Lets talk Aggie BBall (sigh)

I was SHOCKED that BU outrebounded A&M last night. With the size differential and the fact that BU is so guard-oriented, I was very surprised by that.

 

Good win for the Aggies today. I swear that Oklahoma State must be the most unclutch team I have ever seen...

Anyway, maybe this win will get A&M back on a roll.

 

Another bad Aggie loss, this time to OSU, who had yet to win a road game in the Big XII under Sean Sutton. This team was looking ahead to the Texas game on Monday, and it is really going to hurt their seeding (assuming they don't go on a bad run and play their way out of the tourney these last couple weeks).

 

Oklahoma State was here

Thats all. (Don't really feel like rubbing it on you guys)

 

Way too early to make this statement IMO.

 

I don't think coaching is the problem.

You have a 7 foot frosh who has read too much of his own press and plays very soft. Oh yeah...and he can't seem to get along with the coaches or his teammates.

You have a power forward who can't seem to keep his lunch in his stomach on game day, and generally has taken himself out of the offensive flow.

You have shooting guards making silly fouls.

You have a VERY inexperienced set of point guards.

This team has a bad lack of chemistry.

I don't think you can blame Turge entirely since he didn't recruit these guys.

For the future, Davis and Walkup look like they will develop well, and Roland looks like he can be a significant contributor as well. Mix in the Carter will still be there next year, and things don't look all that bad.

Give Turge some time to adjust to coaching in the Big XII and change his system to match his talent. Sometimes these things take a season or two to get going under a new coach.

 

Okay, i've been holding this in all year, so this may be really way too long, sorry in advance...

A&M lost their best player (Law), sole leader (Law), and two very good, experienced, defensive minded post players (Marlon and AK).

So that left our post players with, Jones who has always underachieved since he has been here and cannot lead a team, and 3 rookies/"first time really playing" post players. They may have potential, be future NBA stars, but right now, all three are inconsistent, cannot really shoot until they are within 8 feet (Davis can sometimes), nor dominate defensively ( and Jones fouls too much to be a good defensive player).

Our 3 main wing players were supposed to step up and one was supposed to become a leader.

Kirk who was always a great defender and decent shooter but never a playmaker looked like he mite in the NCAA last year, but he hasn't. Can't really hold it against him. He is a great role player, but not a star player.

Carter, who most expected would be much better this year, has stayed a good jump shooter, but has been horribly streaky this year. And with most teams best defender on him this year, as opposed to last when the best defender was on Acie, he cannot take people off the dribble, and is still an average, not great, passer with average court vision. Basically he still can get his own shot, much less create for others.

Even though Sloan played well at times last year, he was started for the first time ever. Playing meaningful minutes to close out halves, games, and make good decisions. He has not made that leap in playing ability. He at times shows brilliance, but also shows that he is inexperienced. (I would have hoped Turgeon could have done better with him considering he used to be a PG.)
Frankly you cannot completely blame Sloan, though. Acie did not become a great college playmaker until about half-way through his junior year, and before that year he had Antoine Wright to take pressure off of him.

Fact is you had a very young, raw, talented team. There was never that much depth because few of the players were consistent and experienced. A lot of people bash the early schedule, while I do agree it was probably too easy, with that many young players learning to play it was probably for the best.

Now, Turge should have realized the motion would not work too well with
such a young team that first had to get used to playing NCAA ball, and then Big 12 ball; but he is also new to the Big 12. He is used to playing teams even as good as Baylor, Tech, and OU maybe 4-5 times the entire year including the tournament, not for 15 games just in the conference. His teams were about playing well in the system and playing smart, esp on offense. That is much harder to get younger players to do than making them a very very good defensive squad.

Frankly about Turge is I still do not like the defense this year because they do not close out on passes and play tight to prevent the pass as well as last year. Last year, it was a pain for anyone to make a good pass against the Aggies. Also this year, we still are not creating enough TO's considering the athleticism of our players. That said, our defense has still be fairly solid this year. Our offense, with our streaky shooting, and the fact that no one can create any offense has killed us.

This was a year that getting to the Sweet Sixteen should have been an accomplishment, not an expectation. Too many people expected too much of this team too soon, and it kind of has snowballed. A&M is new to the basketball stage, being good year in and year out is hard to do, especially with replacing good players and leaders because one player can make such a huge difference in the game. Much more so than almost any other sport (other than say sometimes a great QB in football/star pitcher in baseball or softball/etc).

They can still get it turned around and still make the tournament, and at least win the first round; but they have to get their confidence back and play with more effort and fire than the have against OSU and Nebraska. It looked like they did not expect those teams to fight for the game, or the Aggies expected them to fall apart at some point, but neither did. Hopefully they won't expect that, and now that they have to play T. Tech and Baylor, they will play harder to avenge the earlier losses as well.

 

Bingo.

The future looks pretty good. The players controlling to offense will get more experienced, the team will get more used to Turge's style, Turge will adjust his style to suit the level of competition, and he is recruiting and getting good players.

The hope at A&M in this stage of the program is to make the tournament year in and year out. Once the program is stable, then expectations should increase.

 

They are bringing a brand new "low" to the term flat right now....Utterly craptacular. They have too much talent to look this bad. Don't get me wrong, I think it's hilarious that they are struggling this much! But, it's surprising to me. I thought, coming into this season, they'd be a threat to make it as far as the second weekend in the NCAA tourney. Right now, they just look lost and in shambles.

We'll see how they look if they are desperate for wins in the conference tourney.

 

turgeon is pathetic we have a 5 star recuit who was the best recruited player in texas and a team coming off a sweet sixteen appearance and he is getting is getting his ass handed to him by almost every team in the big 12...I want him fired!!!!!

 

DeAndre is a 5 star but that is ENTIRELY based on potential. If you believe that DJ has 5 star ability and skills right now, then you haven't watched a single game all season long. AK produced MUCH better last season than DeAndre this season.

College Basketball is all about guard play, and to be honest, A&M does not have a true PG at all. I'm not saying Turgeon is a great coach, but I certainly have not seen enough to say that he is a terrible one. The senior leadership on this team is pathetic. I'm more than willing to give Turgeon a couple of years especially with 2 highly recruited players coming in next year (with one being a true PG).

 

The problem is that last year's performance got people's expectations WAY too high. The Big XII has been very competitive this season overall.

You replace Acie Law with a very inexperienced Donald Sloan and expect the same result. You replace AK with a freshman (Jordan) who misses dunks, gets out of position to get inside feeds, and is good for a few highlights and expect the same results.

The fact is that this team is not as good as last year's team in some very key positions. Add in the fact that you brought in a new coach with a different system, and it is expected that the team will struggle.

BCG is gone. He didn't want to be at TAMU. Anybody who is crying in their beer over it needs to stop.

Anybody who wants to fire a new coach after their first year (and did pretty well in recruiting), obviously knows little about NCAA hoops.

 

And in the games we have lost, they shut down our guards. When our guards are not hitting their shots, we lose. When our guards play well, we win. It is that damned simple.

We are not a good come from behind team. When we start out cold, the guys press and exhibit very poor shot selection and make ill advised passes that result in turnovers.

We can't seem to hit a free throw to save our lives.

Sloan has been a NIGHTMARE at PG. He cannot run an offense. This is where we miss an All-American named Acie.

Jospeh Jones has pretty much goine out there and taken a huge dump at midcourt and called it a senior season. As somebody else mentioned, there has been no senior leadership.

In the 4 years I have been watching D. Kirk, I have never seen him so streaky.

If you look at what we have coming in next year, we have recruited a 4 star PG. That is what this team is missing.

I am disappointed, but blaming the coach is a copout. You actually have to analyze the team position by position, and realize it is NOT as good as it was last year.

Oh...and when you say that a DECENT coach would have this team in the sweet 16, you show how little you understand college basketball, because getting to the sweet 16 ain't easy.

 

Man, what happened to you guys? I know we're pretty strong at home, but damn. Ten points in the first half? It felt like a Sampson game.