Texas A&M Fumbles SEC Tournament Opportunity in Loss to Oklahoma

Some nights are great shooting nights, while others are not.

For Texas A&M basketball, it was crystal clear that it wasn’t going to be their night after how motivated Oklahoma came out after knowing that its NCAA Tournament hopes were not safe.

With the Sooners' victory, they are now making a statement to the selection committee that they deserve to hear their name called on Selection Sunday, but there is still work to do on their resume. As for the Aggies, they should be safely dancing, but won’t be celebrating much tonight after a disappointing showing in Nashville, Tennessee.

Notable categories in which A&M struggled were rebounding and 2nd-chance opportunities, as they lost the rebound battle 48-33 and posted one 2nd-chance point. Another area that was insufficient was knocking down perimeter shots from beyond the arc, as they went 8 of 31. Even with guard Rylan Griffen and forward Rashaun Agee’s 13-point performances, it was not enough to limit the stellar evening of Nijel Pack, who tallied 20 points.

Aggies vs Sooners Recap

Final from Nashville pic.twitter.com/LcdbEJRAj6
— Texas A&M Basketball (@aggiembk) March 13, 2026

The Wagon kept on rolling for the Sooners as everything was falling for them, while hardly anything went right for the Aggies after trailing by the most points it had at halftime all season.

Oklahoma knew what was on the line entering the matchup with A&M, as it was a bubble team in several different NCAA Tournaments brackets made by bracketologists, and so head coach Porter Moser had his unit ready to put on a shooting fest as it led by as many as 24 points at the five-minute mark in the first period.

Pack recorded 15 points for the Sooners in the first half and looked unstoppable to sum it up easily, while the Aggies simply couldn’t buy a basket, as Griffen was the leading scorer at halftime with 11 points, but it was nowhere close to keeping them within striking distance to catch up as the game advanced.

A&M only cashed in on four 3-pointers in the entire first half off 18 attempts and was not getting enough guard help around the perimeter to knock down any shots, as the defense was having to figure out how to stop Oklahoma in transition, and it kept the offense away from playing to its pace of play that Bucky Ball has been all about.

It got to a point for Bucky McMillan where he was giving minutes to guys like forward Jamie Vinson and the only returner from last year’s team, Chris McDermott, some minutes to try to stop the 21-3 run the Sooners jumped out to, as nothing was working with all the different looks the Maroon and White were trying to show.

After the Aggies were at one point 1 of 13 on their field goals, the game spiraled in the wrong direction in a hurry when guard Xzayvier Brown continued to heat up, drawing trips to the free throw line and nailing a pair of threes to extend the lead for the Sooners.

From the field in the first half, A&M shot 29 percent and 22 percent from three, so the formula for moving on to the quarterfinals was quickly fading after Oklahoma went 59 percent from the field in the period.

Coming out of the locker room, the Fightin’ Farmers sparked an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 14 points generated by the defense forcing turnovers and getting guard Pop Isaacs to drill back-to-back 3-pointers, but it was all Boomer Sooner afterwards as McMillan had to use all of his timeouts to try to keep his squad composed despite the inability to execute enough down the stretch.

Concluding the night, the Sooners were 46 percent from the field, while the Aggies went 26 percent. There were only 12 bench points and 10 points off turnovers and fastbreak opportunities for McMillan’s group.

The next step for A&M is to wait to be called on Sunday, March 15, at 5 p.m., as there will be a public watch party at The Green at Century Square in College Station, Texas, that begins at 3:30 p.m.