Texas A&M basketball's Buzz Williams reacts to heartbreaking loss to Houston
25/03/2024 17:14
The Texas A&M Aggies nearly had it. They were so close to becoming the first team to knock out a No. 1 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, as Texas A&M basketball put the Houston Cougars to the test Sunday night, but things just did not go the Aggies’ way in overtime, resulting in a 100-95 loss to Kelvin Sampson’s squad — and elimination from the Big Dance.
Still, the Aggies earned plenty of respect for the way they played as a No. 9 seed going up against one of the favorites to be the last team standing in the tourney. Conversely, Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams also showed respect for the Cougars after the game, while also describing how both teams competed, with each trying its best to deny the other of even an inch.
“They’re phenomenal,” Williams said of the Cougars (h/t ESPN Senior Writer Jeff Legwold). “And a lot of it is the physicality that they play with.”
“I thought it was a heavyweight fight,” Williams added.
Texas A&M basketball falls short of a giant upset
The Aggies looked like they were drawing dead and circling down the drain with over two minutes left in the second half but a furious 17-5 rally put them back in the game, including the wild buzzer-beating 3-pointer buried by Andersson Garcia to send the game into overtime. Houston nursed foul troubles to a number of its key players, with four Cougars fouling out. The Aggies just couldn’t capitalize fully in overtime where they ran out of gas.
Tyrece Radford paced the the Aggies with 27 points on 10-for-22 shooting from the floor an d also grabbed 15 rebounds in 43 minutes of action. It was an outstanding effort from Radford versus arguably the best defensive team in the nation. Wade Taylor IV added 21 points for the Aggies, while Manny Obaseki and Garcia managed to come up with 15 and 12 points, respectively.
Buzz Williams rues major issue in overtime that led to downfall vs Houston
Texas A&M basketball was not really known in the 2023-24 college basketball season for its defense, as they ranked just 156th in the nation with 72.0 points allowed per game and 180th with a 50.5 defensive effective field goal percentage. Their porous defense was repeatedly abused by the Cougars, who had Emanuel Sharp and LJ Cryer combining for 50 points. As a team, the Cougars shot 51.5 percent from the floor.
"Well, I think it was the same problem that we’d had the first 40 minutes: just fighting incredibly hard to try to get consecutive stops,” said Williams, who just finished coaching his fifth season with Texas A&M basketball (via Carter Karels of 247 Sports).
I think we probably scored enough points. We just could not get enough stops, whether that was our first-shot defense and they got a long rebound or an offensive rebound. I do not know that there was much difference in the last five minutes than how I felt in the first 40 minutes."
Apart from their defense, what hurt Texas A&M in the Houston game was their struggles at the foul line. The Aggies went just 29-for-45 at the charity stripe. They won the possession battle with nine more field-goal attempts than Houston, but the Aggies simply could not convert at better rates from the field and the free-throw line.
Texas A&M basketball concluded their season with a 21-15 overall record.
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