Texas A&M basketball was predicted earlier today to make the NCAA Tournament field as a ten-seed, which pretty much seemed to be the most likely outcome. That's what we saw happen on Selection Sunday, but it just got even worse than the Aggies thought possible.
The earlier projection had Texas A&M facing off with Utah State, who would have been quite high in the NET rankings for a 7 seed. However, no one thought that the Ags could end up facing a team ranked even higher in the NET than USU's 26th, but that's just what happened.
Somewhere, at some point, someone associated with Texas A&M must have ticked off the god of selection committees, because every time they are at the mercy of one, it goes badly. The Aggies have possibly the hardest path of any ten seed, and it's going to be a slog just to get out of the first round.
Texas A&M basketball gets brutal seeding draw with extremely hard first two rounds
Texas A&M will face off with the St. Mary's Gaels in the first round, who are ranked 22nd in the NET. Lest you think that this could be easier based on a lower level of physical talent, this is one of the top teams in the country when it comes to height, which is Texas A&M's bane as we saw against Florida.
The Aggies will have a long game ahead of them if they aren't able to light it up from three. However, as Luke Evangelist points out for Texags, the Aggies are a far better three-point-shooting team than St. Mary's is, so they need to exploit that advantage.
Waiting in the wings is the top-ranked 2-seed in Houston, who the Aggies will have to face if they beat St. Mary's. This is truly the toughest possible path that the Ags could have gotten, so we'll see just how far Bucky Ball can take them.