Ags host Buckeyes with an early-season Quad 1 opportunity at stake
Click HERE to view Texas A&M’s Thursday press conference.
Four months of college basketball must pass before NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday arrives.
Yet, two weeks before Thanksgiving, Texas A&M enters a game that figures to have March Madness meaning.
The No. 23 Aggies (2-1) face No. 21 Ohio State (2-0) on Friday night at Reed Arena with a precious Quadrant 1 victory at stake. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. CT.
“We know how big the magnitude of this game will be for us,” Texas A&M star point guard Wade Taylor IV said on Thursday. “We want to approach it as such, just like how (Ohio State) will.
“We’ve just got to go in with the same mindset of, ‘Hey, this game is important, so let’s get the win before we look on down the line.’”
Down the line — like on March 16 (Selection Sunday) — a win over Ohio State could prove invaluable as a “Quad 1” victory.
“Quad 1” victories enhance NCAA resumes. They are defined by home-court wins over opponents in the top 30 of the NET rankings, the top 50 on a neutral site or the top 75 in road games.
“Quad 2” wins are at home vs. teams ranked 31-75, neutral site over opponents rated 51-100 and away victories over opponents ranked 76-135.
The more Quad 1 and Quad 2 victories are accumulated, the higher a team’s NCAA Tournament seeding figures to be.
For example, last year, Houston had 16 Quad 1 victories and was rewarded a No. 1 seed.
In comparison, A&M was 7-7 in Quad 1 games and 6-3 in Quad 2 games. Therefore, the Aggies were given a No. 9 seed.
Therefore, basketball teams across the country incessantly scheme to schedule high-profile matchups for potential Quad 1 wins.
“If you only looked at the predictive numbers, which they don’t necessarily hold true, we scheduled 24 Quad 1 or Quad 2 games for this season,” Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said on Thursday, adding that the game with Ohio State was scheduled over two years ago. “Now that’s predictive. It’s before either season starts.
“We’re starting to see how everybody is trying to figure out how we can accumulate, even in November, as many of what we hope are Quad 1 and Quad 2 games in March.”
Obviously, Quad 1 wins are so valued because they’re so difficult to attain.
Williams knows that will be the case against Ohio State, which opened its season with an 80-72 victory over then-No. 19 Texas.
Junior point guard Bruce Thornton is averaging 16 points. Senior guard Meechie Johnson Jr., a transfer from South Carolina, averages 8.5.
Sophomore Aaron Bradshaw, a 7-foot-1 forward, was a McDonald’s All-American in high school. So was 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Sean Stewart.
“I think they’re ultra-talented at all spots,” Williams said. “(Thornton and Johnson are) maybe as good a backcourt as you can find in the country at this level. They’re both older, high-level guards that have played and started.
“(The Buckeyes) are big, not necessarily just inside. They’re just big, period.”
The Aggies have a strong backcourt, too.
Taylor, a two-time All-SEC guard, is capable of scoring 20 points or more on any night. He did that a dozen times last season.
He’s getting backcourt help from transfer Zhuric Phelps, who averaged 14.8 points at SMU last season. Phelps was recovering from an injury and did not play in A&M’s season-opening loss to UCF, but he has averaged 17 points in A&M’s victories over East Texas A&M and Lamar.
“With each passing day, he’s getting better,” Williams said. “He’s doing extra work. I think some of the anxiousness of I’m happy to be back on the court… I think there’s still some reps that we need to flesh out.
“He doesn’t completely know everything in the playbook spot on, but he’s a fast-twitch brain. He’s got a lot of experience, so I think he’s handled it really well.”
The Aggies aren’t as big inside as Ohio State, but they are tenacious.
Pharrel Payne, a 6-foot-9 transfer from Minnesota, has improved the athleticism in the paint.
Andersson Garcia is a 6-foot-7 rebounding machine. Henry Coleman III, a 6-8 forward, is averaging 11 points and seven rebounds.
Solomon Washington, a 6-foot-7 junior, supplies a measure of toughness and versatility.
“We’ll need him to be really good,” Williams said of Washington. “He’s one of the only guys in our program who can have the versatility on both sides of the ball that we need while also having the presence on the glass, using his length and athleticism on both sides. We need him to take the next step because he’s going to be a big part of what we’re doing.”
Which, of course, is trying to accumulate those Quad 1 victories that are so valuable, even in mid-November.
