Texas A&M squares off with streaky Oklahoma in a Southeastern Conference game on Saturday in Norman, Okla.
The Sooners (13-13, 3-10 SEC) are coming off an 89-66 loss at Tennessee on Wednesday that ended a two-game winning streak. That modest stretch had followed a nine-game skid, which had come after a five-game winning streak.
The Aggies (18-8, 8-5) are coming off an 80-77 home win over Ole Miss on Wednesday that snapped a four-game losing streak.
Texas A&M won the first meeting this season between the teams, 83-76, on Jan. 10 in College Station, Texas. The Aggies produced a balanced effort on offense with five players scoring in double figures, though none with more than 16 points.
Ruben Dominguez scored 14 points and went 4-for-9 on 3-pointers against Oklahoma. Over the next nine games, Dominguez shot just 25.9% from deep.
In his first 16 games through the Oklahoma contest, the sophomore guard shot 47.1% from beyond the arc.
Dominguez didn’t shoot in much volume in Wednesday’s win over Ole Miss, but he hit a couple key 3-pointers in four attempts to help lift the Aggies.
Texas A&M coach Bucky McMillan said he wasn’t worried about Dominguez getting out of his funk.
“A season is a long season,” McMillan said. “If I told y’all that we have a guy on our team that’s gonna shoot 41.5% for the season, what would we say? We wouldn’t say, ‘Well, he missed some the last couple games.'”
Oklahoma struggled with the Aggies’ tempo in that first encounter. Sooners coach Porter Moser said the team learned from the first meeting.
“The fatigue part of it, having to play with that pace in transition, I think a strength is playing with that pace against them,” Moser said. “They press you at all times. Mentally and physically, you’ve got to be ready at all times to get pressed and trapped.”
That was part of a stretch where Texas A&M won 10 of 11 games from Dec. 14 to Jan. 31.
Saturday’s game will be the second during the observance of Ramadan, which will affect Oklahoma starting forward Mohamed Wague.
The senior excelled last season during Ramadan, and Moser said there were lessons learned from that experience.
“Our dietician’s unbelievable,” Moser said. “They get up early, get him nutrition and then wait until sundown.”
In Wednesday’s game against the Volunteers, Wague was limited to just 10 minutes due to foul trouble and was held scoreless.
“When he’s on the floor, we’re a better team,” Moser said.
The Sooners will honor the 2016 Final Four team during a halftime ceremony, which will include the jersey retirement of the star of that team and the consensus national player of the year, Buddy Hield.
Hield will be the sixth player in program history to have his jersey retired, joining Wayman Tisdale, Alvan Adams, Mookie Blaylock, Stacey King and Blake Griffin.
–Field Level Media
