The Texas A&M Aggies aim to maintain their undefeated record in a home match against the Houston Baptist Huskies.
The Aggies currently sit 3-0 this season, with wins against North Florida, Abilene Christian and A&M-Corpus Christi. Two of their games were won by double digits, and in the other, the Aggies narrowly beat the ACU Wildcats — a 2021 March Madness contestant — in a double-overtime thriller.
The Aggies have managed to put together three straight wins to start the season for the second year in a row, despite having a large number of transfer students commanding big minutes and head coach Buzz Williams facing NCAA suspension for the first two games — a testament to the coaching staff as a whole. They will try to keep the momentum against the Huskies, a team A&M is 9-0 against all-time.
“We have multiple new people on our staff, and we have eight new players on our team,” Williams said. “You do the best that you can, but everyone was in a different chair than they normally sit in. So for their first week to be what it’s been … everyone involved did an incredible job.”
Sophomore forward Henry Coleman III has had no trouble fitting into his new program to start the year. The Duke transfer is averaging a team-high 15.3 points on 60% shooting from the field while adding another 6.7 rebounds per game. Another transfer who’s been off to a welcomed start is junior guard Tyrece Radford. The former Virginia Tech Hokie is putting up 10.7 points per game and averaging a team-high seven rebounds.
Two other Aggies average double-digit points as well. Marcus Williams, a sophomore guard and Wyoming transfer, is putting up 11 points per game, while Quenton Jackson, a graduate guard, is averaging 10 points, despite his shooting struggles, going 24.1% from the field. The Aggies have done well at distributing their shots across the team. In their game against A&M-Corpus Christi, five different players had at least 10 points.
“It shows us how deep we are,” Wade Taylor IV, a freshman guard from Lancaster and the team’s leader in assists, said. “No matter who’s on the court, we can score. We talk about that a lot in practice, and, prior to the season, we have 11 guys who can go get it.”
Houston Baptist has struggled to start its season. Sitting at 1-1, its two games have been drastically different stories. In their first game, the Huskies faced the Texas Longhorns and lost 92-48. In their following game, they played the Barclay College Bears, a non-NCAA member school with less than 250 students, and won 122-44.
Their leading scorer is freshman forward Tristan Moore, who scored all 26 of his points on the season against Barclay. The Huskies’ next-highest scorer is sophomore guard Za-Ontay Boothman, who put up double-digit nights in both of his games.
The Aggies and the Huskies will have a noon tipoff at Reed Arena in College Station on Wednesday, Nov. 17. The Aggies look to secure their first four-game winning streak since the 2018-2019 season.
“Regardless of whether we win or lose, our confidence coming into each game is going to be 100%,” Jackson said. “We don’t go into [any] game expecting to lose.”
