Aggies split games, keep chances of a good tournament seed alive
By Turner Dawson
The Texas A&M basketball team was able to get the split in two tough games this past week as they traveled to Waco to take on the Baylor Bears and then returned home to face the Texas Longhorns at Reed Arena. The Aggies came up just short against the Bears but put a beating on the Longhorns.
The game against Baylor was marked by comebacks. Baylor would get out to a sizable lead and A&M would cut into before Baylor would stretch it out again. Late in the second half, the Aggies cut the Baylor lead to 1 point three different times but couldn’t get over the top and finish it off.
Donald Sloan led the way for the Aggies as he finished with 22 points with 3 assists and no turnovers. Donald is such a valuable player for this team because of his ability to create his own shot. He is really the only player on the team capable of doing that and that will be greatly missed nest year. It will be interesting to see who steps up into that role next season.
Bryan Davis also had a solid game in this one as he finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds. He did have three turnovers but you just have to take the good with the bad at times with Davis. I thought he played well overall in this game. David Loubeau really hurt the Aggies by having one of his worst performances of the season. Loubeau had just 4 points on 2 for 8 shooting and eventually fouled out.
Loubeau’s lack of production was countered by 10 points from Josh Lomers for Baylor. Lomers has had a career full of awful performances against the Aggies but he got one good one to end his career as he also added 7 rebounds and his customary 5 fouls. I’m not sure there has ever been a dirtier player than Lomers in the history of college basketball. He got hard foul calls in both games against the Aggies this year and throws more elbows than anyone I have ever seen. As much as the Aggies have been helped over the years by how awkward and uncoordinated that guy is, I for one will be glad to never see him again.
It was also disappointing to see the complete lack of class on the part of the Baylor fans. One group had a sign saying “Hey Aggies, break a leg.” The sign, obviously referencing Aggie senior guard Derrick Roland’s gruesome broken leg earlier in the year, was in very bad taste. I wonder how Baylor fans would have felt if we had made signs poking fun at their star quarterback having a serious season ending knee surgery. I’m all for rivalries and poking fun at each other, but making a joke out of something as horrific as what Roland went through is embarrassing.
If that weren’t enough, many of the Aggie fans that made the trip were cursed at as they were leaving the arena, even though the Baylor fans were completely unprovoked. I think most people have come to expect this sort of thing from Texas Tech fans, but in general most wouldn’t expect it from a school like Baylor. But from this game and the game two years ago when their fans threw everything in sight from the stands at our players, they are beginning to show they might be the most classless group of fans in the entire Big 12.
Against Texas, the Aggies were clicking on all cylinders. Donald Sloan finished with 19 points and hit some very timely shots late in the shot clock. He also added four assists and played some pretty good defense throughout the game, including helping to shut down star guard Avery Bradley of the Longhorns.
David Loubeau got off to a pretty rough start, having issues holding onto the ball and he couldn’t seem to finish around the basket. But he eventually got it together and was able to finish with 15 points and 7 rebounds. Bryan Davis only had 4 points but he also had 8 rebounds and 4 blocks. He was a force on the inside even without scoring points.
My favorite part of this game was the production provided by Ray Turner. Both teams were really struggling to get any sort of scoring going early on but Turner came into the game and scored six consecutive points and got the team and the crowd going. The energy and boost he provides off the bench have been huge in a number of games in conference play. He is going to be one heck of a player. He has so much talent that once he starts to figure out some of the small things, the sky will be the limit for him.
The win against Texas pushed the Aggies to 9-5 in conference play. This next week the Aggies will play host to the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Reed Arena on Wednesday night and will close out the conference slate by traveling to Norman to take on the Oklahoma Sooners.
The Aggies currently sit at fifth place in the conference and would be in pretty good shape to get one of the top 4 seeds in the Big 12 tournament and a first round bye. If they don’t get the bye it wouldn’t be the worst thing, it might even be good for their resume to get an extra win against an Iowa State or Colorado. The Aggies are guaranteed a spot in the NCAA tournament at this point, now they are playing for seeding.