Texas A&M basketball must weather storm in SEC to set up huge late-season showdowns
Texas A&M basketball is currently in the middle of the best start that a Buzz Williams squad has ever had in College Station. This experienced Aggie team sits at 14-4 right now, with all of their losses coming in Quad 1 games, and already boasting some marquee wins.
Even with that stellar record so far, the Aggies could still well have a better record than they do. Inopportune injuries to Zhuric Phelps and Wade Taylor affected three of the four losses, and the Ags held a solid lead in the one other loss before choking it away.
All that to say the Ags have been highly competitive in every game— even the ones they've lost. They've had some really exciting showdowns thus far in the season, too, with some huge names: Purdue, Creighton, Alabama, and Kentucky all jump to mind.
It's not hard to get up and get excited for big games like that. Ranked-on-ranked matchups, especially in an electric Reed Arena, are easy to play hard in.
But the real test is in this next stretch of the schedule for the Aggies. In their next seven games, the Aggies will play only two currently-ranked teams, starting with 21 Ole Miss tomorrow. That game at the Rebels is also the beginning of four out of five games away from home.
Even though only two of those teams bear an AP ranking next to their name, the NET rankings— a college basketball power rating system— shows that these aren't exactly pushovers. With the exception of South Carolina and Arkansas, all of these teams are top-50 power-ranked squads, with the Rebels currently ranking 13th as a high watermark.
Chris Beard's squad down in Oxford just took down Alabama, which should get the Aggies' attention. Tomorrow's game will no doubt be a hotly-contested and physical matchup between the two teams.
Texas A&M basketball will need to remain focused during this stretch. Not only for their resume's sake, of course, but for the sake of setting up some huge matchups during the latter part of the season: A&M will play three teams currently ranked in the NET top 5 over their final five games of the season, with two of those being at Reed Arena.
This has the chance to be a really special run for Texas A&M basketball. For things to turn out that way, though, they need to keep their composure and avoid the potential pitfalls in these next seven games.