Bucky McMillan and Texas A&M Basketball took it to Saint Mary's from the jump and came away with the first-round victory, 63-50. The Aggies make their third straight NCAA Round of 32 when they will face off against a familiar foe in the Houston Cougars, who knocked them out in the round of 32 just two years ago in a game that went to overtime. A lot can be taken away from the Aggies' performance last night, but some of these seems to take center stage.
Let's start off with the obvious: That was Texas A&M's best defensive game all year. They held the Gaels to only 50 points, their lowest point total since November of 2023. The Aggies also forced 18 turnovers when the Gaels average only 11 per game.
Their press and patented "Mother-in-law" defense absolutely overwhelmed the Gaels, and they weren't able to adjust properly. The Gaels haven't had to play the Bucky ball high pace style before, and it showed last night. The only thing keeping the Gaels in the game was 3-point shooting, and they couldn't get anything going inside the arc.
Texas A&M basketball overwhelms St. Mary's early to move to the second round
Offensively, the Aggies still have a lot to work on. Rashaun Agee was the star of the show tonight with 22 points. Ruben Dominguez had a very solid shooting night with 11 points of his own while Ali Dibba had a very efficient 9 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals in only 24 minutes of play. A lot of the regular production was missing today. Hill, Isaacs, and Griffen only had a combined 11 points. They will need to get those guys going if they want any chance at beating the Cougars.
The Aggies did the little things right in this game. They were at a massive size disadvantage last night and managed to hang in there with the Gaels, only losing the rebounding battle by one. They were able to hold the Gaels' top 2 scorers to only 9 combined points. Despite the massive height disadvantage for the Aggies, they managed to dominate the points in the paint, 28-12; something I didn't think would be possible.
The Aggies had an awesome performance last night, but now they have to shift their focus to the more athletic, Houston Cougars. Can they keep up with them? Check out my full preview of tomorrow's Round of 32 matchup against the Cougars.