Should Aggies get Top 25 nod?
Coleman’s shooting helps lead 3-0 start to conference play and winning streak
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M has won 14 of its first 16 games and is one of two undefeated teams in SEC play. The other is No. 4 Auburn. The Aggies, despite their overall hot start under third-year coach Buzz Williams, aren’t even receiving votes in the Associated Press top 25 poll.
Williams, whose squad is aiming for its eighth consecutive win when it plays at Missouri (7-8, 1-2 SEC) on Saturday afternoon, inundates himself and his assistants in analytics and myriad numbers during a season. Where the Aggies are ranked is not one of those digits.
“We don’t really have those kinds of conversations,” Williams said. “Are we ranked? I don’t know. Are we receiving votes? I don’t know. In some ways our whole program kind of functions like that. It’s, ‘Are we better today, and what is our priority today to be better than we were yesterday?’
“Who’s ranked and what about this and what about that — I don’t know. But I know we have a lot of work today, and we need to be a little better than we were yesterday. And (not) let some of the stuff surrounding the game impact us.”
A&M sophomore forward Henry Coleman III, a transfer from Duke who’s shooting an SEC-best 81.5 percent from the floor in conference games, said the Aggies know outside recognition will come if they keep winning.
“We’re a gritty team and a hungry team,” Coleman said. “We’re still young and learning how to be the best version of Texas A&M — something hopefully we’ll be able to learn quick. Every game we learn something new, and if we keep learning and growing as a team and individually, hopefully we’ll achieve our end-of-season goals.”
Coleman is the Aggies’ prime example of learning on the fly. He’s averaging 10.5 points per game over all 16 games to date but leads the Aggies (14-2, 3-0) with 18.3 points per game in their first three SEC contests.
While they have yet to turn the heads of poll voters, the Aggies have won their first three conference games for the first time since 2016, when they made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament behind future NBA players Danuel House and Alex Caruso and under then-coach Billy Kennedy.
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament in Williams’ first season of 2019-20, and the disjointed Aggies finished 2-8 in SEC play a year ago with a schedule shortened because of the pandemic.
Missouri, a proud basketball school that made the NCAA Tournament last season but has not made the Sweet 16 since 2009, is coming off a perplexing 44-point loss Wednesday at Arkansas.
“It’s safe to say I didn’t see that coming,” Tigers coach Cuonzo Martin said.
The game before, Missouri had defeated then-No. 15 Alabama 92-86 behind 30 points from forward Kobe Brown, as the Tigers have experienced a bigtime swing of emotions in the past week.
“They beat a top (15) team in the country from start to finish,” Williams said of not being sure what to expect Saturday in Columbia, Mo. “Is it the team that beat Alabama or is it the team that lost to Arkansas? You’ve probably heard coaches say there will be three games a year that go your way that don’t make sense and three games a year that don’t go your way that don’t make sense.
“Whatever is in between is probably what you are. The Arkansas game is one that just got away from them — that’s not who they are. And (Brown) is the most improved player in the league, and one of the most improved players in the country. He’s beginning to be on (NBA) draft boards, and he completely dominated against Alabama.”
Missouri’s misery is one reason the Aggies likely won’t get much more respect nationally even with a victory on Saturday. But they also know their upcoming schedule will go a long way toward receiving votes and perhaps receiving a ranking in coming weeks.
A&M, trying to make its first NCAA Tournament in four years, hosts No. 18 Kentucky on Wednesday. The Aggies play at Arkansas, an Elite Eight program a year ago that they already have defeated this season, on Jan. 22 before playing at No. 12 LSU on Jan. 26.
So how A&M performs in late January likely will go a long way toward determining the Aggies’ worth in March, when it counts most, and Williams acknowledged as much.
“There are opportunities,” he said, “coming our way.”