Photo by Matt Sachs, TexAgs
Texas A&M Women's Basketball
Five Thoughts: #19 Texas A&M 75, #7 Kentucky 67
1. Your 2012-2013 Texas Aggies are the champions of the Southeastern Conference. The team who started the season 0-3 is a champion. The team who had a starter quit on them shortly after the season began is a champion. The team who dropped four of their last five games of the regular season is a champion. Let that sink in for a moment.
To me, that shows what a masterful coach A&M has in Gary Blair. Blair has taken his team to the conference final every year for the past six seasons, winning it now three times. Each time the Aggies have won the crown, they have been seeded fourth overall.
But it could be argued that this was his most impressive coaching job yet. Blair brought in six new freshman this year, two of which were regular starters (Courtney Williams and Courtney Walker) and another two who saw significant minutes throughout the season (Jordan Jones and Peyton Little). While those four freshman, along with Chelsea Jennings and Curtyce Knox, made up the second best recruiting class in the country, Blair and his staff still had to teach them to deal with the speed of the college game compared to that of high school. To watch the growth and development of those four, specifically the Courtneys, over the course of this season has been something extremely fun to watch.
While Bone proves time and time again to be invaluable to the A&M squad, A&M couldn't have won this without great play from their starters once again. For the second time in two days, both against top-10 opponents, four of the Aggie starters finished the day in double figures.
3. With 13:37 left in the game, Bria Goss hit a three-pointer to pull Kentucky within three points of A&M. But that would be the Wildcats' last basket for over six minutes. From that point on, A&M turned up the defensive intensity more than I've seen all season, and it allowed them to grow an 11-point lead with 7:46 left. During that stretch, Kentucky went 0-of-9 from the floor and turned the ball over to the Aggies twice.
Blair has always operated differently than most coaches by having an assistant as his 'defensive coordinator'. Vic Schaefer led the Aggies defense during their runs to the Big 12 Championship in 2008 and 2010 as well as the national title run in 2011, but he left after the end of last season to take the head coaching job at Mississippi State. That left a hole in the Aggie staff that Blair filled with former LSU assistant coach Bob Starkey. In this weekend's SEC Tournament, Starkey's defense held South Carolina nine points below their average, Tennessee 16 points below their average and Kentucky 8.6 points below their usual mark.
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
Junior Kelsey Bone scored 18 points and pulled down 15 rebounds in the victory over Kentucky.
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4. A&M can scratch another item off their SEC to-do list after Sunday's victory. After a Heisman Trophy, defeating Alabama in Tuscaloosa in football and beating Kentucky in Rupp Arena in basketball, A&M can finally put an SEC Championship among the other honors they have received this year.
Earlier in the year, both the soccer and volleyball teams earned the western division crown, and track star Henry Lelei won the 3,000 meters SEC indoor title last month as well as the men's cross country title back in October, but Sunday marked the first team trophy acquired by the Aggies.
5. Now that the SEC Tournament is behind them, Blair and the Aggies turn their attention to an even bigger prize. A&M will find out their seeding for the NCAA Tournament on March 18th, but it's never too early to speculate where they will fall.
Coming into the SEC Tournament, A&M possessed one of the lower four-seeds in the tournament. In my mind, beating South Carolina locked in no worse than a four-seed, beating Tennessee moved them into a low three-seed and beating Kentucky today locked in a three-seed and at the very least puts them in talks for one of the two-seeds. Three wins over top-20 teams, two of them over top-10 squads, does wonders for your tournament resume. A&M can also boast that they defeated every single team in their conference at least once this year.
The Aggies will play host to the first two rounds of the tournament, so anything other than at-least a berth in the Sweet 16 would be disappointing. Most bracket experts have A&M paired with one-seeded Baylor in the Elite Eight, should the Aggies advance that far which would make for a very interesting matchup.
An extra note: Bone was named tournament MVP. Bone, Walker and Bellock were all named to the all-tournament team.
To me, that shows what a masterful coach A&M has in Gary Blair. Blair has taken his team to the conference final every year for the past six seasons, winning it now three times. Each time the Aggies have won the crown, they have been seeded fourth overall.
But it could be argued that this was his most impressive coaching job yet. Blair brought in six new freshman this year, two of which were regular starters (Courtney Williams and Courtney Walker) and another two who saw significant minutes throughout the season (Jordan Jones and Peyton Little). While those four freshman, along with Chelsea Jennings and Curtyce Knox, made up the second best recruiting class in the country, Blair and his staff still had to teach them to deal with the speed of the college game compared to that of high school. To watch the growth and development of those four, specifically the Courtneys, over the course of this season has been something extremely fun to watch.
Coach Blair has meant a lot to me. A lot of people gave up on me and said I was a flop. Coach Blair stuck with me. He said, I need you to lead my team.
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2. Without question, the player of the game in this one was Kelsey Bone. Bone turned in her 14th double-double of the year, dropping 18 points and 15 rebounds. That was done in only 28 minutes of play because the junior found herself in foul trouble early in the first half. Because of that foul trouble, as well as foul trouble against Tennessee yesterday, Bone seemed to be a little more fresh down the stretch than any of the other nine players on the court. In the post-game press conference, Bone called the foul trouble a "blessing in disguise" and in my opinion, I couldn't agree more. But if you're going to comment on it being a good thing in the end that Bone was on the bench, you have to give a tip of the hat to Karla Gilbert for playing big minutes in her place.While Bone proves time and time again to be invaluable to the A&M squad, A&M couldn't have won this without great play from their starters once again. For the second time in two days, both against top-10 opponents, four of the Aggie starters finished the day in double figures.
3. With 13:37 left in the game, Bria Goss hit a three-pointer to pull Kentucky within three points of A&M. But that would be the Wildcats' last basket for over six minutes. From that point on, A&M turned up the defensive intensity more than I've seen all season, and it allowed them to grow an 11-point lead with 7:46 left. During that stretch, Kentucky went 0-of-9 from the floor and turned the ball over to the Aggies twice.
Blair has always operated differently than most coaches by having an assistant as his 'defensive coordinator'. Vic Schaefer led the Aggies defense during their runs to the Big 12 Championship in 2008 and 2010 as well as the national title run in 2011, but he left after the end of last season to take the head coaching job at Mississippi State. That left a hole in the Aggie staff that Blair filled with former LSU assistant coach Bob Starkey. In this weekend's SEC Tournament, Starkey's defense held South Carolina nine points below their average, Tennessee 16 points below their average and Kentucky 8.6 points below their usual mark.
Matt Sachs, TexAgs
Junior Kelsey Bone scored 18 points and pulled down 15 rebounds in the victory over Kentucky.
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Earlier in the year, both the soccer and volleyball teams earned the western division crown, and track star Henry Lelei won the 3,000 meters SEC indoor title last month as well as the men's cross country title back in October, but Sunday marked the first team trophy acquired by the Aggies.
5. Now that the SEC Tournament is behind them, Blair and the Aggies turn their attention to an even bigger prize. A&M will find out their seeding for the NCAA Tournament on March 18th, but it's never too early to speculate where they will fall.
Coming into the SEC Tournament, A&M possessed one of the lower four-seeds in the tournament. In my mind, beating South Carolina locked in no worse than a four-seed, beating Tennessee moved them into a low three-seed and beating Kentucky today locked in a three-seed and at the very least puts them in talks for one of the two-seeds. Three wins over top-20 teams, two of them over top-10 squads, does wonders for your tournament resume. A&M can also boast that they defeated every single team in their conference at least once this year.
The Aggies will play host to the first two rounds of the tournament, so anything other than at-least a berth in the Sweet 16 would be disappointing. Most bracket experts have A&M paired with one-seeded Baylor in the Elite Eight, should the Aggies advance that far which would make for a very interesting matchup.
An extra note: Bone was named tournament MVP. Bone, Walker and Bellock were all named to the all-tournament team.
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