UConn’s Adams could suffer in award season

On Sunday, Wichita State and Cincinnati will battle for the American Conference’s No. 1 overall seed in a battle of the league’s superpowers. Should be a great environment at Koch Arena.

It’s the kind of game UConn hasn’t been (but should be) involved in since the AAC formed five years ago. Instead, the Huskies — who have never been better than a No. 4 seed in the league’s championship tournament — will close out their regular season at Houston in a game that doesn’t mean a whole lot.

All that’s at stake for UConn on Sunday at H&PE Arena (4 p.m., CBS Sports Network) is whether it will get the No. 7 or No. 8 seed in the upcoming AAC tournament. It’s complicated, but here’s the simplest way to put it: If the Huskies (14-16, 7-10 AAC) pull off the upset of the 25thranked Cougars, and UCF loses at home to Tulane and Temple wins at Tulsa, UConn will be the No. 7 seed and play at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida.

Otherwise, if UConn loses to Houston (23-6, 13-4 AAC) or UCF or Tulsa win, the Huskies are the No. 8 seed and will likely face SMU on Thursday at noon.

UConn’s second straight poor season could also hurt its best player when it comes to postseason honors. Jalen Adams is currently the AAC’s secondleading scorer at 18.4 points per game. He’s second in assists and, perhaps most tellingly, leads the league in minutes played — by far — at 38.3 per game in conference play.

Yet it’s highly unlikely Adams will repeat as a first-team all-AAC selection. In fact, there’s a chance that Adams won’t even earn second-team honors, thanks in no small part to UConn’s poor showing. A lot depends on whether the coaches vote in SMU’s Shake Milton, who was arguably the league’s top player before suffering a season-ending injury a month ago.

Here’s our look at how we think the awards, which will be announced over the next few days, will play out:

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Gary Clark, Cincinnati. Best player on the best (or perhaps secondbest) team. No reason for Mick Cronin to whine this year.

COACH OF THE YEAR: Kelvin Sampson, Houston. This is a tough one. Tulsa’s Frank Haith and Memphis’s Tubby Smith deserve consideration — particularly Haith. But Sampson’s got a team picked to finish sixth in the preseason (one spot behind UConn) in the Top 25. That should do it.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Shawn Williams, ECU. Top-scoring freshman (14.4 ppg) in league play is a pretty easy pick.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Shaq Morris, Wichita State. Leads the league in blocked shots in overall games. His performance Thursday night in overtime win at UCF should have sealed the deal.

ALL CONFERENCE FIRST TEAM: Gary Clark, Cincinnati; Jacob Evans III, Cincinnati; Landry Shamet, Wichita State; Shaq Morris, Wichita State; Rob Gray, Jr., Houston

SECOND TEAM: Junior Etou, Tulsa; Jeremiah Martin, Memphis; Jalen Adams, UConn; Quinton Rose, Temple; A.J. Davis, UCF

Adams