Preview: Texas A&M Takes on Missouri In Critical SEC Tilt
Following a tight 73-69 victory in the Bayou against LSU on Saturday afternoon, the Texas A&M men's basketball team (11-7, 2-3 SEC) is gearing up for an extended home stand with three consecutive games at Reed Arena spanning 17 days.
This week, the Aggies are set to face Mizzou (8-10, 0-5) on Tuesday and Ole Miss (15-3, 2-3) on Saturday. After a week-long break between games, they will square off against Florida (12-6, 2-3) on Feb. 3.
Ahead of the Missouri matchup, Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams addressed the media on Monday afternoon, providing insights and previews for the upcoming games, prefacing the need to take care of Tuesday's game first.
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“This will be the first time that we’ve had a bye since we’ve been in the SEC and honestly I’m still trying to discern what’s best on how to handle that going into next week,” Williams said. “We hadn’t played back-to-back road games yet and this will be our first time playing back-to-back home games so we need to take care of tomorrow and this week. Since we’ve been here, it’s the longest span of time that we will have ever slept consecutive nights in our own bed — and at my age, I’m thankful. I’m glad the students are back and that will help us in those three games too.”
Alongside Vanderbilt, the Missouri Tigers stand as one of the only two teams yet to secure a victory in conference play. Additionally, they rank among the least successful teams nationwide against the spread, managing to cover only 22.2% of their games this season—a performance that places them third from the bottom across all of college basketball.
Notably, Missouri has failed to cover in any of their league games this season, even experiencing losses where they were the favored team against Georgia and South Carolina. In their most recent outing, they suffered a home defeat to Florida despite a standout 36-point performance from guard Tamar Bates.
Texas A&M has demonstrated offensive prowess, averaging 74.7 points per game. Throughout the season, Wade Taylor IV has stood out as their top performer, leading the team with an impressive 19.5 points per game. Henry Coleman contributes with 11.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, while Tyrece Radford adds to the scoring with an average of 13.2 points and 5.7 rebounds, rounding out the Aggies' trio in double figures.
Tonight, the matchup between the Texas A&M Aggies and Mizzou Tigers is set to tip off at 8 p.m. CT in College Station.