The Texas A&M men’s basketball team will return to the court for the first time since their Sweet 16 appearance last spring for a Maroon and White Scrimmage. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. on Thursday.
The Aggies are coming off a 22-13 season record and their sixth Sweet 16 appearance in program history.
Texas A&M lost Robert Williams and Tyler Davis to the NBA Draft earlier in the year. These losses leave a young Aggie squad in a conference that has a lot of experience, head coach Billy Kennedy said.
“Most of the teams in our league have a lot of guys back,” Kennedy said. “The talent in this league has gotten better since i’ve been in it. This is experienced talent. When you look at Tennessee, Auburn, Florida those are three teams that have a lot of guys back. Mississippi St. has everybody back, obviously they beat us last year so they’re a talented team.”
Returning for the Aggies include senior guard Admon Gilder and sophomore guard TJ Starks, who both declared for the NBA Draft without an agent before dropping out of the process to return to Texas A&M. Gilder said that though the Aggies lost several players, he is hopeful in the young team’s potential.
“It’s a lot different,” Gilder said. “I can kind of tell through practice, not seeing those guys that I’m accustomed to seeing, but I like the change I feel like this group of guys coming in here, trying to learn, and just trying to compete each and every day.”
Also returning to the team is Savion Flagg, who said he spent the summer focusing on his mechanics.
“[I’ve worked on my] shooting ability, changing my mentality,” Flagg said. “Just knowing that the coaches rely on me a lot more this year, knowing that I can’t slack, and always [being] confident in myself.”
Kennedy said that this scrimmage is important for giving the young Aggie team some experience before they start the regular season.
“Our shot selection is not as great as I would like at this point and we’re not taking care of the ball as well,” Kennedy said. “I think that’s part of the process of learning how to play different and play faster and giving our guys more freedom offensively. Hopefully it will be better later than we are now. We’ve got some time to get better.”
Texas A&M will kick off the regular season on Nov. 7 against Savannah State.