Five Thoughts: #2 Tennessee 86, #3 Texas A&M 77

1. Another great SEC basketball game, but unfortunately the Aggies were on the losing end of this one. Similar to the game on Friday against Auburn, A&M started the game strong, but this time foul trouble inside against a much more talented team in Tennessee took its toll and ultimately cost the Aggies the game. Whether the calls were legitimate or not, I thought Blair did about as well as he could have with the foul trouble given the circumstances. I liked his decision to keep Karla Gilbert on the bench in the first half for later use with two fouls even after Rachel Mitchell picked up her third and eventually fourth fouls in the first half.

Along those lines, it would have been nice to get a little more out of Jada Terry while she was in during the first half, but the freshman just couldn’t seem to cut it today against the highly skilled bigs of Tennessee. That being said, I expect Blair to use today’s foul trouble as a situational learning experience for not just his post players, but the entire team as well.

2. It’s hard to choose one single player of the game on the A&M side of the ball in this one, so I’ll have to give it to the sophomore trio of Jordan Jones, Courtney Walker and Courtney Williams. The duo of Walker and Williams combined for A&M’s first 15 points of the game over the first seven and a half minutes, and Jones had a pair of assists during that stretch as well. Here’s the final stat lines on each:

Jones: 12 points, 10 assists, six rebounds, four turnovers, two steals in 39 minutes

Walker: 26 points, one assist, four rebounds, one turnover, one steal in 39 minutes

Williams: 22 points, two assists, three rebounds, one turnover, one steal in 39 minutes

The three combined for more than 75% of A&M’s offensive production on Saturday, and let’s not forget, they’re only sophomores. These three are the nucleus of this program for the next two years and it would be hard to put it in better hands.

3. With the game tied 75 and 4:10 left on the clock after a jumper from Walker, Tennessee went on a 7-0 run over the next three minutes to win the game. If there was a specific turning point in this one, this was it. During that stretch, A&M went 0-for 5 from the floor, while the Lady Vols went 2-for-3 and added four points at the free throw line. A&M could have certainly done better on the defensive end during this time, but I think the issue truly lied in the Aggies’ offensive attack.

If you look back to the stat lines posted in thought #2, you’ll see that Jones, Walker and Williams all played virtually the entire game. Blair commented in the post-game press conference on how gassed his guards were which led to unsuccessful attempts down the floor near the end of the game. All five shots A&M missed were jumpers, and while Tennessee played solid defense on each possession, I believe the tired legs of Walker and Williams could have affected their shot.

4. The A&M bench could have had a better showing than it did on Saturday. As stated earlier, Mitchell saw significant playing time, but other than that, the bench didn’t do too much to help the Aggies. While they did not see anywhere near as much action as they did on Friday against Auburn, the A&M reserves scored just five points against Tennessee. Compare that to the 20 put up by the Lady Vols’ bench and it’s clear which side had a better performance.

But if I’m being critical of their play as a whole, I must applaud the short individual performance from Tavarsha Scott-Williams. Although she saw just six minutes of playing time, the junior produced a nice and-one basket to give A&M a nine point lead with 8:08 remaining in the first half.

Conversely, I would have liked to see Blair sub in Tori Scott a little more than he did to get his guards a little more rest, but I understand why he didn’t. For one reason or another, Scott didn’t seem to be her usual self and was held scoreless in her nine minutes of action. I’m not sure if she just didn’t matchup well with the Lady Vols or what the issue was, but I can’t remember the last time the junior from Louisiana was held completely scoreless.

5. Finally, with the SEC Tournament officially behind them, it’s time to talk NCAA seeding. As of 2:30 this morning, ESPN bracketologist Charlie Crème had the Aggies as the three-seed in the Stanford region with a first round matchup against 14th-seeded Colorado State. In his scenario, sixth-seeded California and 11th-seeded Florida State would also be coming to Reed Arena for the sub-regional.

As of the latest RPI-update on NCAA.com prior to the tournament, A&M sits 11th overall. It’s tough to predict how the RPI of everyone will change after the conference tournaments are over, but I would be willing to guess that A&M doesn’t move much.

If I was betting on it, I would guess that the Aggies will draw a three-seed for the second straight season. It’s possible that A&M could slide down to a four, but the fact that the Aggies didn’t suffer a “bad” loss down the stretch to a team like Arkansas or Alabama coupled with College Station being a host-site should keep A&M as a “lower-three” instead of a “higher-four”.

I could be off-base, but that’s just one person’s prediction. Lots of basketball to be played around the country still between now and the selection show, so we’ll just have to wait and see how it all shakes out.