Two for One: Aggies aiming for victory, first-round bye against Georgia
A&M looks to take care of first things first.
At the same time.
Huh?
OK, the Aggies (18-11, 7-9) are seeking to earn a first-round bye in next week’s Southeastern Conference basketball tournament.
They’re also looking to clinch a spot in the exclusive NCAA Tournament field. They may be able to do both with a victory at Georgia (16-12, 7-9) on Wednesday night. But with two SEC games remaining, the Aggies cannot take anything for granted.
First, the Aggies are hoping to avoid the SEC Tournament first round, which includes the bottom four teams in the conference standings. Teams that play in the first round next Wednesday would have to play five consecutive days to win the SEC tournament championship.
A&M, Georgia and LSU are tied for 11th in the standings. A&M has already lost twice to LSU. However, the Aggies are riding a wave of confidence after defeating Vanderbilt 89-81 on Saturday.
“When you only play a team once you want to do well against them because the tie-breaker and everything else factors into it in the (SEC) tournament,” A&M coach Billy Kennedy said. “You don’t want to be playing five nights in a row to the SEC championship. We understand the sense of urgency. We have to have the same urgency we had against Vandy.”
A&M might have solidified a place in the NCAA Tournament field with the win over Vanderbilt.
A victory at Georgia could remove all doubt.
“We still want to play well all the way down the stretch,” Kennedy said. “We’ve got at least three games left. You want to be playing good basketball at the end of the year. We still think it’s important that we win some games to validate that and make sure we get into the NCAA Tournament. We don’t want to be guessing on Selection Sunday."
Georgia will be guessing on Selection Sunday, but the Bulldogs have gotten on a roll lately. They have won three of their last four, including victories over Florida and Tennessee. They’re also 6-2 in Athens in SEC play.
Just as telling — if not more so — is that Georgia is 9-2 when star forward Yante Maten scores more than 20 points. The 6-foot-8 senior averages 19.5 points and 8.7 rebounds. He had 27 points and 11 rebounds in Georgia’s 93-87 victory over LSU last Saturday.
“He’s gotten to where he’s not just a low-post player,” Kennedy said. “One game against Alabama he made four threes in the first half. He’s just a dominant scorer and they do a good job of going to him.
“We’ve done a pretty good job against him in the past where he just didn’t go crazy on us. He’s going to get some, but we’ve got to do a good job not letting him get his 20, 25 points a game.”
Though Matin is definitely Georgia’s greatest threat, there are others as well. Forward Rayshawn Hammonds is coming off a season-high 21-point performance in the win over LSU. Also, guard William Jackson averages 9.0 points and leads Georgia with 48 three-point goals.
However, Georgia’s perimeter shooting hasn’t been a major threat most of the season. The Bulldogs have the second-lowest three-point total (166) in the SEC.
A&M can match up with Matin and Co. inside with center Tyler Davis and forward Rob Williams. The Aggies also figure to have an advantage in the backcourt.
Admon Gilder is playing well, D.J. Hogg had a strong showing against Vandy and freshman T.J. Starks appears to be making significant progress in his development at point guard. He had perhaps his best game against Vandy with 18 points, six assists and no turnovers.
“When I see stats like that I just try to build on it, translate it to the next game and hopefully I can do it against Georgia,” Starks said.
Starks added that he expects the Aggies to follow up that win at Vanderbilt with a strong showing against Georgia.
“They seem pretty physical. I don’t see any challenges because I believe in my teammates,” Starks said. “I think we’re going to come out and do what we’re supposed to do.
“Georgia is a good team. They have great players on that team. They have older leadership. But I just feel like if we come out and do what we’re supposed to do we can handle them pretty well.”
