Aggies hit stride in February with 3-game winning streak

COLLEGE STATION — With the Aggies beginning to feel their usual smooth rhythm of February, Texas A&M forward Wildens Leveque settled in behind a set of drums at Missouri during a shootaround last week and belted out a solo for about half a minute.

Leveque could play and play quite well, to the surprise of some of his fellow Aggies enjoying the impromptu performance. Hours later A&M drummed Missouri 79-60.

The Aggies followed that with a home trouncing of then-no. 6 Tennessee 85-69 on Saturday night in Reed Arena, and a typical solid February under coach Buzz Williams has kicked in once again for a program trying to make a second straight NCAA Tournament.

The Aggies (15-8, 6-4

SEC) take their blooming show back on the road at Vanderbilt (6-17, 1-9) at 6 p.m. Tuesday, in trying to win a fourth consecutive game league game for the first time this season. A&M, which has eight conference games remaining, would have to endure a massive meltdown down the stretch to miss out on the NCAA postseason.

The Aggies are 10-1 in

February combined this season and last season, with five more games to go in the loveliest of months for Williams & Co.

“Every game is the same, and the Tennessee game was a big game, but this (Vanderbilt) game is even bigger than Tennessee,” senior forward Henry Coleman III said Monday as the Aggies prepared to board a plane for Nashville, Tenn. “No matter what the record looks like and no matter who they have on the floor, we have to play Texas A&M basketball.

“… You can’t go into any game thinking you’re better than your opponent. We’ve kept the underdog mentality the whole year, and we still say, ‘Hunt,’ before we play anybody, so we’re hunting. We still have a lot of things to prove.”