Basketball opener a resounding meh

I watched every minute of Texas A&M’s 97-66 win over Alabama State last night. Let’s just say it was not poetry in motion.

Any halfway decent team would have given the Aggies a run last night. Alabama State is not a halfway decent team, and they were missing several key contributors. Coach Bucky McMillan was right when he said that 97 points was the bare minimum A&M should have scored last night. They should have had 115 or maybe more.

Now, to be sure, I’ll take this over a 68-45 win with Buzz Williams. But I think there are reasonable expectations that this team will be better than last year’s, but there’s clearly work to be done.

For the game, the Aggies shot 48.4%, which isn’t bad. Eight for 23 from 3-point range (34%) is not good. A little over 60% (29 of 48) at the free throw line is terrible, and very different from the 80% they shot against SMU 10 days ago.

Overall, they were just sloppy. They were only credited with 11 turnovers, but there were a lot of really bad shots, rebounds they couldn’t control that went out of bounds and other busts that can’t happen against better teams.

There has been some discussion of a late switch in basketballs, from the commonly-used Wilson balls to Adidas basketballs, which McMillan clearly was not fond of. I’ll be interested to see if that becomes a sticking point in negotiations on a new deal, because nobody seemed to be a fan.

In any event, both teams had the same equipment and Alabama State out-rebounded the Aggies both overall and on the offensive glass. If there is one thing I miss from Coach Reading List, it was that his teams always attacked the glass on the offensive end. McMillan says he wants the same, but it hasn’t happened yet.

There were definite positives. PJ Haggerty looks like he’s worth the heavy price tag A&M paid to get him, putting up 22 points in his Aggie debut. Jordan Pope looked really good as well, putting in 17. Jalen Shelley looks like he may be one of the steals of the portal, as he put up a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

The Aggies have the ability to score. They have plenty of scoring ability, and they’ll probably play better as the non-conference slate continues. That’s got to be the hope, because they’re not going to beat good teams if they don’t play quality basketball consistently, and they didn’t do that last night — 31-point win or not.

The ultimate test of A&M’s toughness

This weekend is the biggest test of the Aggie football team’s personal pride and their toughness. South Carolina has gone back to what worked in 2024, and that’s hit you in the mouth football with LaNorris Sellers running the ball a whole lot.

The last time the Aggies played in Columbia, it was a mauling. A&M tackled poorly — that’s being generous — as they tackled high, went for the kill shot and didn’t wrap up and were just flat-out undisciplined. The Gamecocks ran all over them in a game that was never really close.

You know South Carolina wants to do that again, and thinks they can. The Aggies stuffed Alabama’s running game, but this is a different animal. They’re like Missouri in that they’ll just keep coming until you break.

This is a test of manhood, but not just for the defense. The offense should have spent their bye week ashamed of themselves and looking for ways to get a whole lot better fast. That includes Offensive Coordinator Holmon Wiggins, who needs to call much better games to help out his players.

Marcel Reed has to be a whole lot better, clearly. The line has to block better for him and push South Carolina’s front around, which hasn’t always been easy this year.

But this is it. You crap or get off the pot. If you’re going to make something of this season, you have to win this game or things will spiral even faster. They know that South Carolina is going to try to humiliate them. Let’s see if they have the ability to prevent that from happening.