Though the UConn Huskies won the coveted sweepstakes of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, one of the most memorable and thrilling games took place in the second round between two instate foes when the No. 9 seed Texas A&M Aggies took on the No. 1 seed Houston Cougars. 

While not the most “flashy highlight” game played, each team traded blows — including a game-tying buzzer-beater 3-pointer from then-senior forward Andersson Garcia — until the Coogs stood victorious with a narrow 100-95 overtime-victory.

With months passed and shake ups to both tournament teams, the two squads got an early look at each other when No. 13 A&M visited No. 4 Houston on Sunday night. In front of a sizable crowd at the Fertitta Center that breathed life and momentum into the Cougars, the Aggies dropped the exhibition, 79-64.

A&M’s defensive second half breakdown

Though Houston lost some key players such as guard Jamal Shead, coach Kelvin Sampson still had his Cougars’ offense as dangerous as ever as they came right out the gates. Within the first minute of the game, redshirt junior G Emanuel Sharp knocked down an open three, a sign of things to come. The first 10 minutes of the first half belonged to the Cougars as they pounced on several open 3-pointers, taking advantage of their dribble penetration kickout gameplan, forcing late closeouts from the Aggies and taking an early 28-17 lead. 

Coach Buzz Williams responded by changing up the defensive scheme for the Aggies by first deploying a near full court press then switching to a 2-3 zone-esque coverage when the ball crossed half. It forced a rare Houston turnover, but a deep stepback three from graduate G L.J. Cryer forced Williams to change defensive looks again.

He kept the masked zone coverage look but abandoned the press and had his players stay home on Houston’s dribble penetration, forcing tough threes and contested floaters that left Houston in a drought and closed the gap to 35-28 before a buzzer-beater Cryer three put the Cougars back up by 10 going into halftime.

With adjustments in mind, whatever Sampson said to his squad worked.

He stayed with the dribble penetration kickout scheme but switched the look of it, spacing out his shooters alongside the wings and baseline and rotating when needed. Though the Aggies managed to find success with their closing first half defense plan, they began to give up the baseline in hopes of trapping the penetration. This in turn gave up the rotating Houston shooters who moved from the wing to the baseline as soon as A&M trapped. 

With the intent of confusing the Cougars, the Maroon and White also switched off from their successful zone back to man-to-man coverage, which only increased Houston’s success of finding the open man and gave the home crowd the juice it needed to spur the game-winning second half spark.

A second scorer, or scoring options, are needed

Throughout the majority of the game, only one Aggie managed to crack scoring double-digits — and it’s no surprise  it’s graduate G Wade Taylor IV. However, in years past, he’s had a running mate in former A&M G Tyrece Radford who’s been able to provide a second scoring threat with his tough, penetrative style of play.

However, Radford’s time in college has passed and — though just an exhibition —  A&M will need an   emerging scoring costar or utilize its depth to help out the high-scoring guard or else it will be in trouble.

Just by himself, Taylor had 12 first half points, flexing off his range and cracking through Houston’s defensive scheme, penetrating and finding open players down low and taking it all the way when needed. Unfortunately for the star guard, it proved to be his best half.

After Houston figured out that Taylor was the only threat in the moment, the Cougars honed in on the Dallas native, forcing five second half turnovers with double team blitzes as soon as he crossed halfcourt. It snowballed into a deep deficit of 72-46 that the Aggies could never get out of.

Though senior G Manny Obaseki staged a late second half comeback, pouring in 11 points in the last period, it was a “too little, too late” effort when the game was out of reach.

While A&M struggled to get shots going, Houston — on the coattails of transition threes and its drive-and-kick offense — had four players reach double-digit scoring. They also weren’t afraid to shoot, letting 31 shots from deep fly, contrasted with only 18 A&M threes attempted. 

In the modern day and age of shooting threes, the Aggies will either need the dynamic Obaseki to get going earlier in the game or replicate the Cougars’ successful brand of basketball with being more loose with their shot selection.

Board man gets paid

Just a year ago, Williams’ hard-nosed, get-hands-dirty mentality had the Aggies No. 1 in rebounding in the 2023-24 season, with Garcia and Radford at the helm.

However, Williams has to be displeased with being outrebounded by the upstart Cougars, especially on the offensive glass as Houston worked for 19 total offensive rebounds. Though some shots bounced favorably towards the nearest Cougar, Houston got after the 50/50 balls and won the battle down low, tacking on second chance points.

While not the tallest player, 6-foot-8 sophomore F Joseph Tugler snatched eight offensive boards by himself, winning position down low and leading the team in “hustle points.”

“Our effort wasn’t there today,” Obaseki said. “We got killed on the boards, [and] we got to work a lot more on that.”