Aggies aspire to embody McMillan's competitiveness vs. Saint Mary's

Click here to view Wednesday’s NCAA Tournament press conference.

OKLAHOMA CITY — As a former assistant basketball coach at Birmingham-Southern College, Mitch Cole has vivid memories of an overachieving point guard.

Indeed, Cole compared that Birmingham-Southern point guard to a legendary Texas A&M player, who went on to fame, fortune and championships in the NBA.

“He was an unathletic Alex Caruso,” Cole recalled. “He could run the team by himself. He could change defenses on the fly. He gave audibles. He was just the smartest player I’ve ever coached.”

That intelligent player, of course, is Texas A&M coach Bucky McMillan, for whom Cole now serves as an assistant.

McMillan hopes to again duplicate Caruso on Thursday night and guide the No. 10 seed Aggies (21-11) to an NCAA Tournament victory over No. 7 seed Saint Mary’s (27-5) at Paycom Center.

Caruso helped A&M to two victories a decade ago when the venue was known as Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Alex Parker, TexAgs

Alex Caruso scored a team-high 25 points in Texas A&M’s 92-88 overtime win over Northern Iowa on March 20, 2016.

Accomplishing that feat will require the Aggies to overcome more than a few obstacles.

That’s possible if they demonstrate some characteristics of McMillan. Fortunately, Cole sees a lot of McMillan in the Aggies.

“There’s a grit and a toughness,” Cole said. “He was not going to give in to adversity. He was always going to find a way. He was always going to find a way to solve a problem.”

Saint Mary’s poses more than one problem.

The Gaels lead the nation in free-throw percentage (80.54), are 11th in 3-point percentage (38.86), 13th in rebounding (40.34) and seventh in scoring defense (64.6).

They play at a slower pace than A&M. They have a significant size advantage with 7-foot-3 Andrew McKeever, 7-foot-1 Harry Wessels and high-scoring forward Paulius Murauskas, who “only” stands 6-foot-8.

But too much help inside often leads to open perimeter shots from guards Joshua Dent, Mikey Lewis and Dillan Shaw. That trio has combined for 110 3-pointers.

But McMillan is comfortable in the underdog role. His Aggies should be, too, considering they were picked 13th in the SEC preseason poll.

According to an old sports cliche, teams often take on the personality of their coach. McMillan is counting on it.

“I’m competitive, obviously, so hopefully our team is very competitive,” he said. “I'm confident in our team. Hopefully, they’re confident in themselves. I was a high school coach six years ago, so I have an underdog spirit to me. You know, we're a No. 10 seed in this tournament. Hopefully, we take on that underdog spirit, and we fight that way.”

A&M guard Rylan Griffen suggested that it won’t be a problem to solve. Griffen said the Aggies have a confidence that stems from finishing in the upper division of the rugged Southeastern Conference.

“We played in the No. 1 conference in the country,” Griffen said. “We finished tied for fourth. We know we can compete with anybody. We know even some of our losses were very, very close games, one-possession games.

“In these games, these tournament games, you have to play your best basketball, so being confident is really, really big for us.”

The Aggies need to find confidence in their shooting. A&M relies heavily on 3-point shooting but has been erratic from behind the arc of late. They’ve shot just 33.7 percent from 3-point range in March.

Most recently, they shot just 26 percent (8-of-31) in a loss to Oklahoma in the SEC Tournament.

But just a week before, the Aggies hit 46 percent (13-of-28) in a victory over Kentucky, which, like Saint Mary’s, is also a No. 7 seed.

A&M is 10-3 when hitting 12 or more 3-point shots.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Rubén Dominguez leads the Aggies with 82 made 3-pointers in 2025-2026.

The Aggies, who aspire to play at a much faster pace than Saint Mary’s, must control tempo. They’ve got to force turnovers, which has been a problem for Saint Mary’s.

They also cannot allow the taller Gaels to dominate the glass.

And like their coach, they must thrive in an underdog role.

“I definitely think (underdog role) helps us,” Griffen said. “That's how we should be going into any of these games. These are single-elimination games.

“Regardless of if we are or aren't, we have to come out like our life is on the line because it's win or go home right now."