13. Texas A&M (15-5)
This has been an interesting season for Buzz Williams and his gang, juggling some unfortunate injuries with a very tough schedule that has had mixed results. His Aggies have nice wins over Creighton, Purdue, and Texas among others but have also been tripped up a few times. Recently, they lost a pair of SEC games to top-tier teams in this league but faced a mighty challenge outside of College Station this week.
They met the challenge head on, getting a 63-62 road win at Ole Miss back on Wednesday night. Zhuric Phelps led the scoring with 14 points and 6 rebounds but it was Manny Obaseki (12 points) whose 3-pointer in the final seconds delivered the victory. Unfortunately, the weekend left the bitterest taste in the mouth of Aggies fans, as Texas A&M blew a 22-point lead in a 70-69 defeat at Texas. Wade Taylor IV had 15 points and the team shot 52% from outside the arc, but they didn’t play a full 40 minutes and fell to the Longhorns.
There’s strange irony that on the day Texas A&M has their best long-range shooting performance that the defense would relent in the final minutes for a devastating loss. Still, this team has some great performances and sits 4-3 in a very tough SEC. Having a healthy Taylor and Phelps does wonders for this squad and they’re going to need every ounce of talent moving forward. Next week involves a home rematch with Oklahoma and a winnable road game at South Carolina to start February.