Balanced and improved A&M team looks to continue hot streak against LSU
The Aggies apparently have found the cure for what ailed them. They now hope LSU’s Tremont Waters doesn’t.
A&M (12-14, 5-9) aims to continue a recent hot streak in an 8 p.m. Southeastern Conference basketball clash with No. 13 LSU (22-5, 12-2) on Tuesday. The Aggies aspirations would be boosted if Waters, LSU’s star guard, remains sidelined by an illness which forced him to miss an 82-80 upset of Tennessee on Saturday.
Waters, a sophomore guard, is listed as day-to-day. He received an IV on Friday in hopes that he’d be able to play against Tennessee.
He has been particularly tough on the Aggies. In three career games against A&M, Waters has averaged 24 points and hit a dozen 3-point goals. That includes a 36-point effort in a 72-57 victory over the Aggies on Jan. 30.
“We’re prepared to deal with him,” coach Billy Kennedy said of Waters. “We expect him to be back. Obviously, he’s been such a weapon against us that we’ve got to plan to guard him because he's so good.”
As the upset of Tennessee indicated, LSU has more than Waters in its arsenal. Guard Skyler Mays averages 13.4 points and forward Naz Reid averages 13.4 points and 6.6 rebounds. Freshman guard Ja’vonte Smart scored 29 in the win over Tennessee.
“They’re so balanced,” Kennedy said. “Smart had 29 and Mays had 20 last game. They’re not just a one-man team.”
But the Aggies aren’t the same team they were when they previously faced LSU. They have improved significantly since that first LSU encounter.
A&M has won four of its last five games. The Aggies have gotten more balanced scoring, have rebounded well and have played with more confidence in their recent surge.
Junior forward Josh Nebo said it’s vital that the Aggies continue to be productive on the boards.
“For us to go in there and win we’ve got to rebound we have to rebound because they’re a really big team,” Nebo said. “They’re really good at crashing the glass, so we’ve got to rebound the ball as a unit, we’ve got to limit our turnovers and we have to make smart decisions with the ball.”
The Aggies also need junior guard Wendell Mitchell to continue his personal hot streak. He’s averaged 18.2 points and has scored at least 18 points in six of the past seven games. Before his streak began he managed just two points while hitting just 1 of 8 shots in the earlier loss to LSU.
“I thought he had some good looks. He just missed some shots that he’s been making lately,” Kennedy said. “That’s before he started feeling really good physically. He’s playing better and we’re going to need him to play well to beat them.”
Mitchell isn’t the only Aggie surging now. Sophomore Savion Flagg, the SEC Player of the Week, has averaged 21.3 points and 8.3 rebounds over the last three games.
“He’s getting better and his confidence level is up,” Kennedy said. “We’ve been telling him to be aggressive early on and he started being aggressive. He had some success and he’s playing with great confidence. He’s doing it in rebounding, he’s scoring, he’s sharing the ball and he’s doing it on the defensive end.”
“We thought when we signed him that he was capable of being a really good player and that’s what he’s playing like now.”