What Texas A&M needs to do to reestablish itself on the NCAA Tournament bubble

Texas A&M’s last three outcomes have put them squarely back on the bubble with five games to go in the regular season. Still, even with far less wiggle room than they had, James Fletcher III still sees a path for the Aggies to go dancing in the NCAA Tournament.

Fletcher assessed where Texas A&M currently stands within the tournament field during an appearance on ‘Andy Staples On3’ on Friday. He made it known that they still have a possibility to make it considering where his bracket currently has them.

“I think they still have a chance. They’re in that First Four Out for me right now.”

According to Fletcher, the biggest advantage that the Aggies still have is a schedule that’s within the Southeastern Conference.

As of today, they still have two Quad 1 opportunities at Tennessee this weekend and at Ole Miss in the season finale. They then have three Quad 2 games against South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi State. That’s before any neutral-site games at the SEC Tournament in Nashville.

In Fletcher’s opinion, the best chance for Texas A&M is to earn one more significant win while also avoiding any more crippling losses. If they can do that, an at-large bid can still be on the table for the Aggies come Selection Sunday.

“They’re playing an SEC schedule that is going to give you a few more opportunities,” Fletcher said. “We’ve seen the bubble be kind to teams that have a lot of Quad 1 wins, a good resumé at the top of their schedule. I think that Texas A&M? They’ve got to rely on all those Quad 1 wins that they’ve been able to accumulate to this point. Now, they’ve struggled in Quad 3 and Quad 4, which is never good. That’s why they’re down where they are right now.”

“I think that, for them, the key is going to be win big games and then take care of business in the really bad games. If you can beat the Vanderbilts, the Missouris, the Arkansas’? You keep those bad losses off of your resumé the rest of the way. You pick up a big win. Whether it’s against a Tennessee, an Auburn, an Alabama, whether it’s in the regular season or the SEC Tournament. However you get that done, I think they need at least one more big win and then to avoid any more bad losses,” Fletcher explained. “If you take a Quad 2 loss in there somewhere? Against maybe a Florida or whoever else in that conversation, a Kentucky depending on how the NET rankings shake out? I think they can still survive one more of.”

As Fletcher noted, he has Texas A&M as the last team in his First Four Out behind Utah, Ole Miss, and Cincinnati. As for Joe Lunardi, he updated his Bracketology this morning and has the Aggies as his Last Team In. This drop is a result of a three-game losing streak. That skid includes to two of the conference’s worst teams in the Commodores and Razorbacks.

With few games left before Saint Patrick’s Day, the Aggies are running out of luck as far as the postseason. That makes their final outings pivotal for the former Top-15 team to still make it into March Madness.

“They are running out of rope here,” said Fletcher. “They’ve got to get things figured out for a team that had such high hopes just a few weeks ago.”