Aggies seeking an end to three-game skid
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M had a recent visitor to practice who received a promotion at the school in December: new university president Mark Welsh, a retired Air Force general and former chief of staff.
“That meant a ton to us,” A&M senior forward Henry Coleman III said of A&M’s top official paying the team an impromptu visit this season. “He was very engaged in what we were doing, and he had a lot of good stuff to stay about Texas A&M basketball, and how we represent the school.
“He’s somebody who I respect a ton and somebody I’m getting to know, so to have him come in there and watch us at shootaround and cheer us on, it meant a lot to not just me but to the entire program.”
Coleman’s respect for A&M leadership is one more reason why A&M coach Buzz Williams believes his big man also has presidential qualities — even beyond university premiership. As in POTUS — President of the United States.
“He’s the most elite communicator I’ve ever coached, period,” Williams said of Coleman, who transferred to A&M from Duke nearly three years ago. “… Whatever his future is, it will be that of a leader.”
The Aggies (15-11, 6-7 SEC) will need all of Coleman’s leadership — along with a heavy dose of decent shooting and defense — at 7 p.m. Saturday when they play at No. 5 Tennessee (20-6, 10-3). A&M is trying to snap a threegame losing streak, its longest skid in two years, when it visits Thompson Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn.
“We need to go back to what got us there,” Coleman said of the Aggies once being considered among the league’s best teams early in the season. “Getting to the rim, outrebounding teams, playing physical and just outplaying people. We’ve harped on that all week.”
The Aggies upset the Volunteers 85-69 on Feb. 10 at Reed Arena in A&M’s best game of the season, and Tennessee is bent on payback following its lone double-digit loss of the season. No. 3 Purdue, No. 9 Kansas and No. 10 North Carolina all defeated the Volunteers by an average of seven points — A&M won by 16 in College Station.
Since A&M joined the SEC a dozen years ago, the Aggies and Volunteers have split their previous 14 meetings. Surprisingly, A&M owns a 4-2 advantage in Knoxville. The miffed Vols have won their past three games against Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Missouri by an average of 23 points since losing at A&M.
The Aggies will lean on Coleman, chair of the SEC Basketball Leadership Council, to lead the way in trying to nail down an NCAA Tournament bid. ESPN tournament bracket expert Joe Lunardi on Friday labeled A&M as his final squad in the 68-team pow-wow — meaning the Aggies would have to play in the First Four in Dayton, Ohio, just to make the 64-team field.
CBS analyst Jerry Palm did not include the Aggies in his latest tournament projection, after A&M started the season ranked 15th in the Associated Press poll and was picked to finish second in the SEC behind Tennessee. The Aggies have five league games remaining before the SEC tournament in Nashville, Tenn., cranks up March 13.
“We’ve been in way worse situations,” said Coleman, in citing an eight-game losing streak in the middle of league play two years ago. “… If we’re thinking about (being on) the bubble and we’re thinking about the NCAA Tournament, we’ve already lost the Tennessee game, because we’re thinking too far ahead. … We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves.”
Former Texas coach Rick Barnes is in his ninth season leading the Volunteers and is trying to get Tennessee to its first Final Four in program history. The Vols last made the Elite Eight in 2010 under then-coach Bruce Pearl, now at Auburn. Tennessee has made two Sweet Sixteens under Barnes, in 2019 and 2023.
“We know we’re playing a team that beat us in pretty much any way you want to beat somebody,” Barnes said of the Vols’ first meeting with the Aggies two weeks ago. “We have a great respect for A&M and the job Buzz does with this team. … It’s a huge game for everybody.”