| Year: | 2021 |
| Conference: | American Athletic Conference |
| Division: | I |
| Gender: | Women's |
| Teams: | 10 |
| Arena: | Dickies Arena |
| City: | Fort Worth, Texas |
| Champions: | South Florida |
| Titlecount: | 1st |
| Coach: | Jose Fernandez |
| Coachcount: | 1st |
| Mvp: | Sydni Harvey |
| Mvpteam: | South Florida |
| Television: | ESPN+, ESPNU |
The 2021 American Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament was the postseason tournament held March 8–11, 2021, in the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. South Florida won the tournament, its first, and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.[1] [2]
All of the teams in the American Athletic Conference, except for SMU, will qualify for the tournament. SMU canceled their season after going 0–6,[3] so they did not compete in the conference tournament. Teams are seeded based on conference record, and then a tiebreaker system will be used. Teams seeded 7–10 play in opening round, and teams seeded 1–6 receive a bye to the quarterfinals.
| Seed | School | Conference | Overall | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Florida ‡# | 13–2 | 16–3 | |||
| 2 | UCF # | 12–2 | 14–3 | |||
| 3 | Houston # | 12–5 | 15–6 | |||
| 4 | Tulane # | 12–6 | 16–7 | |||
| 5 | Temple # | 11–7 | 11–10 | |||
| 6 | East Carolina # | 6–10 | 8–13 | |||
| 7 | Cincinnati | 6–12 | 7–15 | |||
| 8 | Tulsa | 4–13 | 5–13 | |||
| 9 | Wichita State | 2–9 | 5–11 | |||
| 10 | Memphis | 2–12 | 4–15 | |||
| ‡ – American Athletic Conference regular season champions. # – Received a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Overall records are as of the end of the regular season. | ||||||
| Session | Game | Time* | Matchup# | Score | Television | Attendance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First round – Monday, March 8 | |||||||
| 1 | 1 | 2:30 PM | No. 9 Wichita State vs. No. 8 Tulsa | 76–64 | ESPN+ | ||
| 2 | 5:30 PM | No. 10 Memphis vs. No. 7 Cincinnati | 67–78 | ||||
| Quarterfinals – Tuesday, March 9 | |||||||
| 2 | 3 | Noon | No. 5 Temple vs. No. 4 Tulane | 73–83 | ESPN+ | ||
| 4 | 3:00 PM | No. 9 Wichita State vs. No. 1 USF | 44–48 | ||||
| 3 | 5 | 7:00 PM | No. 7 Cincinnati vs. No. 2 UCF | 43–53 | |||
| 6 | 10:00 PM | No. 6 East Carolina vs. No. 3 Houston | 63–73 | ||||
| Semifinals – Wednesday, March 10 | |||||||
| 4 | 7 | 5:30 PM | No. 4 Tulane vs. No. 1 USF | 47–51 | ESPN+ | ||
| 8 | 8:30 PM | No. 3 Houston vs. No. 2 UCF | 39–61 | ||||
| Championship – Thursday, March 11 | |||||||
| 5 | 9 | 10:00 PM | No. 1 USF vs. No. 2 UCF | 64–54 | ESPNU | ||
| |||||||
Note: * denotes overtime