Aggies must seize opportunity versus No. 19 Arizona

Twenty more games will remain on the Texas A&M regular season basketball schedule. Southeastern Conference play has yet to commence. The SEC Tournament remains, too.

Despite all those upcoming games, Saturday’s clash with No. 19 Arizona (9-2) in Houston at the Toyota Center has something of a “must-win” element for the Aggies.

A&M (7-2) is in need of big victories that will impress the NCAA Tournament committee in March. Frankly, the Aggies are running out of opportunities to boost their resume. But a victory over Arizona would be memorable in March.

“Obviously, you need to win all your home games,” A&M coach Billy Kennedy said earlier this week. “But you have a chance to beat an opponent that’s ranked and has gained the respect of many because of what (coach) Sean Miller has done with that program and the tradition of the program.

“That’s a program we’re trying to catch up with. So to have a chance to beat them, hopefully, is big for us.”

The Aggies have come tantalizingly close to posting big victories over other Pac-12 opponents only to come up short in the final minutes. They lost to No. 24 USC 65-63 and fell to No. 2 UCLA 74-67.

But close losses won’t guarantee a spot in the NCAA Tournament. 
A&M’s most impressive victory thus far was 68-65 over Virginia Tech, which is 47th in the Ratings Percentage Index.

The Aggies, whose current RPI is 64th, haven’t posted a victory over another opponent in the Top 100. Arizona’s current RPI is 36th.

The Wildcats have earned it, too.

They have a victory over Michigan State and have won four of their last five. The loss was 69-62 to unbeaten and eighth-ranked Gonzaga.

Arizona is similar to A&M in that the Wildcats have excellent length and play well on the defensive end. Arizona allows an average of 62.0 points per game to rank 27th nationally in scoring defense.

However, the Wildcats also have four players averaging in double figures. Seven-foot forward Lauri Markkanen, a freshman from Finland, leads with a 16.3 scoring average, while 6-foot-5 freshman Rawle Alkins averages 12.5 and 6-5 freshman Kobi Simmons averages 12.2 points. Senior center Dusan Ristic, a 7-foot, senior, averages 10 points.

“They’ve got great size at the 3, 4 and 5,” Kennedy said. “They can play a 7-footer at the small forward. I really like their guards. Rawle Alkins is really good.”

Few teams can match up size-wise with A&M, which features 6-10, 270-pound Tyler Davis, 6-9 Robert Williams and 6-11 Tonny Trocha-Morelos.

However, Davis maintained while both teams have tall posts, the size is different.

“I know they’re big. It’s going to be fun to see how our size matches up with their size,” he said. “We have a different kind of size. They have bigs that can really, really shoot it. Guarding them is going to be a challenge, but they’ve got to guard us too. So, it’s going to be a fun game.”

Obviously, the game will be more fun if the Aggies play well, which they did not do in their most recent outing when they defeated South Carolina State 83-76.

Kennedy acknowledged Arizona is the best defensive team that Aggies will have faced. He stressed A&M must shoot better and convert at the free throw line.

He also hinted that he may have a shorter bench. He did not get much production from subs against South Carolina State.

“We’ve only played seven or eight in certain games,” Kennedy said. “They (Arizona) only play seven or eight. We could like to play everybody and play more, but we’re going to play who can help us win.

“If we can play five and win, we’ll play five and win.”