After a long wait, SMU basketball has announced its conference schedule featuring 18 games against American Athletic Conference opponents, nine at home and nine on the road.

The AAC, which has a TV deal with ESPN, had to wait for the network to finish picking its televised NBA games before it could schedule and pick the AAC’s games.

SMU starts conference play on Tuesday, Dec. 29 at Tulsa on ESPN2, followed by three straight home games: Jan. 2 vs. South Florida, Jan. 7 vs. Cincinnati and Jan. 10 vs. Central Florida. Next is a two-game road trip with stops at East Carolina (Jan. 13) and Tulane (Jan. 17). The Mustangs come home to play Houston on Jan. 20 before heading to the East Coast to play at Temple on Jan. 23. Following a seven-day layoff, SMU will host Memphis on Jan. 30 and then travel to Houston two days later. Games at South Florida (Feb. 7), vs. Tulsa (Feb. 10), a nonconference game vs. Gonzaga (Feb. 13), at Connecticut (Feb. 18), vs. East Carolina (Feb. 21), at Memphis (Feb. 25), vs. Tulane (2/28) round out the rest of the month.

SMU opens March at home vs. Connecticut (March 3), then ends the regular season at Cincinnati on March 6. That game will be televised by CBS. The American Athletic Conference tournament in Orlando, Fla. is March 10-13.

The Mustangs rolled to a regular-season league title with a 15-3 conference record and also won the conference tournament. This year, a much-improved AAC looks to dethrone them. Two of their first three games are against Tulsa and Cincinnati, which finished second and third (respectively) behind SMU last year. The team has a tough finish to the regular season: in five of its final seven games, SMU plays at Tulsa, Connecticut twice (home and road) and at Memphis and Cincinnati.