Sophomore guard/forward Antoine Wright was highlighted before the season by coaches and media as the first true superstar to play basketball at Texas A&M in recent memory. After claiming Big 12 Freshman of the Year honors after the 2002-03 season, it seemed as if the accolades were well-deserved.
With an NBA future on the horizon for Wright, he planned to lead the Aggies (7-7, 0-3 Big 12) to their first postseason tournament appearance in a decade before making the jump to the professional ranks.
Wright, though, has had an up-and-down season to say the least. After starting the season slow, Wright finally began playing to his potential through December and January culminating in his 25-point25-point, 12-rebound performance in the Aggies’ narrow loss to No. 10 Kansas.
Wright followed that game with his worst performance of his two-year career at A&M with just two points and two rebounds in 30 minutes of playing time in the Aggies’ 70-61 loss to Kansas State.
“I just couldn’t put one down,” Wright said. “It was just one of those games. I can’t really explain it.”
Now, the senior-laden Aggies have a long way to climb if they still want to be in the postseason picture after digging themselves into a large hole by going winless in their first three conference games.
“We’ve just got to turn it around,” Wright said. “We’ve got to steal some games, that’s what it comes down to. There’s a lot of basketball to play.
We’ve still got the rest of the conference and the Big 12 tournament to play. You never know what can happen.”
The road doesn’t get any easier for the Aggies as they welcome the Big 12’s leading scorer senior Andre Emmett and No. 18 Texas Tech to Reed Arena Saturday at 5 p.m. Tech (15-2, 3-0) is currently riding an 11-game winning streak that has seen 20-plus point wins over top-25 teams such as Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
Emmett is leading the charge for the Red Raiders as they are playing what many consider the best basketball in the Big 12 Conference.
“They’ve played 17 games and nobody has figured out (how to stop Emmett),” said A&M head coach Melvin Watkins. “You’ve just got to make sure that when he gets something, he’s got to work for it. He really operates, I think, as well as any college basketball player playing right now on that baseline.”
Even with Tech playing its best basketball of the season, Red Raider head coach Bobby Knight said that his team can change at any time.
“We could be as different tomorrow as black and white or as apples and watermelons,” Knight said. “You just have to continue to be focused and play as well as you can.”
Even though these two teams seem to be headed in opposite directions, A&M proved it could beat Tech after knocking off the Red Raiders 64-59 last season in front the team’s first-ever sellout at Reed Arena.
That game was Knight’s first try at career win No. 800. He left College Station stuck on No. 799.
“We did feed off that energy (from the crowd) last year,” Watkins said. “They are playing awfully well right now, maybe the best in the Big 12, so we know we have to really play.”
If the Aggies are to send Tech home with another upset loss in College Station this season, A&M will need a stellar game from Wright.And Wright said he always has the games against Tech circled on his calender.
“I look forward to playing against Bobby Knight,” Wright said. “I want to beat him every time out. Right now I’m
1-1. Hopefully after this game I’ll be 2-1.”