Providence will square off against Texas A&M for the very first time when the two schools take the court at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte on Friday afternoon. The Friars and Aggies will tip at 12:15pm on CBS and be the lone college basketball game on nationwide until 12:40pm when Purdue tips against Cal State Fullerton on truTV. I’ll be getting more in-depth about Texas A&M as Friday gets closer and keep your eyes peeled for a podcast this week. But until then here are five things to know about Texas A&M:
Former Top 5 Team
Texas A&M came into the season ranked 25th in the preseason AP poll and rose to as high as 5th in the Christmas Day poll after an 11-1 performance in non-conference play that included wins over West Virginia, Oklahoma State and Penn State. Their lone loss outside of SEC play came at the hands of Arizona, 67-64, on December 5th on a semi-neutral court in Phoenix. The 11-1 start was mired by an 0-5 beginning to SEC play which included back-to-back losses at home to Florida and LSU. Their 9-9 league finish, plus a random matchup in late January against Kansas, led them to finish with a 20-11 record before losing to Alabama in the SEC Tournament on a dramatic buzzer beating floater by stud freshman Collin Sexton to finish 20-12.
Bama's tourney hopes were on the verge of disappearing.
Collin Sexton would NOT let it happen. pic.twitter.com/L7S5FzlzD4
— ESPN (@espn) March 8, 2018
Down a Veteran Point Guard
Former Marquette guard Duane Wilson graduated and transferred to Texas A&M for the 2017-18 season for his last year of college hoops. Wilson started the first 13 games before suffering a knee injury in the SEC opening loss against Alabama. Wilson returned to play in 9 more games, including 3 more starts, before re-injuring the knee, ending his college career.
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Wilson averaged 9.0 points/game, 4.0 assists/game in 24.0 minutes/game this season before his balky knee forced him to shut it down after the Aggies’ game against Kentucky on February 10th. In his absence Billy Kennedy has relied on freshman TJ Starks to run the point. Starks is more of a scorer than pure point, though. Originally a position with depth coming into the season, Texas A&M kicked redshirt freshman JJ Caldwell off the team and Wilson’s injury has thinned the key position for Kennedy.
Defense is A&M’s Calling Card
Providence hasn’t faced a team this season with the overall size and length that Texas A&M features between 6’10 265 lb junior Tyler Davis, 6’10 220 lb senior Tonny Trocha-Morelos — a name PC recruiting buffs might recall — and 6’9 240 lb sophomore Robert Williams. Billy Kennedy also has DJ Hogg playing the wing at 6’9 220 lbs. Per Kenpom.com, Texas A&M has the 12th best Adjusted Defensive Efficiency in the country. They don’t turn their opponents over much — 312th in Turnover% — but they force tough shots, block more than 15% of attempts — 11th nationally — and don’t allow many offensive rebounds.
The Aggies struggle to shoot the 3-ball and make free throws but they win games with defense, something Providence fans are used to seeing when watching the Friars this season. Where A&M can be vulnerable on defense is an opponent that shoots well from the 3-point line. Their season average of 32.4% ranks 29th in the country, but a closer look at their SEC-only numbers reveals a 36.1% clip, which ranked 10th out of 14 in league play. That 36.1% would rank them around 240th nationally if it was their season-long defensive 3-point rate.
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