2021 American Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament

2021 American Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2020–21
Teams	10
Site	Dickies Arena Fort Worth, Texas
Champions	South Florida (1st title)
Winning coach	Jose Fernandez (1st title)
MVP	Sydni Harvey (South Florida)
Television	ESPN+, ESPNU
American Athletic Conference women's basketball tournaments

2020–21 American Athletic Conference women's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 19 South Florida †	13	–	2		.867			19	–	4		.826
UCF	12	–	2		.857			16	–	5		.762
Houston	12	–	5		.706			17	–	8		.680
Tulane	12	–	6		.667			18	–	9		.667
Temple	11	–	7		.611			11	–	11		.500
East Carolina	6	–	10		.375			8	–	14		.364
Cincinnati	6	–	12		.333			8	–	16		.333
Tulsa	4	–	13		.235			5	–	14		.263
Wichita State	2	–	9		.182			6	–	12		.333
Memphis	2	–	12		.143			4	–	15		.211
SMU	0	–	2		.000			0	–	6		.000
SMU suspended their season on December 29, 2020 The American has declared a forfeit win for USF against Memphis for conference-standings purposes only as a result of the scheduled game from Jan. 17 that was not played. The teams' overall records are not affected.
† 2021 AAC tournament winner As of July 7, 2024 Rankings from AP poll

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.

Seeds

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, 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.

Schedule

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
*Game times in ET. #-Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Bracket

	First round Monday, March 8					Quarterfinals Tuesday, March 9					Semifinals Wednesday, March 10					Championship game Thursday, March 11
						4	Tulane	83
						5	Temple	73
											1	USF	51
											4	Tulane	47
	8	Tulsa	64
	9	Wichita State	76
						1	USF	48
						9	Wichita State	44
																1	USF	64
																2	UCF	54
						2	UCF	53
						7	Cincinnati	43
	7	Cincinnati	78
	10	Memphis	67
											2	UCF	61
											3	Houston	39
						3	Houston	73
						6	East Carolina	63

Note: * denotes overtime

See also

• 2021 American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament