Is there any way back to the NCAA tournament for Texas A&M basketball?

Can Texas A&M basketball find a way to get to the Big Dance after so many disappointing losses?

This Texas A&M basketball team is one of the more frustrating squads we’ve seen across all sports on campus for quite some time. Of course, given some of the units that rolled out there in the last two years of Jimbo Fisher’s time in College Station, that’s saying something.

Nevertheless, it’s true. This Aggie team has a shockingly strange resume, with results ranging from elite to utterly awful. The Ags have an eye-popping six Quad 1 wins in 11 games—that’s a stellar record against a tough slate. However, they have a laughable 4 Quad 3 losses in six games—something you’d be more apt to see from a team on the bubble of the College Basketball Invitational rather than the NCAA Tournament.

How has this happened? Can it all be the extended, unexplained absence of Julius Marble? While that certainly doesn’t help, I don’t think it’s the source of the issues. The Aggies issues have been on both sides of the three-point line, rather than rebounding and interior offense.

The time for diagnosing the exact issue will come, however. For now, all that matters is whether this Texas A&M basketball team can make the NCAA tournament. A projection that was released yesterday had the Aggies in a First Four game to make the field. Yesterday’s disappointing result will only bump them further down that line.

They are, at the moment, riding the fence between a last four in and first four out team. Their NET ranking at the moment is 50th. When they were left out two years ago, it was 43rd. This is dangerous territory, no question.

Their remaining schedule currently consists of two Quad 1 games and three Quad 2 games. Those are unlikely to shift pending these last couple of weeks—perhaps a Quad 1 road game at Ole Miss in the Aggies’ final regular season game could shift to a top-shelf Quad 2 game if the Rebs lose a few between now and then.

It’s hard to think that anything worse than a 4-1 record could get the Aggies in the Big Dance. Of course, if they won the SEC tournament, they would be an automatic qualifier, but that’s unlikely at this point.

Saturday night’s game at Tennessee will be telling. If they lose, they need to be perfect down the stretch. If they win, they once again have some leeway. With the way this team has been over the course of this year, I wouldn’t be surprised at either result.