I was interested in the history of A&M men's basketball post-season appearances. According to the Wikipedia article, which I believe is correct, we have 6, not 4 sweet 16 appearances in the NCAA tournament:

1951 losing to Washington 40 - 62
1969 losing to Drake 63 - 81
1980 losing to Louisville 55 - 66
2007 losing to Memphis 64 - 65
2016 losing to Oklahoma 63 - 77
2018 losing to Michigan 72 - 99

To me, the 2007 game was the heart-breaker. That was a great team, and we had a lot of chances to get that winning basket.

I'm not sure about the 1951 appearance, but we probably got it by winning the SWC. There were only 16 teams in the tournament, I believe, so we were 0 - 1 that year.

The 1969 team (my senior year!) won a round of 25 game - how is that! - over Trinity 81 - 66 in Ft. Worth, I believe. Then we ran into a buzz saw versus Drake featuring Wes Unseld. That Drake team went to the final 4. I think, but lost to one of the super UCLA - John Wooden teams. Shelby Metcalf said the only team he saw that was faster than Drake was a roller derby team on TV!

Took eventual national champion Louisville to OT after beating Dean Smith's Tarheels the previous week in 1980. My fish year.

greg.w.h said:

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Took eventual national champion Louisville to OT after beating Dean Smith's Tarheels the previous week in 1980. My fish year.

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That has to be the most cherished loss in world history. Lots of eventual national champions have a close game along the way, but in A&M's case, it means... something. I don't know what it's supposed to mean

Back when we used to play wearing belts.

Could have been 7.

Sweet 16 wasn't a thing until the NCAA Tournament expanded to 32 teams in 1975. That was also the first time at large teams where selected to the field. 1978 was the first time any form of seeding was used.

So most people would say we have 4 Sweet 16's or one could add 4 in the "modern era".

Gap said:

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Sweet 16 wasn't a thing until the NCAA Tournament expanded to 32 teams in 1975. That was also the first time at large teams where selected to the field. 1978 was the first time any form of seeding was used.

So most people would say we have 4 Sweet 16's or one could add 4 in the "modern era".

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Completely fair.

I think most consider the modern era around 85/86 to present since it includes adoption of 3pt shot, 64 team tourney, shot clock.

Tango_Mike said:

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greg.w.h said:

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Took eventual national champion Louisville to OT after beating Dean Smith's Tarheels the previous week in 1980. My fish year.

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That has to be the most cherished loss in world history. Lots of eventual national champions have a close game along the way, but in A&M's case, it means... something. I don't know what it's supposed to mean

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It means a great A&M team lost a game it could've won against the eventually NC. That's about it. But in a sport where that Shipp hack still pisses me the **** off, that means something.

Tango_Mike said:

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greg.w.h said:

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Took eventual national champion Louisville to OT after beating Dean Smith's Tarheels the previous week in 1980. My fish year.

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That has to be the most cherished loss in world history. Lots of eventual national champions have a close game along the way, but in A&M's case, it means... something. I don't know what it's supposed to mean

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It was a great game with a frustrating ending.

Gap said:

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Sweet 16 wasn't a thing until the NCAA Tournament expanded to 32 teams in 1975. That was also the first time at large teams where selected to the field. 1978 was the first time any form of seeding was used.

So most people would say we have 4 Sweet 16's or one could add 4 in the "modern era".

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In 1951 there were only 16 teams in the tourney, so that one is also a first round exit.

In 1969 the format was weird.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_NCAA_University_Division_Basketball_Tournament

25 teams, which meant the East had 7 teams and the others had 6. Drake had a first round bye, while the Ags eliminated Trinity. Drake would go on to the Final 4, where they lost to UCLA 85-82 and then beat UNC in the third place game.

The loss to Drake wasn't the end of the season for the Ags. The regionals also had consolation games. A&M lost to Colorado to finish 4th in the region.

Pet peeve when people put losing score first.

I lived in Des Moines in 1969. They had a great team. Their best player was Dolf Pullium. They played a UCLA team down to the wire but got very little credit for it. Maury John was their coach who moved on to Iowa St.

1951 Team information:

ABATTBQ87 said:

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Those Texas A&M warm-up suits in the top picture are awesome. They have a bit of a sailor look. Bring them back! They could become classics for pre-game warmups as the Indiana or Tennessee candy stripe warm-ups.

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DD88 said:

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Could have been 7.

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Worst non-call to make sure Kevin Love could advance.

Love the shield on those warmups

Modern Era began in '79 With Magic and Larry.

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Took eventual national champion Louisville to OT after beating Dean Smith's Tarheels the previous week in 1980. My fish year.



That has to be the most cherished loss in world history. Lots of eventual national champions have a close game along the way, but in A&M's case, it means... something. I don't know what it's supposed to mean

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Disagree it was a "cherished" loss. I lived it and here's what it means to me. The Ags gave Louisville everything they wanted and the game was very, very competitive. Louisville pretty much steamrolled every opponent the rest of the way through the tournament. In my memory this was the closest A&M Men's BB ever came to having a serious National Championship quality basketball contender and it was really fun to follow that team as a fan. Imo that team was truly capable of winning it all even though they didn't . I fully understand that plus $4 buys you a coffee at Starbucks but it indeed was one of the high water marks all time for A&M hoops as sad as that may be.

None of our other Sweet 16 teams really felt to me like they could really have won it all. There were some good teams to be sure under BCG but the overall talent didn't match up with the best of the best around the nation like the 79-80 team did.

Almost the same team collapsed and didn't even make the tournament the next season sans David Britton and Dave Goff at the guards. Really illustrates how important quality experienced guard play matters.

That's all I got.

Utah gave Duke a good game in 2015, does that mean that Utah was "almost" the national champion?

10 seed St Joseph's took National Champion UConn to overtime in the 1st round in 2014. Does that mean St Joseph's was national championship good?

UConn squeaked by Arizona in 2011. Does that mean Arizona "almost" won the tourney?

Steph Curry and his band of Merry Men gave KU all they could take in 2008, but I don't think anyone thinks Davidson was the 1A best team that year.

There isn't any transitive property in basketball, probably more than any other sport. Losing to an eventual champion doesn't mean you were "champion good." Louisville had an even closer overtime win over Kansas State, so I guess K-State is champion 1A and A&M is 1B.

Based on your definition only one team can be "champion good " in any year, that being the actual champion. I'm okay with that definition, but there can be more than one real national champion contender in any season. That 79-80 team was the only Aggie team that has ever met that hurdle in my opinion.

The transitive property doesn't even apply when you win. But those of us who watched that team have legitimate opinions about its quality. They beat four-corner-stall Dean Smith with a four corner stall...

As a note: Rudy was academically ineligible for I believe at least Spring '81. Covered in his Wikipedia article. The team wasn't the same with the three starters missing. It was a magnificent moment that really didn't get reprised until the Miracle at Reunion which didn't last past the first game in the NCAAT.

I admit to a bit of hero worship of that team and largely giving Shelby a pass after that in part because it was my first year at A&M. But regulation play of the game was a great game. The overtime not so much...

The 2016 team had final 4 talent

No they didn't. They had sweet 16 talent with potential to go further if everything went well.
Where are they all now? Storming the NBA?

machine20 said:

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The 2016 team had final 4 talent

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Did Northern Iowa have final four talent?

4 Sweet 16 appearances and Kennedy has 2 of them. Legend.

_lefraud_ said:

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machine20 said:

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The 2016 team had final 4 talent

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Did Northern Iowa have final four talent?

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Did Loyola-Chicago? Well...no...but they had Sister Jean!

Loyola-Chicago was truly a cinderella team. They won their first 3 games by a total of 4 points. What were their odds in making the Final 4 last year? Of course, UMBC knocking off Virginia surprisingly took care of their 1 seed.

Checking them out this year, they are currently 9-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference trailing conference leader Drake.

Heres the problem, last time I checked our record in the sweet 16 is 0-6

or 0-4 in the actual Sweet 16.

Does that mean what I think it means? We've never been to the Elite 8?

halfastros81 said:

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Quote:

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Took eventual national champion Louisville to OT after beating Dean Smith's Tarheels the previous week in 1980. My fish year.



That has to be the most cherished loss in world history. Lots of eventual national champions have a close game along the way, but in A&M's case, it means... something. I don't know what it's supposed to mean

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Disagree it was a "cherished" loss. I lived it and here's what it means to me. The Ags gave Louisville everything they wanted and the game was very, very competitive. Louisville pretty much steamrolled every opponent the rest of the way through the tournament. In my memory this was the closest A&M Men's BB ever came to having a serious National Championship quality basketball contender and it was really fun to follow that team as a fan. Imo that team was truly capable of winning it all even though they didn't . I fully understand that plus $4 buys you a coffee at Starbucks but it indeed was one of the high water marks all time for A&M hoops as sad as that may be.

None of our other Sweet 16 teams really felt to me like they could really have won it all. There were some good teams to be sure under BCG but the overall talent didn't match up with the best of the best around the nation like the 79-80 team did.

Almost the same team collapsed and didn't even make the tournament the next season sans David Britton and Dave Goff at the guards. Really illustrates how important quality experienced guard play matters.

That's all I got.

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In that game - regular time - Britton made a two ( dunk ? ) - ball came off the floor straight back to Britton .

He then put the ball on the floor - ref called a technical on him ! A cs call - seen recently LaBron and

Chennedy Carter do the same - no call . Been poed ever since !