Both the Texas A&M men’s and women’s basketball team are doing their best to bolster their NCAA Tournament resumes. This week provides plenty of opportunity to help their chances. With both teams playing their two games at home this week, it is sure to bring Reed Arena to full capacity.
“We control our own destiny by who we play in the end” said women’s head coach Gary Blair on his radio show. “Beat Kentucky and LSU on the road and we are in good shape. We can not lose at home.”
The women’s team is coming off a win on Thursday against Missouri, followed by a 63-61 overtime loss to No. 13 Mississippi State in Starkville. It was a closely contested game, but in the end, the Aggies just couldn’t do enough to come away with the win.
“The officiating did not cost us the game,” Blair said. “When you shoot 6-out-of-30 in the second half and overtime, you lose the game.”
Courtney Walker led the Aggies with 25 points, and freshman Khaalia Hillsman grabbed 13 rebounds. Blair was impressed with the performance from his freshman center because he said her play was poor against Missouri.
“She came out and had two good practices and got back into the starting lineup,” Blair said. “That’s improvement.”
The Aggies have a rematch with the Arkansas Razorbacks 8 p.m. Thursday at Reed Arena.
In their last matchup, A&M won 52-50 on a buzzer beater from Achiri Ade. The Razorback team made some comments after that game about the Aggies that Blair and the team have not forgotten.
“After the last game, Arkansas said their team was better than ours. Our team remembers that statement. Its time to put up or shut up.”
For the men, every win is crucial from here until the end of the season. The team is “on the bubble” of the NCAA Tournament according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.
The A&M men are coming off a tough 69-59 loss at Ole Miss on Wednesday night. However, they avenged that loss with a comfortable 83-61 win at Missouri on Saturday.
“Our energy level is good” said men’s coach Billy Kennedy on his weekly radio show. “Our chemistry on offense right now is better than it has been all year”
Danuel House and Jalen Jones led the team with 20 and 16 points, respectively. Alex Caruso also added 11 assists in the Aggie win. It was an all-around team effort.
“Our guys were upset about the way we played at Ole Miss” Kennedy said. “They wanted to bounce back and get some momentum coming back home to give the fans some enthusiasm for our next home games.”
The next three home games are huge for the Aggies with Georgia, Florida, and LSU coming to Reed Arena. Billy Kennedy knows that even though the games are at home, it will be no easy task.
“There’s no easy games left…we play 18 conference games while a lot of other conferences play 16 games. So we basically have a whole other half of conference play to go.”
The first one up will be on the SEC network 6 p.m. Wednesday night against Georgia.