Bucky McMillan and Texas A&M Basketball lost last night in a double-overtime thriller on the road against the Tennessee Volunteers, 87-82. With the loss, the Aggies drop to 13-4 overall, 3-1 in the SEC, and 47th in the NET rankings while the Volunteers improve to 12-5 overall, 2-2 in the SEC, and 26th in the NET rankings.
Hats off to Tennessee. They were losing for the vast majority of the game and did what they needed to do down the stretch to win the game. If we're looking at that game on paper, A&M had no reason to be in the game.
They got absolutely dominated by the size of Tennessee, especially when it came to rebounds and second chance points, but the Aggies should've won that game. It was theirs to win multiple times. Missed free throws, missed rebounds, bad turnovers, and a missed Ruben Dominguez three-point shot is what lost them this game.
Texas A&M still struggles to finish, but they're getting closer
So what went well for the Aggies? Once again, the Aggies did a tremendous job distributing the ball between each other. Five players scored in double figures last night led by Jacari Lane with 20, Pop Isaacs with 16, Dominguez with 15, Agee with 11, and Griffen with 10. They also won the turnover battle once again by forcing 19 turnovers while only having 13 themselves.
Here comes the bad. Rebounding continues to be atrocious, and I don't think it could get any worse than it did last night. The Aggies were outrebounded 60-35. I understand that last year's team was much different, but they were also an undersized team and typically dominated the rebounding battle. I'm not sure what exactly the issue is, but effort seems to be lacking big time. And a costly missed rebound by Rylan Griffen at the end of regulation allowed Tennessee to tie that game and send it to overtime. Something has to change.
Free throw shooting and fouling were also a major issue. The Aggies went 21-32 from the line, with many of those costly misses coming in the final minutes of the game. Tennessee wasn't much better at 31-42, but when a team gets 42 attempts in the game, you're fouling too much. There were many unnecessary fouls that came in the Tennessee backcourt while attempting to press when they were in the bonus. Most of them were completely avoidable as well.
Outside of all of that, the Aggies still were in the game when they probably shouldn't have against one of the top teams in the league. There's no reason that this team can't play with everyone in the league (or lose to anyone in the league, unfortunately). The Aggies will be back in action on Saturday as they head to Austin to take on the Longhorns. A very winnable game, and probably a must win game for both teams. Check back on Friday for my full preview of Saturday's matchup.