Thursday, January 13
Texas A&M 74 Texas 63
Texas had its eight game winning streak snapped last night at the hands of the up and coming Aggies of Texas A&M, 74-63. The Aggies (12-1), whose only loss was by 5 points to #2 Kansas, got 24 points from point guard Acie Law and held the Horns to a lousy 32% shooting from the floor. P.J. Tucker led Texas in scoring with 18 points.
This is a disappointing loss—no doubt about it—but it’s not totally shocking. I’ve said before that while this team is going to get better and better and be at its best in March, it is a young team that will hit its bumps in the road in the brutal Big 12 conference play. In its first conference road game, this young team got beat solidly.
Freshman point guard Daniel Gibson was terrible, hitting only one of his eleven field goal attempts and managing one assist. Kenton Paulino wasn’t much better in relief, coughing up five turnovers. Jason Klotz went 1-for-9 from the field. It was a return to the early Rick Barnes era with ugly half court offense and long scoring droughts.
While Texas can and will improve from this loss, this serves as a reminder that its going to be a difficult year in the Big 12 and Texas is going to struggle to win on the road. Yesterday’s optimistic hope for a #3 or #4 seed looks a little bit too optimistic after tonight’s loss. It will be interesting to see how Texas rebounds from this game. Texas next hits the road to play Nebraska before preparing for a home match-up against a very talented, physical, and experienced Oklahoma State team.
--PB--
