Story Poster
Buzz Williams
Wade Taylor IV
Texas Tech
Texas A&M Basketball

Learning begins as No. 15 Texas A&M drops exhibition to Texas Tech

October 29, 2023
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DENTON — At SEC Media Days earlier this month, Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams insisted his process will remain the same.

After suffering an 89-84 exhibition loss to Texas Tech in Denton, perhaps Williams should be taken at his word.

Sure, it was only an exhibition, but slow starts have hampered each of the last two seasons for which A&M fans will need no reminder.

"I think there were a lot of things for us to learn from; some of which we did good, some of which we didn't," Williams said. "As we enter the month of November, the things that we need to practice on, we learned in October, which rarely happens."

At least this early-season setback won't count towards any official records.

How the Aggies bounce back certainly will, especially against a revamped non-conference schedule.

"I like the stress that we had to go through," Williams said. "You always want to win. If we're playing tiddlywinks, we want to win. That it was in this environment kind of creates some kind of ambiance that you can only get if you leave campus."

"I like the stress that we had to go through. You always want to win. If we're playing tiddlywinks, we want to win. That it was in this environment kind of creates some kind of ambiance that you can only get if you leave campus."
- A&M head coach Buzz Williams

A&M committed an inexplicable 23 fouls and were somehow outdone by Tech's 27.

Pop Isaacs tormented the Aggies with a game-high 30 points, raining in six 3-pointers. All of that despite sitting much of the second half in foul trouble

A&M's inability to guard the 3-point arc was ultimately its undoing as Tech hit 41.2 percent (14-of-34) deep shots.

Tech also turned 14 A&M turnovers into 21 points.

"Too many turnovers tonight, but what hurt us is too many of those turnovers are live-ball, which lead to them scoring in transition," Williams said. 

Despite all this, A&M led by two possessions with 2:47 to play as parts of A&M's identity were obvious.

"They had a great scheme," Wade Taylor IV said. "They got some big stops and some great rebounds that helped them get the win."

Taylor — the SEC's Preseason Player of the Year — scored a team-high 25 points.

"It was a great first rep for us," he said. "We learned a lot. We'll watch film on Tuesday on everything we need to work on.

"I think we played hard. I think we played well. There are things we can clean up moving forward."

A&M dominated the glass, outrebounding Tech, 42-28. The Aggies grabbed 17 offensive boards, which they parlayed into 23 second-chance points

Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports
Tyrece “Boots” Radford also added 12 points, four rebounds and three assists for Texas A&M.

Doing much of the dirty work were Henry Coleman III and Andersson Garcia, who scored 16 and 12 points, respectively.

A&M got to the free-throw line consistently, converting on 23 of its 33 attempts.

"I'm not concerned about free-throw percentage," Williams said. "I like that we're still getting fouled. I thought we did a great job on the offensive glass, particularly in the second half, and we were playing big."

Also of note is that A&M played 11 of the 13 players that traveled. Only Manny Obaseki (9), Bryce Lindsay (5) and Wildens Leveque (3) did not reach double-digit minutes.

That experience combined with the lessons learned will be more important than an exhibition loss.

But, that learning process better begin now, especially if A&M is to live up to its top-15 billing.

"I thought there were some Myrtle Beach-type lessons for us going into the last week of October," Williams said. "If we process those in a mature way as a staff and as players, I think it will be good."

Results count for real beginning Nov. 6 against Texas A&M-Commerce.

Discussion from...

Learning begins as No. 15 Texas A&M drops exhibition to Texas Tech

6,221 Views | 12 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by MarcAg
Maroon Dawn
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AG
"Learning begins"

We'll that's one way to spin it…
BigJim49 AustinNowDallas
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greg.w.h
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42-28 rebound advantage and 17 orebs. But 23/33 from the line.

Good thing it is for practice…
cs69ag
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tceh picked 8th in Big 12 by media

Ags #1
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Tough crowd. It was a scrimmage and we didnt have marble.
vonthejuan
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better get ready for some losses in November, extremely tough schedule. Might be the toughest in the country, almost all on the road. I am not saying we lose more than we win but it will be tough, no doubt about that.
MarcAg
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vonthejuan said:

better get ready for some losses in November, extremely tough schedule. Might be the toughest in the country, almost all on the road. I am not saying we lose more than we win but it will be tough, no doubt about that.
Its nowhere close to the toughest in the country. It's really tough compared to our usual schedule, but come Jan 1st this isn't going to be a top 10 SOS or anything like that. Teams like Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan St, Duke, UCONN, Arizona, UNC, Gonzaga, etc play much harder non-conference schedules.
HotardRat
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cs69ag said:

tceh picked 8th in Big 12 by media



8th in the Big 12 = top 3 or 4 in the SEC
GrayMatter
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Ohio St was picked to finish in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten Conference while Penn St was picked to finish last in the league.

We should win these two matchups.
vonthejuan
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AG
You are new around here, huh? Buzz starts slow, he knows it and says he won't change it b/c it is invaluable to where his teams finish. With that said, I am assuming Ohio St being the second game of the season and on the road, probably won't be a win but it sure would be great if they did. I think odds would say, that's more likely an L. Plus, not having Marble probably makes the odds less likely of a win.

You can't just jump over a game a few days after Ohio St on the road again at SMU or then a home game against Oral Roberts. I am not saying these teams are world beaters but they usually have decent squads and sometimes it is really slow for us in November. It's less about the opponent and more about us at this point. Again, don't forget, good chance we don't have Marble.

Penn St, lost a ton and their HC as well, so I was expecting us to probably win that one. But, again, you never know since we start so slow and probably won't have Marble anything could happen. I say the odds are with the Ags.

WOW, if we beat Penn St, our prize for winning that game is most likely #10 in the country and F4 team in last year's DANCE with FAU Owls. That is almost lottery winning type of odds for us to win that game. The field in that tourney isn't weak but I like our chances on the back side for that 3rd game on Sunday

At Virginia to finish out a tough November slate and I would give the Cavs the nod.

So, I would say I expect an L at Ohio St, split SMU and Oral Roberts, L to FAU in second round of the tourney and another to the Cavs. So, I would guess we finish Nov 4-4 and probably go 4-1 in December, exiting OOC with 8-5 overall. I would suspect us to probably finish somewhere around 13-5 or 12-6 at worst this season in the SEC and that would give us 20 or 21 wins before the tourney and probably a 4 or 5 seed in the SEC tourney. Also an entry into the DANCE again in back to back years.

That's my guess with Marble likely out for all if not most of November.
vonthejuan
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AG
Hey, I looked at the top 5 teams and ours is definitely comparable to any of them. I mean we have #10 and #7 in our OOC games and they are both on the road.

Look at these teams
1. Kansas------get #16 and #6 in their house and the only 1 road game they have outside of their tourney is an unranked Indiana 12/16/23
2. Duke--------little more impressive here. They get #12 and #4 at home and #14 Arky on the road 11/29/23. Oh yeah, and all games outside their tourney are at home except Arky and Ga tech.
3. Purdue------outside of Maui Invitational, they have no away games and get #24 and #12 at home.
4. Mich St------#2 at home. Don't even play an away game OOC outside their tourney
5. Marquette-------#25 on the road and #18 at home. Only play 2 away games outside their tourney on the road.

Looking at these schedules, yes, I didn't look at every ranked team's schedule but ours looks comparable especially with us having so many on the road. I wouldn't mind facing their schedules with us getting to host those teams. JMO
MarcAg
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AG
You can't say well outside their tourney. That's part of their schedule. Every team I listed has a much better non-conference slate than ours.
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