March Run Sets Up Aggies For Next Season
The season didn’t play out the way the Aggies wanted on several fronts, starting with the NCAA Tournament snub and ending with a last-season loss in the NIT championship.
But the foundation set for Texas A&M men’s basketball appears solid for the first time in years. Buzz Williams should enter his fourth season in Aggieland with a young but experienced club that believes it can compete with the sport’s best.
“All of the things that we went through can only help us and I think that through all of that work … it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to win more games,” Williams said. “But you start at a different level in regards to the experience and their understanding.”
The Aggies should bring back four of the five who started the NIT final against Xavier – Henry Coleman III, Manny Obaseki, Wade Taylor IV and Tyrece Radford. Key reserves Andre Gordon and Ethan Henderson should also return.
Coleman, Obaseki and Taylor were classified as freshmen this season. Radford and Gordon were juniors, with Henderson being a senior with a year left to play. Losing star senior Quenton Jackson is huge, but the Aggies grew together as the season went on.
“The experience I’ve had this year and the time I’ve spent with these guys, it’s just been unbelievable,” said Coleman, who transferred from Duke. “It’s not a miracle stat and it’s not something that you can write down. It’s in your heart, man. Guys mean a lot, man.”
The Aggies played 11 games in March, with their postseason lives on the line in each one.
“You can almost say in all of those games in March that we were fighting just in hopes that we can have one more game,” Williams said. “Can we get to 9-9 against Mississippi State on Senior Day, 20th win? Can we beat Florida just so that we can fight to see another day?
“We did that ten times prior to [the NIT championship game]. I’ve never coached 40 games and obviously, a lot of things have to work out in your favor to even get to 40 games.”
The Aggies finished 27-13, one win shy of the school record of 28 set in 2015-16. Texas A&M is just the 18th team in NCAA history to reach the 40-game plateau. The program’s previous high was 37, also set in 2015-16.
Those extra, high-pressure games should pay dividends next season. Whether the Aggies are considered a serious SEC contender to start next season likely won’t matter to those who don maroon and white.
What they did this year gives them reason to believe.
“We never gave up through the whole process, throughout the first part of the year, throughout the little slump that we had and then to this unbelievable stretch that we’ve had at the end of the year,” Coleman said. “I think collectively, we trusted each other. We trusted our habits. We trusted our work that we worked all year for and we never gave up.”
The Aggies found something after an eight-game losing streak through the heart of SEC play that Williams called “transformational.” They almost rode it to a title.
“I don’t know that you can quantify all of the things that have transpired and how it helped you grow,” Williams said. “You can only attain wisdom through experience.”
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