AGGIES:
WOMEN HOPE TO CUT NETS IN SAN ANTONIO.
COLLEGE STATION — Ten years ago, Texas A&M won a national title in Indianapolis, about 1,000 miles from Reed Arena. This spring, the No. 7 Aggies will be one of 64 teams competing for a championship 170 miles from their home court — a pleasing development to longtime coach Gary Blair.
“Any time you don’t have to get on an airplane, that helps,” Blair said of the San Antonio area hosting the entire NCAA women’s tournament because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re familiar with (South Texas), and anything that makes it easier for our fans or parents or the regional people to see and understand what top women’s basketball is about, that’s good.”
The Aggies have been playing top basketball again under Blair, including a 6967 victory over No. 16 Arkansas on Sunday at Reed Arena. The Razorbacks replaced Tennessee on the Aggies’ schedule over the weekend after the Volunteers had a positive COVID-19 test last week.
A&M improved to 18-1 overall and 9-1 in SEC play with the last-second triumph, its seventh win this season over a ranked opponent.
A year ago, the Aggies were in the home stretch of SEC play, with the expectation of a deep run in the NCAA Tournament behind star guard Chennedy Carter. But they ended with a threegame losing streak, finishing 22-8 (10-7 against SEC foes) in what turned out to be Carter’s final go-round as the season abruptly ended because of the burgeoning pandemic.
Despite the disappointment of not having the chance to rekindle the Aggies’ fire in the 2020 NCAA Tournament, the recordsetting Carter bypassed her senior season and entered the WNBA draft. The Atlanta Dream selected Carter No. 4 overall, A&M’s highest draft pick in history.
A resolute Blair retooled his lineup, and more than half the players on his roster (eight of 15) transferred in. Among the more prominent
contributors, center Ciera Johnson played previously at Louisville, and guards Aaliyah Wilson (Arkansas) and Zaay Green (Tennessee) competed in the SEC before shifting within the conference.
“I had a team like this at Stephen F. Austin,” Blair said of a 1992-93 Lumberjacks squad that won 11 of its last 12 games and narrowly lost to Vanderbilt in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. “We did all the little things right, and we didn’t have that one superstar that you have to have sometimes.”
The Aggies have relied on their typically stringent defense under Blair and assistant Bob Starkey, and four scorers average between 11 and 13 points per game in a balanced offensive attack. Senior guard Kayla Wells, one of the seven non-transfers, led the way Sunday with 21 points.
“It’s not just one player who makes this whole team,” Wells said. “We know we have five players on the court who can score.”
For a second consecutive time this season against the Razorbacks, A&M guard Jordan Nixon drove the lane in the waning seconds and smoothly sank the gamewinner.
“Trust carries me in those moments — trust in my coaches and trust in my teammates,” Nixon said. “It was just a moment in a game where you’re able to make a play. We stayed together and made some things happen down the stretch. That’s the beauty of this basketball
team: Anybody at any given moment can make a big shot.”
Nixon, who grew up in New York, is a sophomore transfer from Notre Dame who has found a basketball home in College Station.
“It’s not that we always have to be perfect; we just have to get our kids through a bad part of the ballgame,” Blair said. “And when you have maturity and options off your bench … to not just substitute because somebody is playing bad but sub and bring in perhaps allconference players from other conferences who have been in these big-time moments before — that’s the strength of our team.
“We have an adage: Check your ego at the door. Because ego might be coming in to replace you real quick.”
Among A&M’s three major sports — football, basketball and baseball — the women’s basketball program owns the lone national championship (2011) since football won a national title in 1939. This season is shaping up as the Aggies’ best shot at doubling up on championships and entering a class of their own at the university among the majors. Blair, 75, said he plans to keep this up for the foreseeable future, as well.
“I live for this. It’s what I do,” he said Sunday, adding with a chuckle: “I can coach until I’m 90. I don’t know if I can recruit until I’m 90, but I can coach until I’m 90.”