Prior to the start of the 2021-22 college basketball season, the Texas A&M basketball team looked like it was set for another disaster season under Buzz Williams. In year one, Williams went 16-14 but immediately regressed to 8-10 in his second season.
2021-22 was a make-or-break year and Williams knew it.
The Aggie basketball head coach buckled down and did everything he could to win. Heck, Williams even committed recruiting violations. The strangest part — I’ll go to the grave saying that he was right to do so. When your program is dead in the water, what’s the alternative? Unfortunately, college basketball is full of cheaters and Williams was not about to be swallowed into the abyss.
Texas A&M basketball HC Buzz Williams has quickly turned his team into one of the biggest surprises in college basketball in 2021-22
As mentioned, the Texas A&M basketball team went 8-10 last year in a season that included a 2-8 conference record. It was bad… like, really bad. The Aggies didn’t put together much of any impressive statistics and genuinely looked like one of the worst high-major teams in the country.
2021-22 has told a completely different story.
As things stand, the Aggies have already hit the ten-win mark that they fell short of last season. Their only two losses on the year have come against a ranked Wisconsin team and a respectable TCU basketball team. Outside of that, A&M has taken care of business in convincing fashion.
I didn’t say it publicly, but after a very close win against Texas A&M-Kingsville in the preseason, I truly believed that the Aggies were going to regress from where they were at a season ago. I know — seems almost impossible. Here’s my tweet from that moment.
Texas A&M basketball is trying to be the worst high major basketball team of all time https://t.co/GLwHlkEGPt
— Jack Williams (@JackWilliaMSU) November 2, 2021
In a rare case, I have never been so thrilled to be wrong. Not only has Texas A&M improved from that point in time — they look like a team that could compete for an SEC title.
The strangest part about this squad is that there isn’t really any individual star. Quenton Jackson is the team’s leading scorer with 12.3 points, but three other players in Henry Coleman III, Tyrece Radford, and Marcus Williams are all averaging at least nine per game.
The team as a whole is working on all cylinders, knocking down 37.5% of its three-pointers, ranking them 33rd in the country out of 358 teams. Last year, the Aggies ranked 315th in the nation while knocking down fewer than 30% of their long-range shots.
The Aggies aren’t just improving, they’re exploding onto the college basketball scene. A school that is known for football could be the biggest basketball surprise in the game this year.