Aggies hope to regroup against top-10 Tennessee
COLLEGE STATION — Had guard Jaxson Robinson not skipped his senior year of high school in Ada, Okla., he’d be preparing for a home game against Seminole High School, as opposed to a home game against the No. 9 college team in the country in the Associated Press poll.
But even Robinson, still finding his way around in the Texas A&M program as a freshman, realizes the issues the Aggies need to tackle in taking on Tennessee at 1 p.m. Saturday in Reed Arena.
“We have to figure out a way to not turn over the ball,” Robinson said. “We’re an undersized team, so we have to make sure we’re getting to the boards and getting a shot every possession. If we can’t get a shot every possession, it gives us no chance to win.”
The Aggies (6-3, 1-2 SEC) will try and rebound froma jarring 78-54 setback at South Carolina on Wednesday. A&M has lost its three games away from Reed Arena — against TCU in a nonconference game and then LSU and South Carolina — by an average of 22 points.
“We need to regather as a team,” A&M guard Andre Gordon said. “(But) it’s a long road — we’ve got (15) more SEC games and another nonconference game on the road (at Kansas State).”
A&M is in its second season under coach Buzz Williams, and in some manners is following the same pattern as his first season — at least the Aggies hope. A&M started SEC play 2-3 last season before finishing 10-8, its first winning record in league play since 2015-16.
Last season was cut short entering the SEC tournament because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Williams compared trying to find a rhythm with his current team during the pandemic akin to learning to nimbly use the “input” button on a television remote control.
“You have to hit that button so that you can get to the right input to get it back to the channel you want to watch,” he said. “I know where the input button is because I know which screen I’m trying to go to. (But) that’s been our problem. Yes, we want to win, and yes, we understand the outcome, but our input has got to be more consistent in order for the outcome to be what we want.”
The Aggies, hampered by overall poor play from their few big men, committed 19 turnovers at South Carolina, and could count their number of field goals (six) in the second half on one hand.
“With us, the turnovers are a really big problem,” Robinson said.
That’s one more reason they’re glad to return home, where they’ve won all six of their games this season. In A&M’s last contest at Reed Arena, a 68-66 victory over Auburn a week ago, Gordon smoothly sank a game-winning shot off the backboard after driving the left side of the lane, spinning and faking a shot to get his defender in the air with a second remaining.
“Andre’s willingness to step into that moment is who he is,” Williams said. “There are a lot of guys who want to be in themoment when it goes their way. But the separator is when it doesn’t go right, can they carry the burden of that? Andre can. He’s never scared.”
The Aggies will need to carry over the boldness from their last home game in facing the Volunteers (8-1, 2-1), who are coming off a 79-74 home win against Arkansas on Wednesday. Tennessee’s lone loss occurred aweek ago at home against Alabama, 7163.
Tennessee is led by former Texas coach Rick Barnes, whom Williams describes as one of “my heroes in the coaching world.”
“This is one of coach’s better teams in his career,” Williams said. “They’re good enough to win the national championship.”