Texas A&M Basketball Downs Buckeyes; Notches Biggest Non-Conference Win of Williams Era
What a huge win for Texas A&M basketball! The Aggies were in a dogfight all the way to the final buzzer in this one, but they ended up pulling out a massive win on the road in a narrative-busting result, defeating the Buckeyes 73-66. Wade Taylor and Tyrece Radford led the way with 21 each, while Henry Coleman wasn’t far behind with 20.
Texas A&M had never won a Quad I game in non-conference play under fifth-year coach Buzz Williams.
— Carter Karels (@CarterKarels) November 11, 2023
With a 73-66 victory at Ohio State, A&M has what will likely be a QI win … and before Thanksgiving.
They also will have quite a few more QI opportunities before SEC play begins.
As it says in the above tweet, Buzz’s bunch had really struggled in each of his previous seasons in the non conference slate. Williams’s teams usually built momentum throughout the season before becoming a force come conference tournament time, but early failures out of conference play always hampered the Ags in the eyes of the selection committee. Hopefully this is the year Texas A&M basketball can turn that around, and they’re off to a great start in doing so.
Despite the great result, this wasn’t exactly a pretty game for the Aggies. Wade Taylor IV, without a doubt the best player for Aggie hoops, had a slow start to the game. The entire Texas A&M basketball team struggled from the floor and the line, going 43/17/70 in their splits. The Aggies were blocked ten times and only notched one rejection of their own. If you had read me those stats before the game, I would have assumed it was a Buckeye blowout. But it was the defense for the Aggies that came through, stifling the Ohio State attack again and again and crashing the boards.
The Aggies will need to put together a better offensive attack going forward for some of the upcoming challenges on their schedule. Luckily, such improvement—as mentioned previously—has been a hallmark of previous Williams teams as head coach of Texas A&M basketball. Let’s hope this squad just keeps building on these types of results.