What an insane win for Bucky McMillan and Texas A&M. Exactly the type of win that can propel this team to sneak into the tournament this year. If you went to bed early last night, the Aggies went into Auburn and beat the Tigers 90-88 in what will probably end up as the craziest game of the year in college basketball. The win is the first Quad 1 win of the season for the Aggies and first win over Auburn in the Bucky McMillan era, after Buzz Williams went 6-2 against the Tigers in his tenure. Needless to say, the Aggies have had their number.
The Aggies hung with the Tigers all first half before Auburn extended the lead to 16 points with 13:29 to play. The Aggies responded with a 33-6 run of their own to take an 11-point lead with 6:49 left in the game. Entering the final minute of play, the Aggies had an 8-point lead, but everything went wrong from there. Missed free throws, bad fouls, Auburn shot making, and the Aggies still found themselves with a chance to ice the game with Pop Isaacs at the line with a 2-point lead and 2.4 seconds left.
Then things went off the rails. Isaacs missed his first free throw, purposely missed his second, Auburn rebounds the ball and has to heave it from the middle of the backcourt, clearly misses, game is over, correct? Of course not. As the final shot is in the air with time still on the clock the refs blow the whistle to check to see if the free throw hit the rim with 0.3 seconds left.
Texas A&M's miraculous win over Auburn means continued dominance in matchup
Review clearly showed the ball hitting the rim, game should've been over, but the refs gave Auburn the ball with 0.6 seconds left on the clock and the ball out of bounds about a third of the way up the court instead of the baseline. Of course, Auburn inbounds and makes a shot from about 35 feet, but did they get it off in time?
If you watch the TV broadcast it looked like it was close, but he did get it off. Fortunately for the Aggies, they go by the official clock in the stadium which clearly showed the ball still touching the Auburn player' hand when the clock hit 0.0. Naturally Auburn fans were pissed, threw things on the court, at the refs, and at A&M players and staff, but A&M won that game fair and square.
The star of the night for the Aggies was none other than Pop Isaacs. 21 points off the bench and had a huge second half propelling the team to victory. Jacari Lane also played out of his mind with 17 points and 7 rebounds himself. Rashaun Agee and Ruben Dominguez continued their consistent play with 14 points apiece. Poor rebounding, turnovers, and missed free throws kept Auburn in the game down the stretch, and the Aggies will need to fix those shortcomings as they continue into SEC play this season.
Next up for the Aggies is a very interesting home matchup against an Oklahoma team with a very similar resume to the Aggies. A win on Saturday would mean a 3-0 start in conference play, and even more hope that this team has a shot to make it into the NCAA tournament in March. The win propelled the Aggies up to 49th in the NET rankings which is right around the cutoff line of making or missing the tournament.
Check back on Friday for a full preview of Saturday's home game against Oklahoma.