SEC Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2024-25 season
By Justin Wiles
5. Texas A&M Aggies
Buzz Williams and the Aggies are in a great position entering this season. Texas A&M didn’t have a ton of roster movement this offseason. Five players entered the transfer portal, but none of them averaged more than two points per game. In fact, four of them failed to see the court at all last season. And only one major piece was lost from last year's team. Tyrese Radford, the team's second-leading scorer, ran out of eligibility.
With only three players added from the transfer portal this offseason, it's fairly easy to see that Texas A&M will be almost the exact same team as last year. Zhuric Phelps (14.8 ppg) from SMU should be able to replace the scoring lost from Radford’s departure. Pharrel Payne (10.0 ppg, 6.1 rpg) from Minnesota adds some depth in the post, as well as another solid rebounder. And Nebraska transfer C.J. Wilcher (7.7 ppg) should help improve the Aggies three-point shooting, he made 39.4 percent from deep for the Huskers. Last year Texas A&M struggled from behind the three-point arc, only making 29.3 percent of those shots.
Buzz Williams’ team should once again be the top rebounding team in the country this season after averaging nearly 43 rebounds last year. The Aggies also led the country in offensive rebounds a year ago, pulling in 17.4 boards per game on that end of the court which helped with the poor team shooting. And a big plus on the boards is the return of Andersson Garcia, who averaged 9.1 rebounds per game last season.
The defense wasn’t terrible last season, but it also wasn’t great. With how inefficient the offense was last year, allowing 72 points per game wasn’t always good enough to get wins. But with the addition of Payne the interior defense should be improved. Payne was top-ten in the Big Ten in blocks per game last year, averaging 1.4 per game.
It should be expected that Texas A&M will be one of the top teams in the conference, if not the country. In the transfer portal era, very few teams are afforded the luxury of carrying over almost its entire roster from one year to another. And Wade Taylor IV should once again be one of the best players in the country, so it’s easy to see how the Aggies have a great season.