“No matter who we play against on any given night, we’re ready to compete and we have a good chance of winning,” Texas A&M men’s basketball senior guard Manny Obaseki said during Friday’s press conference.
That chance takes place on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, as 4-seed A&M faces off against 5-seed Michigan after the Wolverines narrowly escaped an upset against Cinderella 12-seed UC San Diego, 68-65.
As the Aggies encounter another test after defeating Yale 80-71 in the first round, this go-round versus the Wolverines is unique: They aren’t an average opponent, according to just about everyone involved with the team.
“I didn’t realize they played as fast as they do,” coach Buzz Williams said. “You can tell there’s a lot of uniqueness in how they play. There’s some FIBA, there’s some European sort of stuff, and then in how [coach Dusty May] has comprised his first roster at Michigan. You can see the influence of how he would like to play.”
Despite the intriguing start May has had during his first run in a power-five conference, he still has cracks in his team’s new shield — a trait he openly acknowledged and embraced during the press conference.
“We have a couple flaws that are things that we haven’t done well this year,” May said. “There’s an extremely heightened awareness to fix it or you’re going home. I believe in our guys. We believe in our plan, and so we’re going to do the absolute best job we can to handle our defensive glass over here.”
The Aggies know these flaws too, despite the albeit brief time they’ve known the Wolverines would meet them to compete for a spot in the Sweet 16.
“We know they turn the ball over a lot,” Obaseki said. “We plan to capitalize on that and I think it’s just about our foundation, staying true to what we do, being ourselves, staying disciplined, and being really good at shrinking the floor.”
Being worried about the other team isn’t in Williams’ playbook, and everyone on A&M’s front court communicated that clearly.
“I’m really confident, I’ve always been confident in this team,” Obaseki said. “ … It’s really important that we execute on both ends better than them, and kind of stay even level throughout the level of the game. One more game to Sweet 16, and your emotions can be high …. If we just stay true to us, continue to do what we’ve been doing, with the same mentality, we’ll be right where we want to be.”
Through all the trials and tribulations of the season, this Maroon squad and it’s eight seniors have played through just about everything with their coaching staff. This game is a possible last chance to show out for them.
“The coach has been the same, we have a lot of the same players,” graduate G Wade Taylor IV said. “We’ve been through the ups, the downs, the good, the bad [and] ugly. We’ve heard it all. We’ve been underdogs. I’m thankful to be a part of this team, and we have some special things that I feel like, we still have a couple things to do.”
The stage is set for Saturday, 4:15 p.m. CDT on CBS at Ball Arena in Denver, as the Aggies fight for yet another game and round in the Big Dance.
“Just stick it to our foundation,” Taylor said. “Doing the things that we know translates to winning, because we know we have evidence that when we do those things, we come out victorious.”
