South Florida Wins AAC Title, Secures NCAA Bid

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The University of South Florida men's basketball team defeated Wichita State 70-55 on Sunday to win the American Athletic Conference Tournament championship, securing an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012.

Top-seeded South Florida, which entered the game on a 10-game winning streak, extended its run to 11 with the victory over the No. 2 seed Shockers at Legacy Arena. The Bulls, who finished the regular season 25-8 overall and 15-3 in conference play, claimed their first AAC Tournament title while also holding back-to-back regular-season crowns. This marks the program's deepest postseason run in more than a decade and its first conference tournament championship since 1990, when it competed in the Sun Belt Conference.

South Florida took control early, building a 10-8 lead on an alley-oop dunk from CJ Brown to Izaiyah Nelson just over six minutes into the game. The Bulls maintained the advantage for the remainder of the contest, leading 33-26 at halftime after limiting Wichita State to 1-for-8 shooting from three-point range in the opening period. The Shockers, who had won seven straight games dating to a 66-58 home loss to South...