Vanderbilt will meet No. 12 Texas A&M for the first time this season when the Commodores travel to College Station, Texas, for a Southeastern Conference game on Wednesday evening.
For the Commodores, a win would be a big step toward an NCAA Tournament bid, something they haven’t attained since 2017. Vanderbilt snapped a three-game losing streak with a 77-72 win over then-No. 24 Ole Miss on Saturday and will finish the regular season with two of its three games at home after Wednesday’s contest.
It’s another sign that the Commodores (18-9, 6-8) made a great hire in first-year coach Mark Byington, who joked about tournament talk after Saturday’s win.
“I try to stay away from it, but you cant’ be naive and understand that the message isn’t getting through to the players,” Byington said. “I mean, I’ll walk down the street, I’m going to Starbucks and somebody will yell at me, ‘You’re the last four in (the NCAA Tournament)!'”
The Aggies (20-7, 9-5) lost their second straight game, 77-69 at home to then-No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday. Texas A&M is tough to beat when it shoots well, which it didn’t do when it went just 5 of 30 (16.7 percent) from 3-point range on Saturday.
“We liked all of our shots from behind the arc,” guard Zhuric Phelps said. “We have to knock those down. That’s something to work on (Sunday).”
That, unfortunately, has been a persistent issue for A&M, which ranks 329th nationally in 3-point shooting (30.6 percent).
Wade Taylor IV leads the Aggies in scoring average at 15 points a game, and Phelps (14.4) is the team’s only other double-figure scorer.
The Aggies get many of their points by relentlessly pounding the offensive glass, snagging 41.8 percent of available offensive rebounds, which ranks first in the country, according to kenpom.com.
The Commodores, meanwhile, are somewhat thin in the paint, with the 6-foot-7 Devin McGlockton (team-high 7.9 rebounds per game) and 6-8 Jaylen Carey (5.8) being the two best options. But keeping those two on the floor has been a problem. McGlockton has fouled out of three recent games; Carey has fouled out of two.
The Commodores have more scoring versatility than the Aggies, with Jason Edwards (17.3 ppg), McGlockton (10.9) and AJ Hoggard and Tyler Nickel (9.9 each) leading the way for Vanderbilt.
Edwards has scored in double figures in all but one game this season and has reached at least 20 eight times.
The Aggies have virtually clinched an NCAA Tournament berth regardless of the outcome Wednesday but will look to improve their seeding in that event as well as in the SEC tournament.
The top four seeds will get double byes in the 16-team conference tournament next month. The Aggies sit in a three-way tie for fourth place in the league standings with Tennessee and Missouri.
Texas A&M won’t play Tennessee again during the regular season and beat then-No. 15 Missouri 67-64 on Feb. 8 in the only matchup between the teams.
–Field Level Media
