NCAA Tournament 1st Round - Oklahoma City
Aggies Record: (21-11)
Aggies Kenpom: 39
Opponent: st marys (27-5)
Opponent Kenpom: 24
Date: March 19th
Time: 6:35pm
Location: Paycom Center - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Streaming: Tru TV
Betting Spread: Texas A&M +3.5
Radio: https://12thmanfoundation.evenue.net/event/B25/MB01?RSRC=SIDEARM&RDAT=sgl
Live Stats: https://12thman.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Game Preview
The dance is here. Polish your finest shoes, sharpen up that tie, comb your hair and let's get to dancing. March Madness is here and your Fightin' Texas A&M Aggies under first year head coach Bucky McMillan earned a 10 seed and will be in Oklahoma City to take on the St. Mary's Gaels tonight at 6:35 on TruTv.
11 months ago Reed Arena was empty, but for one player. The entire staff gone, the entire roster graduated or on a flight elsewhere. On April 5th it was announced that Texas A&M has hired Bucky McMillan to lead its program after a 5 year stint at Samford. He was a 3 time So-Con Coach of the Year and led the Bulldogs to the 2024 NCAA Tournament where they were a blown call away from taking down Kansas.
He walked into Reed Arena and could only have a team meeting with one player Chris McDermott, the lone returnee who had not entered the portal. He quickly had to assemble a staff, a support team, and a roster, as he was the last power 4 coach to be hired. He added some assistant coaches with Texas A&M ties and some with Bucky ties familiar with his style of play. One Buzz commit stayed put in Jeremiah Green. Then came in a point guard in Jacari Lane from North Alabama, then a stretch forward Zach Clemence from Kansas. Then the Aggies signed pro prospect Mackenzie Mgbako from Indiana and this portal class exploded. Josh Holloway, Jamie Vinson, Marcus Hill, Rylen Griffen, Federiko Federiko, Rashaun Agee, Pop Isaacs, all came within a month of each other. The last signees came in the summer in Spanish sharpshooter Ruben Dominguez, Noah Shelby, and grad transfer Ali Dibba coming in right before the school year began. The roster was set. Now it was time to put Bucky Ball into motion in College Station, Texas.
Bucky himself said there would be some speed bumps along this process. A brand new coaching staff and 14 new players, it wasn't always going to look pretty or look pretty quickly. Non conference came and we saw a beat down in Stillwater and we dropped a tight one at home against UCF. We beat on some weak teams and picked up our first power 4 wins against Florida State and Pitt, before dropping a heartbreaking loss at SMU. We saw an up tempo, full court pressing team that loved to shoot three's. The Aggies lost Mgbako for the season and became limited near the paint. Size would be an issue going forward. The electric offense, the harassing defense, and the charisma of Bucky had fans bought in. At the conclusion of non-conference the Aggies say 10-3 ready to take on league play where we'd absolutely see what this team was made of.
Conference play got off to an amazing start with the Aggies winning 7 of their first 8 in the SEC including wins at Auburn, at tu, and at Georgia, their lone loss was a double overtime loss to Tennessee. After dropping a close one in Tuscaloosa to the pros and criminals, the Aggies would go on to drop 3 more in a row to Florida, Mizzou, and Vandy. The Aggies would save themselves from a complete fall out after beating Ole Miss and Oklahoma. But then two losses followed. Backs against the wall, the Aggies would respond by comfortably beating Kentucky at home and surviving a 3 overtime game at LSU. 11 sec wins in Bucky's first year. A season that saw some highs and lows, but most importantly a team that believed in each other, believed in their coach, and believed in their system.
The Aggies were a lock to make the tournament and were the last name called on Selection Sunday. Their opponent would be the St. Mary's Gaels who finished 27-5 and who are in the tournament for a 5th straight season. St Mary's plays in the West Coast Conference where they went 16-2 splitting games with Gonzaga and Santa Clara. In non conference they got throttled by Vanderbilt and dropped a game to Boise State.
St Mary's is a consistent tournament team with a history of excellent guard play and dominant bigs. They run a methodical half court style of play. They pride themselves on stingy defense, forcing opponents into bad shots deep into the shot clock, and rebounding. They have a very young, but talented team that plays a tight rotation.
They are lead by first team all west conference player 6'8 forward #23 Paulius Murauskas. He averages 18.8 points per game and 7.7 rebounds. He is an aggressive player who loves to score inside the paint but is also willing to take three's where he shoots at 33%. They have a trio of underclassmen guards that are talented and exceptional shooters. #7 6'3 Joshua Dent, another first team all west coast conference player, leads the way and he likely won't step off the court. He averages 13 points and nearly 6 assists while shooting 40% from three. He's the facilitator of the offense. Along side him is guard #0 6'3 Mikey Lewis who averages 14.2 points per game and loves to shoot the 3 as well. He is a spark plug and can get hot from deep. He made 7 three's in their win against Gonzaga, but 9-30 from deep in their losses. Their 3 player freshman #11 Dillan Shaw stands at 6'7 but really only shoots 3's where he can be efficient, but not at a high volume. They have two huge centers who stand at 7'2 and 7'1, #45 Andrew McKeever and #1 Harry Wessels. McKeever sees more time and is a better scorer, although they both only average 8.4 and 4.9 a game. At their size, they are not extremely productive offensively. They move slow and solely rely on their height.
They run a lot of their offense through Murauskas. They utliloze a lot of pick and roll and will spend a lot of the shot clock trying to create and exploit mismatches. They want teams to crash the paint so they can kick out to the three. They're willing shooters and rely on their bigs getting offensive boards. We will need to team rebounds as best as we could. Fight for 50/50 balls, have our bigs boxing out their centers and hope our guards are ready and willing to rebound. We'll need to smother them at the 3 point line and force them into bad shots.
A lot of it starts 90 feet away. I'm curious how the Gaels will attack the press and if we can speed them up into some errors. They love to play slow and they are good at taking care of the ball. Also, how will their offense fare playing a quick team like Texas A&M. They normally play only 7 guys, sometimes 8. How will their bigs handle our quicker bigs like Agee and Clemence. Can we bring them out to the perimeter or will Agee and Clemence have open looks from deep. Can we wear down their guards and force them into bad shots on tired legs.
The big question is how will our offense fare against this St Mary's team. We've seen games where our offense looks unstoppable and some games where our offense is struggling in every facet. Which Texas A&M team will show up? In a perfect game, we make 12+ three pointers… Dominguez, Clemence, Pop, Griffen all knock down a couple. Agee goes for 15+ and gets their bigs in foul trouble. We force multiple 10 second back court violations on them. The Agee/Hill or Pop pick and roll unguardable. It's been done before. Can it be done all at once on the same night in the biggest stage of them all. We will need to use our speed and the athleticism of our bigs to take them down. Make them work and make them run with us. They've struggled against an up tempo team in Santa Clara and lost twice. Let's give them 40 minutes of hell.
Bucky Ball is built for March. Not only can it be entertaining, its tailor made for a tournament style game. Two contrasting styles meeting up on day 1 of the tourney will provide for a classic. Can they slow us down or can we hurry them up. All season long I was envisioning what Bucky Ball may look like on a national stage in the dance. We earned our way despite the uphill climb we had to endure with everything thrown that us. Yet here we are. While getting here is a huge achievement, I'm not looking to celebrate now. I'm looking to BTHO st mary's and keep on dancing!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aggies Record: (21-11)
Aggies Kenpom: 39
Opponent: st marys (27-5)
Opponent Kenpom: 24
Date: March 19th
Time: 6:35pm
Location: Paycom Center - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Streaming: Tru TV
Betting Spread: Texas A&M +3.5
Radio: https://12thmanfoundation.evenue.net/event/B25/MB01?RSRC=SIDEARM&RDAT=sgl
Live Stats: https://12thman.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Game Preview
The dance is here. Polish your finest shoes, sharpen up that tie, comb your hair and let's get to dancing. March Madness is here and your Fightin' Texas A&M Aggies under first year head coach Bucky McMillan earned a 10 seed and will be in Oklahoma City to take on the St. Mary's Gaels tonight at 6:35 on TruTv.
11 months ago Reed Arena was empty, but for one player. The entire staff gone, the entire roster graduated or on a flight elsewhere. On April 5th it was announced that Texas A&M has hired Bucky McMillan to lead its program after a 5 year stint at Samford. He was a 3 time So-Con Coach of the Year and led the Bulldogs to the 2024 NCAA Tournament where they were a blown call away from taking down Kansas.
He walked into Reed Arena and could only have a team meeting with one player Chris McDermott, the lone returnee who had not entered the portal. He quickly had to assemble a staff, a support team, and a roster, as he was the last power 4 coach to be hired. He added some assistant coaches with Texas A&M ties and some with Bucky ties familiar with his style of play. One Buzz commit stayed put in Jeremiah Green. Then came in a point guard in Jacari Lane from North Alabama, then a stretch forward Zach Clemence from Kansas. Then the Aggies signed pro prospect Mackenzie Mgbako from Indiana and this portal class exploded. Josh Holloway, Jamie Vinson, Marcus Hill, Rylen Griffen, Federiko Federiko, Rashaun Agee, Pop Isaacs, all came within a month of each other. The last signees came in the summer in Spanish sharpshooter Ruben Dominguez, Noah Shelby, and grad transfer Ali Dibba coming in right before the school year began. The roster was set. Now it was time to put Bucky Ball into motion in College Station, Texas.
Bucky himself said there would be some speed bumps along this process. A brand new coaching staff and 14 new players, it wasn't always going to look pretty or look pretty quickly. Non conference came and we saw a beat down in Stillwater and we dropped a tight one at home against UCF. We beat on some weak teams and picked up our first power 4 wins against Florida State and Pitt, before dropping a heartbreaking loss at SMU. We saw an up tempo, full court pressing team that loved to shoot three's. The Aggies lost Mgbako for the season and became limited near the paint. Size would be an issue going forward. The electric offense, the harassing defense, and the charisma of Bucky had fans bought in. At the conclusion of non-conference the Aggies say 10-3 ready to take on league play where we'd absolutely see what this team was made of.
Conference play got off to an amazing start with the Aggies winning 7 of their first 8 in the SEC including wins at Auburn, at tu, and at Georgia, their lone loss was a double overtime loss to Tennessee. After dropping a close one in Tuscaloosa to the pros and criminals, the Aggies would go on to drop 3 more in a row to Florida, Mizzou, and Vandy. The Aggies would save themselves from a complete fall out after beating Ole Miss and Oklahoma. But then two losses followed. Backs against the wall, the Aggies would respond by comfortably beating Kentucky at home and surviving a 3 overtime game at LSU. 11 sec wins in Bucky's first year. A season that saw some highs and lows, but most importantly a team that believed in each other, believed in their coach, and believed in their system.
The Aggies were a lock to make the tournament and were the last name called on Selection Sunday. Their opponent would be the St. Mary's Gaels who finished 27-5 and who are in the tournament for a 5th straight season. St Mary's plays in the West Coast Conference where they went 16-2 splitting games with Gonzaga and Santa Clara. In non conference they got throttled by Vanderbilt and dropped a game to Boise State.
St Mary's is a consistent tournament team with a history of excellent guard play and dominant bigs. They run a methodical half court style of play. They pride themselves on stingy defense, forcing opponents into bad shots deep into the shot clock, and rebounding. They have a very young, but talented team that plays a tight rotation.
They are lead by first team all west conference player 6'8 forward #23 Paulius Murauskas. He averages 18.8 points per game and 7.7 rebounds. He is an aggressive player who loves to score inside the paint but is also willing to take three's where he shoots at 33%. They have a trio of underclassmen guards that are talented and exceptional shooters. #7 6'3 Joshua Dent, another first team all west coast conference player, leads the way and he likely won't step off the court. He averages 13 points and nearly 6 assists while shooting 40% from three. He's the facilitator of the offense. Along side him is guard #0 6'3 Mikey Lewis who averages 14.2 points per game and loves to shoot the 3 as well. He is a spark plug and can get hot from deep. He made 7 three's in their win against Gonzaga, but 9-30 from deep in their losses. Their 3 player freshman #11 Dillan Shaw stands at 6'7 but really only shoots 3's where he can be efficient, but not at a high volume. They have two huge centers who stand at 7'2 and 7'1, #45 Andrew McKeever and #1 Harry Wessels. McKeever sees more time and is a better scorer, although they both only average 8.4 and 4.9 a game. At their size, they are not extremely productive offensively. They move slow and solely rely on their height.
They run a lot of their offense through Murauskas. They utliloze a lot of pick and roll and will spend a lot of the shot clock trying to create and exploit mismatches. They want teams to crash the paint so they can kick out to the three. They're willing shooters and rely on their bigs getting offensive boards. We will need to team rebounds as best as we could. Fight for 50/50 balls, have our bigs boxing out their centers and hope our guards are ready and willing to rebound. We'll need to smother them at the 3 point line and force them into bad shots.
A lot of it starts 90 feet away. I'm curious how the Gaels will attack the press and if we can speed them up into some errors. They love to play slow and they are good at taking care of the ball. Also, how will their offense fare playing a quick team like Texas A&M. They normally play only 7 guys, sometimes 8. How will their bigs handle our quicker bigs like Agee and Clemence. Can we bring them out to the perimeter or will Agee and Clemence have open looks from deep. Can we wear down their guards and force them into bad shots on tired legs.
The big question is how will our offense fare against this St Mary's team. We've seen games where our offense looks unstoppable and some games where our offense is struggling in every facet. Which Texas A&M team will show up? In a perfect game, we make 12+ three pointers… Dominguez, Clemence, Pop, Griffen all knock down a couple. Agee goes for 15+ and gets their bigs in foul trouble. We force multiple 10 second back court violations on them. The Agee/Hill or Pop pick and roll unguardable. It's been done before. Can it be done all at once on the same night in the biggest stage of them all. We will need to use our speed and the athleticism of our bigs to take them down. Make them work and make them run with us. They've struggled against an up tempo team in Santa Clara and lost twice. Let's give them 40 minutes of hell.
Bucky Ball is built for March. Not only can it be entertaining, its tailor made for a tournament style game. Two contrasting styles meeting up on day 1 of the tourney will provide for a classic. Can they slow us down or can we hurry them up. All season long I was envisioning what Bucky Ball may look like on a national stage in the dance. We earned our way despite the uphill climb we had to endure with everything thrown that us. Yet here we are. While getting here is a huge achievement, I'm not looking to celebrate now. I'm looking to BTHO st mary's and keep on dancing!!!!!!!!!!!!
