The Favorites:
Wichita State, Cincinnati, and Houston all split their regular season series against one another so there is no clear cut favorite. If I had to bet money, I would pick Cincinnati because they have an easier path to the finals as Wichita State and Houston have a potential showdown in the semifinals.
Quarterfinal matchups that the favorites want to avoid:
UConn will present a more difficult matchup for the Bearcats by default. SMU is plagued with injuries and is slumping big time. UConn has excellent guards in Jalen Adams and Christian Vital and if they get hot, Cincinnati could be in trouble. Not to mention UConn has a history of beating Cincinnati in conference tournament games.
Temple beat the Shockers earlier in the season in overtime and were up 14 at halftime in the other matchup before squandering their lead. Temple is a lot better than their record says they are, as they have had several close loses, so it would not surprise me if they manage to pull off this upset should they get there.
UCF is a quality team who went 9-9 in the American. In the preseason I predicted that they would make the NCAA Tournament, but at 18-12 they would need to win the American in order to do so. They played Houston once earlier in the year and walked away with a 4 point loss. Houston is hot right now, but UCF may be able to cool them down.