The Memphis men's basketball team, reigning American Athletic Conference tournament champions, will open its defense as the No. 5 seed.

The Tigers (22-9) will play the winner of Wednesday's game between No. 12 Wichita State (13-18) and No. 13 Rice (11-20) on Thursday (1:30 p.m., ESPNU) at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

Memphis will likely need to repeat as tournament champion to advance to the NCAA tournament for a third straight year. But it’s a daunting prospect since it would require winning four games in consecutive days. And it’s an especially steep hill considering it has never been done.

Long as the odds may be, Memphis is not lacking confidence.

“There's no quit in this team,” coach Penny Hardaway said after Saturday’s 92-84 loss at FAU. “Obviously, we showed that by winning the last four (games) before we came here.”

Memphis swept Wichita State this season, setting a season-high in points during a 112-86 win on the road in January. The Tigers then squeaked out a 65-63 victory over Wichita State at FedExForum on Feb. 3. Memphis lost to Rice at FedExForum 74-71 on Jan. 31

If Memphis were to win Thursday's game, it would move on to face No. 4 seed UAB in the quarterfinals on Friday at 2 p.m. A rematch with AAC regular season champion South Florida could await in Saturday's semifinal round. The Tigers lost their only meeting with USF this season in January at FedExForum, collapsing down the stretch after leading by as many as 20 points.

Memphis was relegated to the No. 5 seed after losing its regular season finale at FAU. It could have been the No. 6 seed, but UAB's late comeback in its win over SMU on Sunday pushed Memphis ahead of the Mustangs by virtue of the league's tiebreakers.

Should the Tigers fall short of back-to-back tournament titles, they could still be extended an invite to participate in the NIT – although, it’s possible Memphis would decline it and start the offseason early.

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2024 AAC tournament schedule

WednesdayGame 1 – No. 13 Rice vs. No. 12 Wichita State – Noon | ESPN+Game 2 – No. 14 UTSA vs. No. 11 Temple – 2 p.m. | ESPN+ ThursdayGame 3 – No. 9 Tulsa vs. No. 8 ECU – 11:30 a.m. | ESPNUGame 4 – Game 1 winner vs. No. 5 Memphis – 1:30 p.m. | ESPNUGame 5 – No. 10 Tulane vs. No. 7 North Texas – 6 p.m. | ESPNUGame 6 – Game 2 winner vs. No. 6 SMU – 8 p.m. | ESPNU FridayGame 7 – Game 3 winner vs. No. 1 South Florida – Noon | ESPN2Game 8 – Game 4 winner vs. No. 4 seed – 2 p.m. | ESPN2Game 9 – Game 5 winner vs. No. 2 FAU – 6 p.m. | ESPNUGame 10 – Game 6 winner vs. No. 3 Charlotte – 8 p.m. | ESPNU SaturdayGame 11 – Semifinal 1, Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner – 2 p.m. | ESPN2Game 12 – Semifinal 2, Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner – 4 p.m. | ESPN2 SundayGame 13 – Championship, Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner – 3:15 p.m. ET/2:15 p.m. CT | ESPN

Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: March Madness: Memphis basketball is No. 5 seed in AAC tournament