NASHVILLE, Tennessee — 40 minutes was simply not enough time for the third installment of the Lone Star Showdown in Music City, Thursday afternoon, and the 5th seeded Aggies men’s basketball team were unable to comeback from late threes by the Longhorns falling to Texas 94-89 in double overtime.
“I thought a lot of our guys did a lot of really good things,” Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams said, “And a credit to Texas, their players, their coaches, they did a lot of great things. I think in the month of March, regardless of the seed, regardless of the opponent, not just in the SEC tournament, but wherever we are next week, I think that's why it's called Madness.”
Thursday afternoon, Wade Taylor IV became the first Aggie and 28th SEC player to reach the 2000 career points milestone. Taylor also broke the SEC tournament record for career points, free throws, free throw attempts, free throw percentage and field goal attempts. He also finished the day with a team leading 29 points.”
“We've had a lot of great memories here in the SEC tournament,” Taylor IV said. “If it was here [Nashville], in Tampa my freshman year, we've been blessed to be here. We've had a lot of success here. I'm thankful for my teammates and my coaches because without them I wouldn’t be able to achieve that honor, but I'm just thankful to be here thankful we got the day to wake up and we're still able to play so I'm excited for that.”
Williams said he didn't think the Aggies played quite to their recipe as well as they needed to in the first half and the fouls in the second half were a lot higher than what the Aggies usually give.
“I think we ha 6 fouls really early in the second half and we had only collected 3 and that was one of the priorities today,” Williams said. “We have to defend without fouling and we have to play to get fouled and we didn't do that maybe in in all of the minutes that we should have.”
The Maroon and white have been about purging losses and looking forward to the next game, and this time is no different.
“We're going to get back, we're going to go to sleep, and we're going to be ready to work,” graduate forward Henry Coleman III said. “I don't think anybody, in that locker room has any doubt, or any fear. Nobody is built like that within our locker room from the coaches to the players, even the managers and so we're not that excited right now, but we are ready to purge again and we're ready to go.”
This is just the second time in the Buzz Williams era that the Aggies have lost their first game at the SEC Tournament – the other was the COVID shortened 2021 season. A&M will return to College Station and await their NCAA Tournament fate. We’ll find out where they’re headed Sunday evening.
