The Texas A&M women’s basketball team is set to tip off the 2020-2021 season.
The Aggies will make their return in front of the 12th Man for the season opener against Lamar. This will be the first time the maroon and white have played a game in Reed Arena since losing to Alabama on Thursday, Feb. 27.
A&M coach Gary Blair said he is excited to get back on the court and coach his team.
“It’s good to have game week,” Blair said. “And all of a sudden we’re playing Wednesday at 12, noon against Lamar University and I’m super excited about that because it’s been a long time since we walked off the court of that SEC Tournament, that we’ve had a game to be played.”
During the 2019-2020 season, the Aggies had a solid performance with a 22-8 overall record. In conference, their record was 10-6. They concluded the season with a loss to Arkansas during the SEC tournament, as the NCAA Tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.
One to watch for the maroon and white this year is sophomore point-guard Jordan Nixon, who transferred from Notre Dame and sat out for A&M last season.
Blair said Nixon has been rotating in the starting lineup during practice.
“You’re going to want to know who the starting lineup is going to be,” Blair said. “I can tell you four out of five and the point-guard situation, it fluctuates everyday between McKinzie Green, our sophomore from last year and Jordan Nixon, our transfer who sat out. But both of them are going to play a lot of minutes and we’ve been working on our rotation at least to start.”
In contrast, Lamar finished the 2019-2020 season with an overall record of 10-19 and 6-14 in conference. The Cardinals’ coach A’Quonesia “Aqua” Franklin was named the head coach on May 1, 2019.
Franklin graduated from A&M in 2009 and was a 2018 Texas A&M Hall of Fame inductee for women’s basketball, posting 627 assists during her tenure with the Aggies.
Although she is happy to be a part of the Aggie Network, Franklin said she is looking forward to coming back to College Station to take on her former team.
“This Aggie family that we have is unbelievable and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of that family…” Franklin said on Blair’s radio show on Monday, Nov. 23. “[I’m] really excited to come back to Aggieland to play. It’s been a minute.”
The Aggies will have to look out for Lamar junior point guard Angel Hastings. The 5-foot-6 San Antonio native had 24 starts during the 2019-2020 season and finished the season scoring 12.4 points a game, putting her at second in scoring for the Cardinals during that season.
A&M has five seniors this year; point-guards Aaliyah Wilson and Kayla Wells, forward N’dea Jones and centers Anna Dreimane and Ciera Johnson.
Tip-off is set for 12 p.m in Reed Arena on Wednesday, and the game can be streamed on SECN+.
“The kids are excited, they’ve been working hard in practice…” Blair said. “The kids are ready to play someone else in a different colored uniform besides themselves.”