NASHVILLE, Tenn. — John Calipari started shaking his head on the silliness of the query earlier than it was even completed. In fact, he believes Texas A&M is deserving of an NCAA Event bid. Given the best way the Aggies performed in a 97-87 win over the Wildcats within the SEC Event quarterfinals on Friday, it was laborious to think about another situation.
“I feel they’re positive,” Calipari stated.
If the A&M staff Calipari had simply seen had proven up extra repeatedly all through the course of the common season, it would not even be a query value asking. The Aggies bought 55 factors from Wade Taylor IV and Tyrece Radford and used a 26-9 edge in second-chance factors to win their fifth straight sport and attain 20 victories on the season.
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The win moved A&M from the “First 4 Out” in Jerry Palm’s Bracketology to the best facet of the bubble forward of a semifinal showdown with Florida on Saturday.
However for Aggies coach Buzz Williams and a core nucleus of gamers who had been a part of this system’s run to the SEC Event closing in 2022, there will likely be no sighs of aid over what faculty basketball’s bracketology industrial complicated believes.
The recollections of what occurred in an identical scenario two years in the past nonetheless have not pale. Texas A&M sat at 23-12 after falling to Tennessee within the SEC Event championship sport simply hours earlier than the Choice Present. Palm and lots of different specialists projected the Aggies would make the sector.
They had been neglected, prompting Williams to go on a legendary rant in regards to the standards used to relegate the Aggies to NIT standing. Thus, it was comprehensible why he struck a skeptical tone once more Friday about the place A&M stands even after selecting up its sixth Quad 1 win of the season.
“In reality, we have now to do extra. If you happen to go 9-9 within the SEC, for Texas A&M that is not adequate,” Williams stated. “If you happen to play 13 Quad 1 and Quad 2 video games, that is not sufficient in case you’re at Texas A&M.”
Texas A&M dropped eight straight video games throughout January and February 2022 earlier than bouncing again and successful eight straight previous to the SEC Event title sport loss. This yr, the Aggies misplaced 5 straight in February solely to reply with 5 straight wins.
“The eight-game shedding streak in that individual season, the five-game shedding streak right here, I’ve bought to do a greater job teaching,” Williams stated. “Good coaches do not lose that many video games in a row. However I do assume there’s been some cause 22 months later within the strategy of how we dealt with the five-game shedding streak and what has transpired since then.”
Will or not it’s sufficient this time? Whereas Williams is a skeptic, Calipari is a believer. The Wildcats had gained six straight earlier than shedding at Texas A&M on Jan. 13. They’d gained 5 straight earlier than falling to the Aggies once more Friday.
“In the event that they shoot the ball the best way they shot it right this moment, they will win video games,” Calipari stated. “They seem to be a good staff.”
The staff A&M was towards Kentucky is the staff many anticipated it to be all season. As a substitute, the Aggies suffered 5 Quad 3 losses and wanted a late surge to even safe the No. 7 seed within the SEC Event bracket.
With two extra wins, Texas A&M can take away all doubt and head to the Large Dance as an computerized qualifier. However until it is the Aggies on the ladder slicing down the nets inside Bridgestone Area, do not count on Williams or anybody else from A&M that was round in 2022 to be respiration simple on Choice Sunday.
“There’s at all times going to be one thing that it’s important to do extra,” Williams stated. “We’re bankrupt from the entire issues that we will not management, and we attempt to give all of our emotion and vitality to the issues that we will.”