After the 2022-23 campaign that saw Texas A&M basketball make the NCAA Tournament for the first time under coach Buzz Williams, expectations are high for the Aggies. Come fall, the maroon and white will no longer be able to embrace the underdog mentality they had in the previous years, as they will be projected to be one of the best teams in the Southeastern Conference. However, their schedule will be no easy task, as in the SEC, “It Just Means More.”
Come on back, Wildcats
As a blueblood, Kentucky is the one team every school circles on its calendar. The Wildcats are every team’s celebratory whiteout game, and it was no different in 2022 when 14,036 poured into Reed Arena to set an attendance record. It will be similar this coming season as Big Blue Nation returns to College Station. Every conference game is important, but every matchup against Kentucky seems to have a different air around it. Reed Arena will be rocking for this one, with this being the only chance the Aggies will get to beat the Wildcats, a feat A&M has not done since 2018.
Volunteering for a home-and-home
To call A&M versus Tennessee a rivalry would be a stretch, as the Aggies are 2-6 in their last eight games against the Volunteers. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the last two games these two teams played had major implications, with the ‘22 Tennessee win sealing the Aggies’ fate to the NIT and the ‘23 A&M victory becoming the team’s first win ranked in the top 25 that season. Now, for the first time since 2014, the two schools will have a home-and-home series against each other. With the Volunteers’ returning veterans like Santiago Vescovi and Josiah-Jordan James, as well as point guard Zakai Ziegler, both games will be heavy-weight matches between experienced teams.
Hitting the road
For the past two years, A&M and Auburn have played a home-and-home series. This year, the Aggies and Tigers only square off once, with A&M heading to the Plains to play in “The Jungle.” Auburn is not the only Alabama team the maroon and white will face on the road next season, as the Aggies will take on the Crimson Tide in Coleman Coliseum. Despite these two rough road draws, A&M has a relatively favorable road schedule outside of its home-and-home series. Georgia, Vanderbilt and Missouri are the other teams slated for a lone road game. Vanderbilt and Georgia are both teams the Aggies beat at home last year, and A&M swept the series against Mizzou as well.
Reed all about it
Outside of the mirror matchups and Kentucky, the Aggies will host Mississippi State, Florida and South Carolina in Reed Arena. The Gators are seemingly incapable of not playing A&M close, with the last four games the two teams have played all being decided by a single possession in favor of the Aggies. So, the home draw is lucky if you’re A&M, as any advantage against tough conference competition can be a game-changer. Mississippi State is another interesting game, considering the Bulldogs knocked the maroon and white out of contention for an SEC title last season with a 69-62 victory over the Aggies. Calling what A&M did to South Carolina last season a blowout is a monumental understatement. Going on the road to Colombia, South Carolina, the Aggies throttled the Gamecocks 94-53, with the game being well out of hand by halftime. So all things considered, at home, this game should be one of the few walks in the park for A&M, but you never know how things will look come conference time.