The Texas A&M men’s basketball team will attempt to start the season at a perfect 6-0 as it hosts the Alabama A&M Bulldogs Friday at 2 p.m. at Reed Arena. The last time the Aggies won their first six games was the 1980-81 season.
A&M head coach Billy Gillispie said the team’s confidence is growing each game.
“We are a team that is learning,” Gillispie said. We are a team that is less reluctant to learn because they have confidence and are starting to believe in each other and in what we are doing.”
Most of the confidence stems from a soft non-conference schedule that has included Trinity University, a Division III school, and Texas-Permian Basin, a NAIA school. As a result, A&M has won each game this year by an average of almost 35 points.
“I think consistency has been a huge part of it,” said junior Edjuan Green. “We’re playing well and playing tough defense. When we do that, the consistency will come. We’re going to keep working hard in practice, and that will help us make the plays we need to make in the games.”
Green has been showing improvement and is starting to live up to his high expectations. In his two years at Temple College, Green was a solid scorer and rebounder and displayed those same skills last Saturday against Prairie View A&M when he scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
“Edjuan was a lot better (Saturday) than he has been all year,” Gillispie said. “He needs to do those things day in and day out if we are going to have a chance.”
Alabama A&M visits College Station as the underdog, but has the ability to make it a competitive game.
“We haven’t been playing that well, and we are looking to develop some consistency,” said Alabama A&M head coach Vann Pettaway. “We’re going to go down and hopefully compete. I don’t mind losing, but we need to fight hard and compete with them. I don’t want us to get run out of the building.”
The Bulldogs showed they are capable of competing with elite programs, such as when they traveled to Georgia and kept the score close most of the game before eventually losing 71-54. Yet, Pettaway said he has high regards for the Aggies.
“Texas A&M might be the best team we see this year,” Pettaway said. “They have not just been winning, they have been drilling people.”