Success at the foul line critical for A&M in evening score with Arkansas

The price of victory for Texas A&M against Arkansas might be free.

Well, to be exact, the Aggies need to cash in at the free-throw line. Recent results indicate that getting to the free-throw line — and, of course, making free throws — is vital for them to continue their Southeastern Conference basketball surge.

A&M (18-7, 10-2) has won five of its last six games. The Aggies aim to continue that hot streak by avenging the only loss in that span when they play host to Arkansas (17-8, 6-6) Wednesday at 8 p.m. CT at Reed Arena.

The Aggies have shot free throws accurately and in volume most of the season, but that’s been especially the case in their last five wins over Auburn (twice), Vanderbilt, Georgia and LSU.

In those games, A&M shot an average of 29.6 free throws, while converting 76.3 percent (113-of-148). The Aggies scored at least 20 points at the foul line in four of those wins.

Jamie Maury, TexAgs

A&M head coach Buzz Williams is 2-0 against the Hogs at Reed Arena.

“We’re very dependent upon (getting to the foul line),” A&M coach Buzz Williams said on Tuesday. “We’re dependent upon trying to get a team in rotation and making the right decision. Most of the time, for us, those decisions need to be off two feet and with two hands, whether that’s a shot, whether’s that a dump off, whether that’s a skip to the weak side, whether that’s a pass behind.

"And then we want to apply as much pressure on the rim prior to the shot, and we want to try to apply just as much pressure on the rim on the rise of the shot.

“There’s a lot of people involved in that. Obviously, Boots (Tyrece Radford) and four (Wade Taylor IV) probably get fouled the most because they’re normally the ones that are making those decisions.”

Radford has converted 113-of-145 free throws. Taylor has hit 98-of-115 to rank second in the SEC with a 85.2 free throw percentage.

With them leading the way, the Aggies rank No. 1 nationally in free throws made (476) and No. 2 in free throw attempts (638).

But two weeks ago in Fayetteville, the Aggies converted just 14-of-24 free throws (58.3 percent) in an 81-70 loss to Arkansas.

Travel travails due to inclement weather that forced A&M’s plane to be diverted to Wichita probably contributed to the subpar showing.

The Aggies won’t use that an excuse, though.

“We weren’t our best that game. Nobody was,” Taylor said. “Even (coach) said he wasn’t. A little routine was thrown off, but that’s no excuse. We just didn’t come out with the same mentality that we need to have every game. We got to the rim but didn’t finish at the high rate we needed to. We’ve been working on that since we got back from LSU (a 74-62 win on Saturday). Hopefully, it’s a different story tomorrow night.

“We didn’t match those guys’ energy. We tried to match it too late. We have to be the aggressors coming in from tip-off.”

Junior forward Henry Coleman III, who had 18 points and 15 rebounds against Arkansas, agreed the Aggies didn’t give their best effort in Fayetteville.

“As a team, we were not hooked up,” Coleman said. “We were not hooked up in warmups. We weren’t hooked up much at the start of the game. We found it. The last 27 minutes of the game was Texas A&M basketball, but we kind of gave the first 13 minutes away.”

Arkansas guards Ricky Council and Davonte Davis both had 19 points in that game.

However, the biggest factor in the outcome may have been the play of twin forwards Makhel Mitchell and Makhi Mitchell, who combined to reject 10-of-13 shots blocked by the Razorbacks.

“We did not give our best, and I think Arkansas was tremendous,” Williams said. “I thought they were tougher than we were. I thought they punked us. They had 10 blocked shots. We couldn’t make a shot at the rim. They made every shot at the rim. I thought they were more physical and played harder.”

The Aggies will strive to be more physical this time. They will also strive to get to the foul line more and convert more often.