Aggies heading to LSU on a down note
COLLEGE STATION — Earlier this week Texas A&M dropped seven spots to No. 15 in the Associated Press poll following losses at Vanderbilt and South Carolina.
It turns out the pollsters overrated the Aggies, now desperate to break out of a free fall in Southeastern Conference action.
“We’ve got some guys playing down instead of up,” A&M coach Billy Kennedy told reporters following the Aggies’ latest setback, a 63-62 loss at Alabama on Wednesday night. “Meaning they’re not playing with the confidence and ability that they have right now.”
A&M (18-6, 7-4) had not lost consecutive games all season. Now the Aggies have lost three in a row, and four straight in SEC play after starting conference competition 7-0 and sitting atop the league standings by two games about two weeks ago. Their No. 5 ranking at the time was highest in program history.
A&M will try and get things rolling in the right direction at noon Saturday at LSU, tied for first in the SEC standings with South Carolina and Kentucky at 8-3. The Aggies and Florida follow at 7-4, and while A&M once appeared a sure bet for the NCAA tournament, the Aggies will need to take full advantage of three consecutive home games against Mississippi, Kentucky and Mississippi State following the trip to Baton Rouge, La.
Over the second half of SEC play opponents have keyed in on slowing A&M seniors Jalen Jones and Danuel House, and they’ve largely been successful in doing so. Alabama coach Avery Johnson’s son, Avery Jr., played for the Aggies last season, prior to the elder Johnson taking the Crimson Tide job. Avery Jr. is now sitting out this season at Alabama under NCAA transfer rules.
“From a strategy standpoint, our major concern was Danuel House,” Johnson Sr. said. “As a parent I sat there in the stands and watched him play last year. We felt we could live with some other situations, but we knew Jalen Jones and Danuel House were problems whenever they touch the ball. We did a good job (defensively) overall.”
While Jones snapped out of a mini-slump with a game-high 21 points against Alabama (although he missed more than half of his shots at 6 of 13), House was limited to seven shots from the field and a dozen points.
A&M trailed by 11 points in the second half before fighting back to tighten the gap to one with 53 seconds remaining courtesy of a 3-pointer by point guard Anthony Collins. The Crimson Tide then fouled Collins with two seconds remaining, and he stepped to the free-throw line having made 92 percent of his attempts this season.
But with Alabama students going bananas behind the basket, Collins missed both, and the Aggies further slipped into desperation mode in their bid to make their first NCAA tournament since 2011.
“It got crazy at the end with those two free throws,” Alabama forward Donta Hall said. “We love our fans and love our (fellow) students, and that was a big help.”
Meanwhile the Aggies are searching for any kind of help moving forward, starting Saturday at LSU, where they’ve lost two of three since joining the SEC almost four years ago.