How Texas A&M loss to Alabama was 'brutal' for March Madness bubble watch
Texas A&M wants to make the NCAA Tournament but it’s going to be hard when there are losses like the Alabama game.
Buzz Williams and the Aggies fell to the Crimson Tide 100-75 on the road Saturday. That’s something that was “brutal,” according to On3 bracketologist James Fletcher.
Did it kill their chances for March? Well no, but Texas A&M can’t afford games like that.
“Yeah, I think that the Aggies are right on the bubble,” Fletcher said on Monday’s edition of Andy Staples On3. “That was obviously a devastating result for them because even more than the loss and what that win would have meant for the resume, the way that they lost is just brutal for your resume because it messes up your computer numbers.
“There’s no way around it. They did drop in all of the metrics that you’re going to look at. So for Texas A&M, it’s really unfortunate to lose that way. But then you kind of look at it, you take a second glance and Alabama has been doing this to teams all season, and they did it to LSU just a few days before putting up that many points.”
Alabama putting up that many points isn’t surprising though. That’s the silver lining for Texas A&M.
Yes a loss like that hurts your metrics in all sorts of rankings, but it wasn’t overly surprising.
“And so this is a team that’s scoring at almost an unprecedented level right now in the SEC,” Fletcher said. “So it’s not the worst result they could have had, but it doesn’t help them in any way. They’re going to have to get things right and as we head towards March. Texas A&M is headed in the wrong direction and that’s something that you hate to see from Buzz Williams and that group.”
Williams was blunt about his team’s performance against the Crimson Tide.
“We just weren’t good enough,” Williams said postgame. “We weren’t good enough in any category of what you have to be to have a chance against this team and their style of play. I thought we did some better things to start the second half. It was to high a turnover rate for us in the first half and then categorically we didn’t defensively rebound the way that we do. The way that you have to, against them.”
Alabama led Texas A&M 49-35 at halftime and outscored the Aggies by 11 in the final 20 minutes. Williams knew that Alabama converted second chances while Texas A&M let them slip away.
“When they shoot the percentage of shots that they shoot from three in today’s game when they shoot, the percentage that they shot from three when they miss and they get it again, that’s too much,” Williams said. “We did a great job on offensive glass. We rebounded 60% of the shots we missed, we didn’t make a lot. But we did a good job of rebounding those shots. They were averaging 35 threes over the last five games.
“We knew that number would be higher against us. And long shots are long rebounds. How can we finish those possessions with a rebound? And they offensively rebounded 43% of their misses.”