COLLEGE STATION, Texas — After dropping both games to Mississippi State and Tennessee last week, the No. 12 Texas A&M men's basketball team is looking to get back in the win column Wednesday night when they host Vanderbilt. As they head towards the final stretch of the regular season, head coach Buzz Williams said he believes his Aggies are built for this time of year.
“I do think that we have an incredible group of competitive players who have great maturity and great character,” Williams said. “And so some of the ups and downs in the thin lines that you're competing against, I think our organization has been able to grow from and improve.”
Vanderbilt is coming off a win Saturday against Ole Miss and are currently second in the SEC in turnover margin and third in steals.
“Long shots, long rebounds, live ball turnovers. That aids what they're trying to accomplish offensively,” Williams said. “They're going play five guys that can all pass, dribble and shoot. All 200 minutes.”
This is the first time in the Buzz Williams era that this Aggie men's team is in the driver's seat on their path towards March Madness. In past seasons they've played from behind, uncertain of their tournament fate, but this season they find themselves in a much different position.
“You know we're playing XYZ, whoever it is, and you know we got to play our best and you get amped up for it, you circle on the schedule,” senior guard Jace Carter said. “As time's gone on, we're those people now. We're 12th in the country, 7th in the country playing teams that are excited to play us.”
“We're finding a different fight now,” graduate forward Henry Coleman III said. “We're like, ‘how can we go from hunting, to being hunted, but continue to almost hunt. And so I think that's a fine line that everybody's trying to figure out, coaches, managers, players. So I think we're doing it the right way.”
The most recent NCAA tournament bracket projections have the Aggies listed as a three seed, but if they can take care of business against Vandy Wednesday night, who's currently on the tournament bubble, and the No. 3 Florida Gators in Gainesville Saturday afternoon, they'll likely move back up. Tipoff Wednesday night against the Commodores is set for 6 p.m.
