Small crowd on hand for Aggies’ win over ULM
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M hosts No. 8 Gonzaga on Friday night. Perhaps then Buzz Williams will witness a decent crowd in Reed Arena as the Aggies’ head coach.
The Aggies overcame a doubledigit deficit in the second half to dispatch Louisiana-Monroe 63-57 Monday night before a couple of thousand fans in the 13,000-seat stadium. That followed the few thousand who showed up for Williams’ debut on Wednesday, a 7763 victory over Northwestern (Louisiana) State.
The Aggies (2-0) trailed 36-26 with 17:08 remaining in the game when A&M guard Jay Jay Chandler sank consecutive 3-pointers to pull the home team within four at 36-32.
Chandler then followed with two made free throws following a foul on his drive to the basket, cutting the ULM (2-1) advantage to 36-34. A&M finally tied the game at 45-45 on a thunderous alleyoop dunk by forward Josh Nebo, who saw his first action of the season after missing preseason practice because of injury.
The Aggies grabbed a 47-45 lead when Nebo blocked a shot and Chandler finished the resulting fast break with a dunk at the 7:52 mark. Nebo then upped the lead with another dunk, lifting A&M to a 49-45 advantage, and the Aggies never trailed again.
Chandler, a former Cinco Ranch standout, led the Aggies with 17 points, and Andre Gordon followed with 14. The Aggies made 42 percent of their 3-pointers (5 of 12), and their reserves outscored their counterparts 23-6.
The Warhawks didn’t help themselves with 20 turnovers compared to 13 for the Aggies. A&M now leads the all-time series 5-1, with the last meeting between the two occurring in 2011.
Williams witnessed several large, rowdy crowds in Reed Arena when he served as an assistant under then-A&M coach Billy Gillispie
from 2004-06. The 2006 Aggies returned to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1987.
Williams left for New Orleans before the 2006-07 season, and later was head coach at Marquette and Virginia Tech before returning to A&M following the firing of Billy Kennedy last spring.
A&M made the NCAA tournament from 2006-11 under Gillispie and Mark Turgeon, and then in 2016 and 2018 under Kennedy. Those teams drew decent attendance when they showed promise — something that likely will have to happen again for Williams, who routinely declined media opportunities in the offseason, to see his team consistently draw large crowds.
“I don’t think you can spend all of your time going, ‘Hey, buy some tickets and come to the game,’ and then they come to the game and what they see is not worthy of them returning,” Williams said leading to the season. “The best businesses are the ones that have return business.
“And the only way you can have return business relative to support is what you’re doing leads to them say, ‘I want to come back. They’re trying real hard, and as time goes by, they’re going to improve.’”
The Aggies will draw a better crowd on Friday not only because Gonzaga is coming to town, but the A&M football team hosts South Carolina the next day in its final home game of the season.