San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Win sets up rematch with Houston
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams scheduled a non-conference game with the Houston Cougars in Toyota Center this season in part because he has so much respect for Houston coach Kelvin Sampson.
“Coach is the best example of what a coach is supposed to be as a man, and as a coach, in the country,” Williams said of Sampson, who at 68 is 17 years Williams’ senior. “He’s been that for decades now. I’ve known him since I was a kid, and I hold him literally in the highest of regards personally and professionally.”
Now, Williams will try and beat Sampson with a trip to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament at stake. The ninth-seeded Aggies knocked out eighth-seeded Nebraska 98-83 on Friday night in FedExForum in an NCAA Tournament opener. A&M won its first NCAA Tournament game in six years and first under Williams, who’s in his fifth season in College Station.
The Aggies (21-14), who scored their most points in an NCAA Tournament game in program history, will face UH (31-4) on Sunday at 7:40 p.m. in the second round, after the top-seeded Cougars defeated 16th-seeded Longwood late Friday night. Sunday’s winner advances to Dallas for the Sweet 16.
“It feels good, and we try our best to live in the moment … but I told the team in the locker room, the job is not finished,” A&M guard Tyrece Radford said of the Aggies overcoming the sixyear
victory drought in the NCAA postseason. “It feels amazing to win, and it’s an honor to even be here. But we can’t just get stuck on this win, because we still have a long tournament ahead of us.”
A&M led 58-44 at halftime after shooting 54% over the first 20 minutes, including 9-of-15 from the 3-point line. A&M star guard Wade Taylor IV made all five of his 3-point attempts in the first half to help push the Aggies to the insurmountable 14-point lead at the break.
“They’re playing as well as anybody in the country with the way they’re shooting the ball,” said Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg, a former Iowa State and Chicago Bulls coach. “It’s a tough matchup with the way they drive it. And when they’re hitting shots,
they’re a very tough team to beat.”
A year ago, the Aggies made the NCAA Tournament but lost 76-59 to a hot-shooting Penn State squad. This time around A&M came out on fire and stayed hot for nearly the entire 40 minutes against the Cornhuskers (23-11), who made their first NCAA Tournament in a decade, and first in five seasons under Hoiberg.
The lopsided contest had added intrigue after A&M last week swiped Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts for the same role with the Aggies. Alberts, a former Nebraska football star, began his new job at A&M this week and was at A&M’s spring football practice Friday instead of the NCAA Tournament game (including the A&M and Nebraska
women playing in the first round in Corvallis, Ore., on Friday night).
Taylor led the Aggies with a game-high 25 points, Manny Obaseki scored 22 points and Radford added 20 points. They became the first trio since 2007 to score at least 20 points each for an SEC squad in an NCAA Tournament game, according to the league.
“When a team has just physically imposing … ball handlers and slashers like that, who are also shooting at a high clip, it’s a hard train to stop,” Nebraska forward Josiah Allick said.
Houston edged A&M 70-66 on Dec. 16 at Toyota Center in Houston. The Cougars lead the all-time series 54-32, but no matchup between the old Southwest Conference rivals will mean as much as Sunday’s showdown in the home of the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies.
“They’re the second No. 1 seed (nationally) because of how hard they play and how competitive they are,” Williams said of the Cougars. “And how every single thing you try to do is a tug of war.”