The Thundering Herd, led by third-year head coach Dan D'Antoni, played their home games at the Cam Henderson Center and were members of Conference USA.

They defeated Florida Atlantic, Old Dominion, and Louisiana Tech to advance to the championship game of the C-USA tournament.

On January 24, 2017, assistant coach Chris Duhon resigned following an arrest for driving on a revoked license three days earlier.

The Thundering Herd was picked to finish in fourth place in the preseason Conference USA poll.

[2] Jon Elmore and Ryan Taylor were selected to the preseason All-Conference USA team.