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Coming off a second-round NCAA Tournament appearance last season, No. 13 Texas A&M will travel to Orlando to play UCF on Monday in the season opener for both teams.

After reaching the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament, the Aggies lost in the Big Dance to No. 1 seed Houston 100-95 in overtime, finishing with a 21-15 record. They went 9-9 in regular-season SEC play.

Texas A&M finished with six wins in its final eight games following a late-season five-game losing streak.

“The one thing that we need to see if we can ever do is, can we not have a miniature slump that causes problems?” Aggies coach Buzz Williams said. “We’ve had bits and pieces of those with each passing year.”

“Can there be a crescendo without a distinct drop? We haven’t been able to do that yet, but hopefully with our team and our staff, this is the year we can continue to get better but not maybe fall off the cliff for a week or two weeks.”

Aggies senior guard Wade Taylor IV is one of the nation’s most electric players and holds 13 season school records, including the most 3-pointers in a season (98 in the 2023-24 campaign). An All-Southeastern Conference first-team selection for the second time, Taylor averaged 19.1 points, 4.0 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game.

Forward Andersson Garcia (6-foot-7) was the SEC’s top rebounder last season at 9.1 boards per game. Solomon Washington and Henry Coleman III will be key frontcourt pieces. The Aggies’ length and experience make them a tough matchup for any team.

The Knights finished 17-16 last season, including 7-11 in their first season in the Big 12. They tied for 11th out of 14 teams but notched an upset win against then-No. 3 Kansas at home.

“We really competed well on a nightly basis,” ninth-year Knights coach Johnny Dawkins said. “I was really proud of our guys’ overall effort … and we want to continue to build on that.”

An NIT team the past two seasons, UCF last earned an NCAA berth in 2018-19, Dawkins’ third season.

Picked in the preseason Big 12 coaches’ poll to finish 11th out of 16, the Knights hope a roster overhaul — 11 new players, including nine transfers — helps them outperform expectations. While ranking third in the Big 12 in defense last season (67.9 ppg), they were near the bottom in scoring (71.7 ppg).

Senior guards Darius Johnson (15.2 ppg in 2023-24) and Jaylin Sellers (team-high 15.9 ppg) are the offense’s focal points. Sellers, who transferred from Ball State before last season, is sidelined indefinitely due to an undisclosed injury sustained Oct. 20 in a preseason game against Florida Gulf Coast.

Moustapha Thiam, a 7-foot-2 center from Senegal, arrives as the highest-ranked recruit (No. 30 in ESPN’s Top 100) in program history. Guard Jordan Ivy-Curry starred at UTSA last season (17.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists), and guard Mikey Williams, a heralded recruit in the 2023 class, transferred in from Memphis after redshirting.

–Field Level Media