Neither Texas A&M nor Arkansas have come close to meeting preseason expectations, and time is running out as they square off Tuesday in a Southeastern Conference game in College Station, Texas.
The Aggies (15-10, 6-6 SEC) head home after a calamitous 100-75 loss at then-No. 15 Alabama on Saturday. Tyrece Radford scored 22 points for the Aggies, who ruled the glass (outrebounding Alabama 49-38) but went just 37.8 percent from the field. Twenty-one of Texas A&M’s points came as a result of 26 offensive rebounds.
Solomon Washington added 14 points for the Aggies in the setback, which was A&M’s second straight after a three-game winning streak. Henry Coleman III had 12 points and leading scorer Wade Taylor IV hit for 10 but made just four of his 15 field-goal attempts. Andersson Garcia grabbed 12 rebounds.
“(It was a) rough week for our program,” Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said Saturday. “Lose on Tuesday (at Vanderbilt) and then (Saturday’s) loss, and the way it transpired. We’ve got work to do over the next three weeks.”
The Razorbacks (12-13, 3-9) have struggled mightily, with their latest loss a 71-67 setback at Mississippi State on Saturday in a game Arkansas led with 1:07 to play. Makhi Mitchell scored 21 points and Khalif Battle added 18 for Arkansas, which is 12th in the 14-team SEC entering Monday.
It’s the first time in Eric Musselman’s nine seasons as a college head coach at Nevada and Arkansas that his team is under .500.
“I know our fans, I know our locker room, I know our coaching staff — nobody ever wants to lose a basketball game,” Musselman said Saturday. “But if anybody faults the effort, they do not know basketball. Guys were playing really, really hard.”
Arkansas beat Texas A&M 78-77 in the first meeting on Jan. 16 in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks’ Tramon Mark scored a career-high 35 points and hit the game-winning shot with 1.1 seconds left. Taylor finished with a career-high 41 points for the Aggies.
–Field Level Media