AP Top 25 Poll Released; Texas A&M Basketball on Outside Looking In

Texas A&M Basketball Receives Votes in AP Top 25; Big Week Could Get Aggies In

Texas A&M basketball is fresh off of their biggest win of the season, and are feeling significantly more comfortable about their tournament chances at the moment. A 16-point win over a top-10 Tennessee team that was never close is something that not many squads in the nation are capable of. Indeed, it was the worst loss of the season for the Volunteers by point differential, and wasn’t even as close as the final score looked.

To that end, there was some speculation—including by myself—of whether we would see the Aggies land in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll. The Aggies haven’t been included in the poll at any point over the last ten weeks; they last made an appearance in week 5.

Well, this week’s poll just dropped, and the Aggies again failed to place. If you go by the “also receiving votes” ranking, the Maroon and White are currently 37th (exactly in line with their NET rating, funnily enough).

That’s somewhat disappointing, but not altogether unexpected. Sitting at 15-8 and with two Quad 3 losses, the Aggies didn’t put their best foot forward during the late part of the non-conference slate and the early piece of conference play. The latest results suggest that they are back on track, but it seems as though voters are still skeptical.

A big week could jump Texas A&M basketball up into that top 25, however. They play tomorrow in a road game against Vanderbilt (who, though lowly in record, have given a couple of good teams a scare) before visiting 15th-ranked Alabama this weekend. The Tide are the 5th-ranked NET team, despite the AP slotting them lower, so a win there would be a real feather in the Aggies’ cap.