AAC Coaches Know SMU Improved, but Not How Much

Poll leaves decision to actual season to determine whether Mustangs above or below average, informs key games in newly structured league

DALLAS – It seems the voters for the American Athletic Conference didn't know what exactly to make of SMU, so they stuck the Mustangs smack dab in the middle of everything so as to not make a determination one way or another in the AAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.

SMU head coach Rob Lanier is in his second season, which is when most programs make a sizable leap over the previous year, and he managed to keep his most dangerous weapons while also adding a solid transfer class that ranks No. 2 in the AAC. That's why after finishing next to last in 2022-23 with a 5-11 conference record, the Mustangs climbed quite a bit. 

Had it not been for the addition of Florida Atlantic, which replaces a powerful Houston program and returns most of its key players from a team that was one shot away from being in the national championship team, and Andy Kennedy's UAB team that is expected to push for a possible NCAA Tournament bid, Lanier's team would have squeaked its way into the Top 5.

Perhaps most frustrating to SMU is finishing just three points behind DFW rival North Texas in a tight grouping between the Pirates, Eagles and Mustangs in the second tier of the conference.

American Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches Poll

First-place votes in parenthesis
1.   Florida Atlantic [11] (167)
2.   Memphis [3] (159)
3.   Tulane (142)
4.   UAB (128)
5.   East Carolina (105)
6.   North Texas (100)
7.   SMU (97)
8.   Wichita St. (90)
9.   South Florida (62)
10.  Tulsa (59)
11.  Rice (56)
12.  Temple (49)
13.  Charlotte (46)
14.  UTSA (14)

KEY AAC GAMES:
Jan. 7   @  Memphis, 4 p.m.
Jan. 25 @  North Texas, 6 p.m.
Feb. 1   vs. Tulane, 6 p.m.
Feb. 11  vs. North Texas, 1 p.m.
Feb. 15  @ Tulane, 6 p.m.
Feb. 18  vs. Memphis, 2 p.m.
Feb. 22.  @ Florida Atlantic, 6 p.m.