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Gary Blair
Chennedy Carter
Kayla Wells
Jasmine Williams
Texas A&M Women's Basketball

Texas A&M women’s basketball secures four seed in NCAA tournament

March 18, 2019
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Typically, the madness of March refers to the hectic nature of tournament basketball. However, today it also described an odd and premature NCAA bracket reveal.

A mid-afternoon mistake by ESPN in which the women’s brackets were shown early sent sports media into a frenzy as seeding was revealed hours before schedule.

"It was very unfortunate," said Texas A&M coach Gary Blair. "A selection show is everything. Teams want to be able to have that celebration, especially the at-large teams and bubble teams."

The leak revealed, to the satisfaction of Aggie fans, that Texas A&M had secured a much desired four seed in the Chicago region. The Aggies are set to host 13th-seeded Wright State at 3 p.m. on Friday, a game that will be televised on ESPN2.

“The Aggies are set to host 13 seed Wright State at 3 pm which will be televised on ESPN 2. With a win on Friday, A&M would prepare to host the winner of 12 seed Rice and five seed Marquette on Sunday.”

With a win on Friday, A&M would prepare to host the winner of 12 seed Rice and five seed Marquette on Sunday. A second weekend win likely would have the Aggies in a rematch of last year’s Sweet Sixteen, where they lost to the eventual NCAA champion Notre Dame 90-84. The Irish are again a one seed after finishing the year with an impressive 30-3 record.

A&M had their eyes set on a top four seed all season, knowing the benefit that home-court advantage has in a tournament format.

“It’s big. Being able to host means a lot to me,” said A&M guard Chennedy Carter, who led the SEC in scoring. “We hosted last year, and that was one of the reasons we were able to pull through and beat a ranked team in DePaul.”

Carter’s three pointer with 2.8 seconds to play in last year’s round of 32 helped lift the fourth-seeded Aggies over fifth-seeded DePaul 80-79 for a trip to the Sweet Sixteen.

Kayla Wells echoed the importance of playing at home.

“It makes it easier because we know we have our fans behind us cheering us on,” Wells explained. “Without our fans last year against DePaul, we wouldn’t have been able to come back and win that game.”

In addition to the good fortune of playing at home, the Aggies are welcoming back their leader in Carter, who missed the conference tournament with an injured pinky finger. Coach Blair said she looks healthy and will be ready to compete.

“She’s got to get some confidence shooting the ball, but she looked 100% in practice.”

In Carter’s absence, Texas A&M was advanced to the semi-finals of the SEC tournament on a Kayla Wells game-winner against Auburn.

“We know Chennedy (Carter) is the best player on our team. We proved that we’re just as good without her because we’re a team. We shocked a lot of people,” said Wells.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO
Mac Resource Computers for their sponsorship of all women's basketball content produced throughout the season at TexAgs.com! For the seventh consecutive year, all WBB content will be available to you for free!

Discussion from...

Texas A&M women’s basketball secures four seed in NCAA tournament

9,134 Views | 4 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by greg.w.h
Rudybryan
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mullokmotx
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AG
In his interview, Gary was wondering how to get people to the games. Last years scheduling was similar and attendance was 2835 on Friday and 3162 on Sunday. I was surprised at the low numbers but then I looked at the price of tickets and I thought that was a factor. Last year was a good opportunity to draw in families on Friday because all the schools were on spring break, but if the price was like it is this year, $10 is too much for a ticket for a child. A big part of the fan base for women's basketball is families with young kids, but during the NCAA Tournament they are priced out of the market. Also, the casual fan is not going to pay the general admission price of $17 for a women's basketball game.
The NCAA needs to decide if they want to grow the game or try to make more money off of the fans who do come.
I see that parking will be $5 and I am okay with that as long as there are people helping to direct traffic.
Kbeauty63
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AG
with it being a regular class/work day - Reed would normally be parking for students. I don't know if they're planning on telling them (100/Reed permits) to park at Blue Bell. IMO it will be challenging regardless.
greg.w.h
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AG
I think the ESPN fumble was fabulous. They OUGHT to have such a great selection show that leaking the bracket doesn't change the show. They don't have that.

The NCAA controls the tickets and pricing. I'm sure we present a package that they review and take "as advice." But we don't control any of that as far as I am aware.
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