Buzz Williams & Co. will still play postseason basketball.
After ridiculously being left out of the NCAA Tournament's 68-team field on Sunday, it was announced that Texas A&M will participate in the National Invitational Tournament.
The Aggies are a #1 seed and will face Alcorn State on Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Reed Arena in Bryan-College Station.
A 32-team tournament, the NIT is set to begin on Tuesday, March 15, and conclude with its championship game at New York's Madison Square Garden on Thursday, March 31.
Earlier this week, Texas A&M Director of Athletics Ross Bjork spoke publicly on the Aggies' chances to reach the NCAA Tournament but also added that playing postseason games of any kind is important for Williams' program.
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A&M came tantalizingly close to an automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament.
“As Buzz (Williams, coach) is building the program, I think having postseason wins is important,” Bjork told TexAgs' Olin Buchanan. “You look at a lot of teams, if they make a run in the NIT one year, usually you look the next year, and they’re squarely in the (NCAA) Tournament.
“Those are the kind of things we look at as we build the program."
Bjork mentioned then that Texas A&M was interested in hosting potential NIT games.
“We put in a bid to host. There’s some money involved. There’s some tickets involved," Bjork said. "Basically, is your arena available on these dates? Do you have the capacity? Do you have the setup? Obviously, we do at A&M. And then are you willing to host? Of course, we are willing to host.”
For the heartbroken Aggies that had their sights set on the big dance, the NIT will allow them one more opportunity to play in front of the 12th Man.
It will be Texas A&M's first postseason game since the 2018 Sweet Sixteen. It will be A&M's first appearance in the NIT since 2015 when the Aggies advanced to the second round under Billy Kennedy.
