

To see full size picture or slide show, please click on image
(mobile/tablet users: to scroll through photos, you can swipe left or right; to remove caption, tap photo.)

photo credits: ©2015 Ian Bethune

Photos-FB: 2015 UConn Football Spring Practice No. 1

Here is a photo gallery from the first spring practice held by the UConn Football team at the Mark R. Shenkman Training Center on campus in Storrs, CT.

To see full size picture or slide show, please click on image
(mobile/tablet users: to scroll through photos, you can swipe left or right; to remove caption, tap photo.)

photo credits: © 2015 Ian Bethune

Video: Geno Auriemma on Breanna Stewart’s Play in the Postseason

The UConn women’s basketball team begins defense of its American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament title from last season on Saturday at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT.

And if there is one thing that UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma can count on, it is the fact that junior Breanna Stewart will become a totally different player, in a good way of course.

As the season has gone, Stewart has stepped her game to another level. She gets her teammates involved all of the time. But when she wants to score, she can do that to.

If you look at the box scores as of late, you’ll notice that Stewie’s offensive numbers have gone up. And as the conference tournament starts and then the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, you’ll most likely see her at the top of the scoring charts for the UConn women’s basketball team.

Watch and/or listen below as Auriemma talks about Stewart’s game rising in the postseason.

UConn Football Enters Spring Practice With Questions at QB

UConn QB #14 Tim Boyle gets the ball off just as he is hit by Temple DB #20 Khiry Lucas.

UConn QB Tim Boyle (14) gets the ball off just as he is hit by Temple DB Khiry Lucas (20) at Rentschler Field.

There are going to be many story lines for the UConn football team as they begin spring practice on Saturday morning.

But the main one is who will be the starting quarterback for the UConn football program in 2015?

With the graduation of Chandler Whitmer and the retirement of Casey Cochran due to concussions, the UConn Huskies will have a battle for the top spot at quarterback. Tim Boyle, a junior next season, Bryant Shirreffs, a redshirt sophomore, and Tyler Davis, a true freshman, will all get a chance to take the first offensive snap against Villanova on September 3.

Head coach Bob Diaco has gone on record saying that he wants the quarterback situation to be settled by the end of spring practice. And on Wednesday afternoon on a conference call with the media, he didn’t shy away from that statement.

“I am not backing away from it, I would like to see a leader emerge from those,” Diaco said. “Everybody for practice one is expected to be full speed, so through that competition I’m very hopeful that not only will a leader emerge, but we’ll have a pecking order of 1-2-3.”

“That’s what we’re working toward, no doubt.”

Boyle has been given the chance to be QB1 over the last two seasons but has struggled mightily. He’s also the only one of the three who has taken a snap at UConn.

Shirreffs played in seven games for the North Carolina State Wolfpack in 2013 before transferring to UConn last fall. But he was mostly used as a wildcat QB running for 158 yards on 34 carries with a touchdown. He also was 4-of-5 passing with a touchdown as well.

Davis is fresh out of high school and will get a chance to compete since he enrolled early at UConn.

This will be an interesting battle to watch as all three possess different strengths.

Hopefully someone from this group will emerge. We definitely don’t need a situation like last season at the beginning where no one from the group of Whitmer, Cochran and Boyle put their best foot forward.

Video: UConn Women Dominate American Athletic Conference Awards

Just like they have their fellow American Athletic Conference opponents, the UConn women’s basketball team dominated the conference awards ceremony on Friday afternoon at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT.

UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma took home Coach of the Year honors while Breanna Stewart (Player of the Year) and Kia Nurse (Freshman of the Year) were honored as well.

Watch and or/listen below as the UConn women’s team is honored by the conference.

Stewie, Nurse and Geno Take Home Top American Honors

From UConn:

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – After leading the No. 1 University of Connecticut women’s basketball team to its 21st regular season conference title, Husky head coach Geno Auriemma has been selected as the American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, as announced by the league on Friday. Additionally, junior forward Breanna Stewart (Syracuse, N.Y.) was named as the conference’s Player of the Year, while guard Kia Nurse was tabbed as the Freshman of the Year.

Geno UConn head coach Geno Auriemma was named the American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year for the second straight season.Auriemma picks up his second-straight and 12th overall conference Coach of the Year honor after leading UConn to a 29-1 overall record in the regular season. The Huskies finished conference play with a perfect 18-0 record, defeating league opposition by an average of 48.7 points per game. The squad clinched The American’s regular season crown outright on Feb. 28 with an 87-24 victory over Memphis at Gampel.

Over the course of 30 seasons at Connecticut, Auriemma was named Coach of the Year in the former Big East conference a total of ten times and garnered National Coach of the Year honors seven times. Auriemma has guided the Huskies to a record nine national championships and owns the record for consecutive Final Four appearances with seven. In total, he has overseen 16 UConn trips to the Final Four.

Stewart, who became the 12th Husky to win a conference Player of the Year accolade in 2013-14, is the first Connecticut player to win consecutive Player of the Year honors since Maya Moore in 2007-09. Stewart’s accomplishment marks the program’s 19th conference player of the year nod for a Husky in the last 27 years.

At 17.4 points per game, Stewart is third in the conference and also ranks in the top-10 in field goal percentage (.540), blocks per game (2.5) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.6). This season, the junior forward has notched 10 20-point games and has reached double figures in 26 of UConn’s 30 games.

Last week, she was named as one of 10 finalists for the 2015 Naismith Trophy and earned a spot on the 2014-15 Capital One Academic All-America Second Team.

Stewart is currently tied with former standout Stefanie Dolson (1,797) for 13th on the Huskies’ all-time scoring list. Additionally, she stands in fifth on the program’s all-time blocks list with 259 career rejections.

Nurse secures the Huskies’ first conference Freshman of the Year honors since Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis took home the award in the 2011-12 season. In total, 13 Huskies have garnered the league award, including five selections since the 2005-06 campaign.

Nurse, who has helped the Huskies earn 29 wins in their first 30 games, has established herself as one of UConn’s most consistent offensive weapons. The guard is one of five Huskies averaging double-digit points (10.9) and ranks second on the squad with 99 assists. The Canadian was tabbed as the league’s Freshman of the Week on Dec. 1 and Dec. 29.

The Huskies open postseason play on Saturday, March 7 when they take on the winner of UCF/Cincinnati in the quarterfinals of The American Championship at 2 p.m.