The University of Texas – Texas A&M game that most folks in these parts normally care about occurs on the day after Thanksgiving, but a capacity crowd will be whooping it up this evening in College Station (televised on ESPN2) as the A&M basketball team attempts to derail league-leading UT’s attempt to add a Big 12 Conference basketball title to its Big 12 Football Championship.
Basketball — which is normally a diversion in College Station between football season and spring football practice — is generating more interest in Aggieland this season because A&M has a legitimate shot at making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since, well, this year’s freshman class of A&M students was waiting to be born. The Ags really need a win to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive because, despite winning their last five and sporting an 18-7 record (8-6 in the Big 12), the Aggies have only a 1-4 record against top 50 RPI teams and padded its overall record by playing an absurdly weak non-conference schedule.
Nevertheless, a win over the sixth-ranked Horns (24-4 overall record, 12-2 in Big 12) would be a feather in A&M’s hat and, coupled with a couple of Aggie wins to close out the season, might be enough to push the Ags into the tournament. Forward P.J. Tucker (16.4 ppg, 9.2 rpg) and center LaMarcus Aldridge (16.0/9.3) are UT’s top players, while the Ags are led by guard A.C. Law (16.5 ppg, 3.8 apg) and center Joseph Jones (15.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg).
Update: Aggies win on a buzzer-beater, 46-43!
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A&M has a legitimate shot at making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since, well, this year’s freshman class of A&M students was waiting to be born. The Ags really need a win to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive…
They are 67th in RPI. They need the win against Texas AND several more wins just to play themselves onto the bubble in a year when the Big 12 could send as few as three teams to the tourney (Texas, OU, and Kansas are almost certainly in — after that, it looks bleak).
Interestingly, Houston’s RPI (50th) is slightly better than that of Kansas and far better than A&M’s, but UH’s tourney hopes come down to winning games in which they are favored (Rice, round one of the conference tourney) and beating Memphis at least once (either on the road this weekend, or in the CUSA tourney) — or, of course, winning the CUSA tourney without facing Memphis (unlikely). I’m not entirely optimistic about those chances, but I’ll take those odds over A&M’s chances of getting in!
And I suspect Texas is going to come out and win tonight anyway. They’re playing for seeding now, and could make a deep run if they get hot.
So, Texas is potentially going to win the football, basketball, AND baseball crowns in the Big 12 this year (who’s gonna knock off Augie’s crew?)! That’s a heck of a run.
Texas adding the basketball title to the football title?!?!? Don’t you mean adding the NCAA basketball championship to the NCAA football championship (and, of course, the latest NCAA baseball championship)? If the ‘Horns pull off the trifecta (of course we will be gunning for a repeat in baseball), it will be the greatest accomplishment for a men’s athletic program in NCAA history and forever stand with such great memories as the Aggies giving up the only 1 point safety in the history of organized football as a defining accomplishment that differentiates the Horns and the aggies.
Brutal, Charles, brutal. ;^)
Pedantry alert: there is no NCAA Division 1A football championship.
Ah, the pitfalls of pre-game puffery. All of these posts sound SO stupid today, don’t they?
BTW, nice shot, Acie.