The Kentucky Wildcats head back out on the road to take on Texas A&M. Lets take a look at what we can expect from the Aggies.
When: Saturday, January 13th at 2pm ET
Where: Reed Arena College Station, TX
Channel: ESPN
Texas A&M So Far
The Aggies received a lot of preseason love after a 25-10 (15-3) season last year. They were picked to finish 2nd in the SEC and had the preseason SEC POY in Wade Taylor. Safe to say things haven’t gone exactly according to plan for A&M as they sit at 9-6 on the season and are 0-2 in the SEC.
Their record is a little deceiving as they really challenged themselves in the non-conference and were able to pick up a good win against Iowa State and won at Ohio State. The biggest surprise of the season for me was the way LSU kind of handled them on A&M’s home floor, winning by 15. Aggies battled a good Auburn team on the road but couldn’t get the win.
How Does Kentucky Matchup
A&M doesn’t have an overwhelming size advantage in terms of height but they have a lot of “grown man strength”. They will certainly try to bully Kentucky at home hoping to get the young Cats out of rhythm.
The Aggies are not a good shooting team but are one of the best offensive rebounding team in the country. It is a cliché but when you say “their best offense is a missed shot” it’s a reality for A&M. Their offense is often hard to watch but the 2nd chance points keep their numbers respectable as they do a great job of avoiding turnovers.
Surprisingly, given the OREB numbers, the Aggies also give up a ton of OREB and it really hurts their defense which is really aggressive to make up for their lack of size. Kentucky’s guards should be able to use that against them with the right lineups.
Player To Watch
The obvious answer here is Wade Taylor IV who was the preseason SEC POY. He’s a fantastic guard who is able to create for his teammates and is typically able to get his shot whenever he wants. But I’m going to select Henry Coleman III as the A&M player to watch. He’s a 6’7” physical forward who the Cats will have their hands full trying to keep off the glass. For the year he’s averaging 12 points and 8 rebounds and is coming off a 17 point outing against Auburn on Tuesday night. Tre Mitchell will be important once again and it would be nice to have Adou back.
Who Wins
Kentucky is a much better basketball team than A&M. A lot of things will have to go in A&M’s favor for them to win this game. They’re going to need an uncharacteristically good shooting day and for Kentucky to be sloppy. They are going to be desperate so I expect them to play well and they will have their cultish atmosphere behind them, but I struggle to see how A&M scores enough to win this basketball game. With a healthy backcourt Kentucky seems guaranteed to get 80+ points every game. The Aggies have only scored 80 points three times on the season and went 2-1 in those games.
Kentucky wins 82-72. If Adou is able to play I think Kentucky could roll but I assume he’s not ready yet. Texas A&M is well coached and will mange the game. Much like Missouri did to keep Kentucky from running away.
