Is the Texas A&M basketball team on track to make the NCAA Tournament?

The Texas A&M basketball team has had one of the stranger seasons in recent memory. The Aggie basketball team, with no expectations, got off to a red-hot 15-3 start. Even without any signature wins, Buzz Williams’s team looked like the real deal for the first month of basketball. They played close in losses and won in dominating fashion.

The argument could be made that they should have been ranked. In fact, as one of the winningest teams in college basketball through that stretch, I’m still not sure how they didn’t crack the top-25. Unfortunately, college basketball voters may have been onto something, as the Aggies have quickly trailed off.

A&M has now lost four straight basketball games. Still, none of these losses have felt that bad. Heartbreaking? Maybe — the team has been in every game and simply been unable to close. That said, this still feels like a team that could be flirting with the top-25 on a weekly basis.

Is the Texas A&M basketball team on track to make the NCAA tournament?

To be honest, I’m generally against looking at tournament bracketology this early in the season. The final bracket in March will look nothing like these current brackets. That said, what else are you going to read about?

Right now, the Texas A&M basketball team is considered a “bubble team” by ESPN, finding themselves in the “next four out” category. What this means is that Texas A&M is currently on the outside looking in. According to ESPN, the Aggies would be one of the first teams left out.

Without a proven track record in recent years, this is actually a huge positive, especially considering the team’s recent struggles.

Unfortunately for the Aggies, the advanced stats do not help their cause currently. Despite having one of the better records in college basketball, Texas A&M finds itself as the 72nd-ranked team before its most recent loss. This means that they’ll likely drop even further into the 80-90 range.

The positive side of this is that KenPom rankings are the stupidest rankings to ever exist. The entire backbone of these rankings depends on how teams performed a season ago. Spoiler alert — the Aggies were terrible last year.

To answer the question of this article, the Aggies are in a strong position to make a tournament run. That said, they have an uphill battle compared to teams that have had success in the past. This isn’t a successful program and history plays a huge factor in the selection of these teams into the tournament.

If A&M can find a way to be competitive in SEC play, they could make a run at the NCAA Tournament.