How Texas A&M Has Set the Standard During SEC Play

The Aggies are playing basketball at an extremely high level, and it's likely due to their belief in the process rather than the result.

Nov 18, 2025; College Station, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Bucky McMillan motions during the first half against the Montana Grizzlies at Reed Arena. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

Since conference play began, Texas A&M has been setting the standard for what an elite college basketball team looks like. With their 88-68 beatdown of the Mississippi State Bulldogs, the Aggies moved to 15-4 on the season with a conference record of 7-1.

Head coach Bucky McMillan came away from Wednesday night's win with a very positive outlook. He emphasized that after the win over Texas, the Aggies needed to be a little more efficient in both the turnover game and offensive rebounding.

With only three turnovers, and 11 offensive rebounds—while forcing Mississippi State's into 13 turnovers and holding them to 11 offensive rebounds— it's safe to say that McMillan's squad executed their gameplan perfectly.

But it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for the Aggies this season. While things have been running smoothly during conference play, Texas A&M still suffered losses to Oklahoma State, UCF, and SMU early in the year. As for how the Aggies recovered from their prior mistakes, McMillan believes it's because of their dedication to getting better every day.

A Consistent Message Paying Off

Oct 15, 2025; Birmingham, AL, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Bucky McMillan talks with the media during SEC Media Days at Grand Bohemian Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images | Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images

After securing Texas A&M's eighth win in their last nine games, McMillan elaborated on why he thinks the Aggies recovered from their losses early in the season. In their first 10 out-of-conference games, the program suffered three losses to teams that are currently unranked.

"I think the biggest thing that we have to always focus on is just getting better," McMillan said after the win over Mississippi State. "I think that's been the consistent message with our team.

"Earlier in the year when we weren't very good, we didn't win, we came here and said we just have to keep trucking along, we're going to get better, so we've never had a different message. We never got down when we weren't good if we lost a game early. Y'all never saw that from us. It was just "we're going to keep getting better.""

McMillan added that if you're program is focused on consistently getting better every day, it's going to give you a chance to be an extremely well-rounded team by March. While it may seem simple in theory, getting players to fully buy into that message over the course of a long season is something very few coaches can accomplish.

With how Texas A&M has been able to improve on a weekly basis, it's clear that McMillan's squad is trending in the right direction — and it won't take long to find out just how real that progress is. After the Aggies take on South Carolina, they'll be battle-tested, facing No. 21 Georgia, No. 17 Alabama, and No. 16 Florida.

Not only would winning two of those three ranked matchups be massive for overall standing in the NCAA Tournament projections, but it would also show that Texas A&M is capable of competing with the elite programs in college basketball.