No. 23 A&M concludes four-game home stand on Wednesday night
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Unique weeks ahead.
Sandwiched between two games against potential NCAA Tournament opponents, the Aggies will host one of the top teams in the SWAC on Wednesday night.
No. 23 Texas A&M (3-1) welcomes Southern (1-3) to Reed Arena with a tune-up opportunity before a trip to Las Vegas next week. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. CT.
“These next two weeks are unique weeks, layered one on top of the other,” Buzz Williams told TexAgs Live on Monday.
When you peel back the layers of the next 11 days, Williams is spot on in his assessment.
This is the last time the Aggies will have a single-game week until mid-December, and that’s due to the high-profile Players Era Festival tournament over Thanksgiving.
Before the Aggies can face Oregon, No. 14 Creighton and potentially No. 7 Houston, No. 8 Alabama, No. 24 Rutgers or Notre Dame in the final game, they’ll have an opportunity to dial in, test their rotation and do the little things right against Southern.
“In the four games so far, we haven’t had our entire rotation to play in 50 percent of the games,” Williams said. “I think we’ve done some good things, but I don’t think we’re completely there yet, but I don’t think any team is yet. I like the versatility because we have more than five starters on the team.”
The Jaguars finished third in the SWAC last season at 18-14 overall and 12-6 in conference. They returned three of their top six leading scorers and added DaMariee Jones and Cam Amboree via the transfer portal, who are both averaging over 10.0 points per game this season.
After starting the year with three straight losses to South Dakota, Iowa and East Texas A&M by 31 combined points, Southern bounced back with a 131-42 win over Ecclesia College.
The Jags won’t challenge the Aggies as much as then-No. 21 Ohio State did on Friday, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to play for.
Games like this are perfect opportunities to play with rotations, focus on free throw shooting and limit turnovers.
Leading scorer Zhuric Phelps missed the season-opener against UCF due to a hand injury sustained in the preseason. Jace Carter missed Friday because of an eye injury he suffered in practice.
Without Phelps and Carter, the Aggies have found some sustained production from Henry Coleman III, Manny Obaseki, CJ Wilcher, Andersson Garcia and Hayden Hefner, who have combined to average 39.4 points per game.
“There’s more than five starters on our roster,” Williams said. “But can we find some consistency in what we want our rotation to be?”
Consistency will be key on Wednesday night as the Maroon & White gain another data point to find the best combination of lineups.
With six straight Quad 1 and Quad 2 games looming, this will be one of the Ags’ last chances to fine-tune their skills before a resume-defining stretch.