Texas A&M fell today to the Vanderbilt Commodores on the road, marking their fourth straight loss in a very costly skid. The Ags had climbed up to a six or seven seed a few weeks ago by most bracketologists, but after this latest spate of games, they are now headed squarely in the wrong direction.
The Aggies and Commodores were pretty close throughout the first half, but early in the second half, Vandy really began to pour things on, while the Aggies simply looked shaken. Ruben Dominguez, in particular, continued to struggle— without his ability from distance, the Ags have a much tougher time making teams pay for the way they defend.
Even without Duke Miles, the second leading scorer for the Commodores, Vandy was able to dissect the Aggie defense time and time again. The Aggies did a decent job applying pressure and the signature press defense that we've come to expect from Bucky's squad, but Vandy played very clean, hardly turning the ball over at all.
Texas A&M falls to Vanderbilt on the road, worsening tournament chances even further
This is not as catastrophic of a loss as what we saw against Missouri this past Wednesday, as Vandy is the no. 14 team in the NET rankings, but that loss to Missouri makes this one sting all the worse. The Aggies really could have used a statement on the road in this game, and it looked like things were trending that way early on, but it never came to pass.
Rylan Griffen was the most disappointing part of this game in many ways. He had been the most reliable option on offense for the Aggies recently, but he fouled out with six minutes left with only five points to his name.
If Griffen isn't on, and neither is Dominguez, things are bound to look rough for the Aggies. I don't know if this team needs a wakeup call or what, but something needs to happen soon to turn around this negative trend— if not, the Aggies may drop right out of the tournament field altogether.