Stayin' alive! A&M's tourney hopes still flickering after beating Mississippi State
The Aggies’ NCAA Tournament aspirations have flickered like a flame in the wind for about three weeks.
Then, in an alarming second-half stumble, that flame was in a Category 5 hurricane.
A Mississippi State rally from a 23-point deficit threatened to extinguish A&M’s already perilous March Madness hopes.
Yet, Texas A&M (17-13, 8-9) withstood the storm with a 75-68 victory that was a microcosm of its entire season.
Or at least the Aggies hope so.
They came out blazing. They hit a dreadful slump. They bounced back and did just enough to pull out a win.
Can they do enough to land in the NCAA Tournament field of 68?
Coach Buzz Williams doesn’t know, and he doesn’t want to look that far ahead, not with a trip to Ole Miss remaining on the SEC regular season schedule.
“We’ve just been through a lot,” Williams said. “What we need to do is not get worried about what’s ahead of us. Just try to do what’s in front of us.
“I do believe we’re still in control. I think that’s a good position to be in, but I’m wise enough to understand we’re not there, so we have work to do.”
No doubt, there is work to be done. A five-game losing streak changed A&M from a sure bet for the Tournament after beating SEC Champion Tennessee three weeks ago to a long shot.
If the Aggies win at Ole Miss and add at least one victory in next week’s SEC Tournament, that may be enough to play their way into the NCAAs.
After all, they could finish as high as seventh in the highly regarded SEC and have six Quadrant I victories in the NET rankings.
Only nine teams have more.
Whether that’s enough will be up for debate. But this A&M team — the one that played on Wednesday night — certainly is an NCAA Tournament-caliber team.
The Aggies, who have relied so heavily on the scoring of Wade Taylor IV and Tyrece Radford all season, were led by Manny Obaseki with 17 points and Solomon Washington with 15 and nine rebounds. Radford had 14 and Taylor had 13. Andersson Garcia chipped in nine.
The Aggies were almost perfect. Well, for the first 20 minutes, anyway.
Taylor broke out of a shooting slump to hit three times from 3-point range in the first half. Obaseki hit twice from behind the arc. Garcia and Washington also nailed triples.
One of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the country. Yet, the Aggies hit 7-of-10 times behind the arc to take a 45-32 halftime lead.
They didn’t slow down in the second half, either.
Radford and Obaseki led a 10-0 charge to start the second half, and A&M’s lead swelled to 23 points.
And then everything changed. The Aggies hit just 1-of-11 attempts from 3-point range in the second half. After shooting a scalding 60 percent from the field in the first half, they converted only 36.7 percent in the second half.
Meanwhile, guards Josh Hubbard and Dashawn Davis were heating up. A&M's lead dwindled to 14.
Then 12. Then eight. Then five and eventually, three.
“It’s (like) a house on fire,” Radford said. “It’s like, ‘What’s going on? How do we put this out?’ We’re not scoring. It’s an emergency. We’ve got to find out how to put that fire out.”
The Aggies were confused by Mississippi State’s constantly changing defenses, and when Washington limped off the court early in the second half, their rebounding suffered. Washington only remained out for 10 minutes.
The Aggies’ play suffered on both ends of the court.
“Our rhythm was bad,” Williams said. “Our execution was bad. We weren’t getting any stops.
“We weren’t taking predictable shots, and we weren’t positioning ourselves from predictable shots to get offensive rebounds, and we’re very reliant on getting offensive rebounds.”
Yet, when they needed an offensive rebound most, Washington came down with a big one.
Mississippi State had pulled within 72-69 on a baseline dunk by forward Cameron Matthews with 1:35 remaining to play.
Twenty-five seconds later, Taylor tried to answer with a 3-pointer from the left wing. He misfired, but Washington was able to come down with the rebound.
“I get yelled at when I don’t go rebound,” Washington said. “I didn’t want to be yelled at. Buzz was looking at me with that little stare. I had to go grab it.”
Washington then passed off to Taylor, who had found his way to the right wing.
Given a second chance, Taylor hit a jumper for a 74-69 lead.
Washington then rebounded two Mississippi State misses to clinch the victory.
And keep the flame of hope still burning.
