Texas A&M Aggies Record: 0-0 (0-0 Big 12) Ranking: Receiving votes (AP and Coaches) Head Coach:Mark Turgeon (Kansas `87) Record: 202-140 (12th year) at Texas A&M: 49-21 (3rd year) vs. Angelo State: 0-0
Projected Texas A&M Starters No. Player Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl. PPG RPG APG 5 Dash Harris G 6-1 175 So 15 Donald Sloan G 6-3 205 Sr 3 Derrick Roland G 6-4 190 Sr 10 David Loubeau F 6-8 230 So 0 Bryan Davis F 6-9 250 Sr
Off the Bench 11 B.J. Holmes G 5-11 175 Jr 22 Khris Middleton F 6-7 215 Fr 23 Naji Hibbert G 6-6 200 Fr 45 Nathan Walkup F 6-7 210 Jr
Angelo State Rams Record: 0-1 (0-0 Lone Star/NCAA Div. II) Ranking: n/a Head Coach: Fred Rike (West Texas A&M `89) Record 46-37 (4th year) at Angelo State: 46-37 (4th year) vs. Texas A&M: 0-0
Series Notes
A&M leads the series, 5-0, with all five previous games played in College Station at G. Rollie White Coliseum. A&M won the last meeting, 77-66, in 1983-84.
Key Game Notes
The Aggies have won eight straight season-opening games and nine straight home openers. A&M is playing its season opener at home for the ninth straight year.
The Aggies have won 56 straight regular-season non-conference home games, including wins against Alabama, LSU and Arizona. The last regular-season non-conference loss at Reed Arena was to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 13, 2003.
The Aggies are 77-9 all-time in non-conference games at Reed Arena.
A&M is entering its 98th season of basketball.
Mark Turgeon's 49 wins at A&M are a record for a Big 12 coach in his first two years at a league school.
The Aggies posted an 89-65 win against A&M-Commerce in its only exhibition game on Nov. 5. Angelo State dropped a 79-71 decision in a exhibition at Rice Monday night. Commerce and Angelo State are both members of the Lone Star Conference.
About Angelo State
The Rams went 20-9 last year and placed second in the Lone Star Conference with an 8-4 mark. They advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the first time in seven years.
ASU is in its fourth year under Head Coach Fred Rike, a former assistant at Memphis, Georgia State and North Texas. He was an assistant at Georgia State under legendary coach Lefty Driesell.
The Rams are led by senior forward Shavar Burch (6-6), the preseason conference player of the year who averaged 11.9 points and a team-best 7.1 rebounds last season. Junior guard LaMarshall Corbett (6-3), a transfer from Kilgore College, scored 25 points in the exhibition loss at Rice
ASU led Rice, 41-38, at halftime and had a 62-61 lead late in the game before a late Owls run.
Sidebar
ASU Coach Fred Rike was an assistant at North Texas under Johnny Jones in 2005-06 when the Mean Green almost upset the Aggies at Reed Arena. A&M escaped with a 72-70 victory, which later proved critical when it received the first at-large NCAA Tournament bid in school history.
Exhibition Recap COLLEGE STATION - Donald Sloan scored 17 points and B.J. Holmes added 16 as Texas A&M downed Texas A&M-Commerce, 89-65, in an exhibition game Thursday night at Reed Arena. The Aggies had a slim 22-21 lead with 6:40 left in the first period, but closed the half with a 23-9 run to claim a 45-30 margin at intermission. A&M led by as many as 38 points in the second half. Three other Aggies also scored in double figures as Bryan Davis had 10 points with 10 rebounds, Dash Harris scored 10 points with 7 assists and David Liubeau added 12 points and 9 rebounds. Holmes also contributed 7 assists. Kevin Hayden paced A&M-Commerce with 12 points. A&M out-rebounded the NCAA Division II Lions, 52-24.
Who's Back?
The Aggies return 13 of 16 lettermen from last season, including three starters and seven of the top nine scorers. The returning starters are all be fourth-year seniors from Dallas-- Bryan Davis, Donald Sloan and Derrick Roland. Other returning players who saw extensive action last season will be juniors Nathan Walkup and B.J. Holmes, and sophomores Dash Harris and David Loubeau.
Carter finished his career as the winningest player in school history with a 98-37 (.726) record. A&M's senior class needs 23 wins to become the winningest class in school history.
Who's New?
The four-man freshman class was ranked among the top recruiting classes in the nation. Two (Naji Hibbert and Khris Middleton) were ranked among the top 100 recruits nationally by ESPN. Meanwhile, Ray Turner was rated among the top six players in Texas and Jeremy Adams was the No. 2-ranked prospect in Mississippi.
Drive for Five
A&M has made four straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament. Prior to this streak, A&M never played in consecutive NCAA Tournaments and had not made an appearance since 1987. Four of A&M's 10 NCAA appearances, and five of its eight NCAA wins, have come in the last four seasons.
A&M is one of just six schools to have won at least one NCAA Tournament game in each of the last four years. The others are Memphis, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, UCLA and Texas. A&M is one of just 16 schools to play in the last four NCAA Tournaments.
A&M is one of just three schools with a postseason win in each of the last five years (1 NIT, 4 NCAAs). The others are North Carolina (5 NCAAs), and Memphis (1 NIT, 4 NCAAs).
A&M has posted five straight 20-win seasons. Before the 2004-05 season, A&M had only six 20-win seasons in its entire history. The Aggies' 24 wins last year tied for fourth most in school history.
A&M is 119-47 (.717) in the last five years and 76-28 (.731) in the last three seasons.
A&M, Kansas and Texas are the only three Big 12 schools that have won at least 20 games in each of the last five years.
NBA Aggies
Chinemelu Elonu earned honorable mention All-Big 12 honors last year as a junior and was named the Big 12's most improved player by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. After graduating in May, Elonu elected to forego his senior year and enter the NBA Draft. He was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round with the 59th overall pick.
A&M is the only Big 12 school to have a player drafted in each of the last three years. An Aggie has been chosen in four of the last five NBA Drafts. The others were Antoine Wright in 2005 (first round to the New Jersey Nets), Acie Law IV in 2007 (first round to the Atlanta Hawks) and DeAndre Jordan in 2008 (second round to the Los Angeles Clippers). Prior to Wright's selection in 2005, A&M had not had a player drafted since Winston Crite in 1987.
Prior to 2007, A&M never had more than one active NBA player.
Law, Wright and Jordan each started and had 20-point efforts in NBA games last season. Wright had started in 53 of 65 games for the Dallas Mavericks and had a career-high 24 points against Indiana. Wright was traded to the Toronto Raptors in June. Law appeared in 55 games for the Hawks and scored a career-high 22 points against Cleveland. He was traded to the Golden State Warriors in June. Jordan played in 53 games for the Clippers, starting 13 times, and scored a career-high 23 points against the Los Angeles Lakers. He also had a 20-rebound game against Golden State and had 6 blocked shots against Minnesota.
Making the Grade
Eleven of 12 seniors graduated in the last three years, including Acie Law and Chinemelu Elonu.
Schedule Notes
A&M will play defending Pac 10 Conference champion Washington on Dec. 22 in Seattle as part of the 2009 Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series. Both teams advanced to the second round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament. The Aggies finished 24-10 and tied for fourth in the Big 12 with a 9-7 mark, while the Huskies won the Pac 10 title with a 14-4 record and went 26-9 overall. The Aggies have won four straight against the Huskies and lead the series, 4-1. The teams last met in the semifinals of the 2007 NIT Season Tipoff in New York City, with the Aggies posting a 77-63 victory.
The leagues split the series, 6-6, last season, but the Big 12 had a 10-7 edge in all games between conference teams. The Pac-10 has a 13-11 overall advantage in the first two years of the competition. Game times and television broadcast information will be announced at a later date.
A&M played Arizona in the first two years of the series. The Wildcats etched a 78-67 victory in Tucson in 2007-08 and the Aggies came back with a 67-66 victory last year in College Station.
The Aggies will play in the 76 Classic Nov. 26-29 at the Anaheim Convention Center adjacent to Disneyland. The 12-game tournament features teams from eight conferences: A&M (Big 12), UCLA (Pac-10), West Virginia (Big East) Long Beach State (Big West), Clemson (ACC), Butler (Horizon), Minnesota (Big 10) and Portland (West Coast). The Aggies played two games in Anaheim in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, defeating BYU in the first round and falling to UCLA in the second round. A&M also played top-ranked UCLA in the 2007 Wooden Classic. All three of those games were played at the Honda Center.
Four of the eight non-conference home opponents won at least 20 games last year and all but one had a winning record.
Reed Arena
A&M has won 57 of its last 64 home games, including 22 of its last 29 in Big 12 play.
The Aggies finished 16-2 at home last season, their fifth straight year with at least 16 home victories.
The Aggies have won 56 straight regular-season non-conference games at Reed Arena, including wins against Arizona, Alabama and LSU. The last loss was to A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 13, 2003 (82-80). A&M is 77-9 all-time in non-conference games at Reed (.895).
The Aggies are 50-6 (.893) at home the last three seasons and are 83-12 (.874) in the last five years, the second most home wins in the country (Memphis has won 93).
A&M is 123-53 (.699) in 11 seasons at Reed Arena. The Aggies were 41-41 (.500) in their first six years at Reed.
The $23 million, 68,000-square-foot Cox-McFerrin Center for Aggie Basketball was officially dedicated in January 2009. The addition includes practice gyms, locker rooms, film rooms, a weight room, training facilities and offices.
Reed Arena is heading into its 12th season as the home of Texas A&M basketball. The 12,500-seat facility opened in 1998 and was named for Houston veterinarian Chester J. Reed '47 and his wife, Billie Jean, who contributed the nucleus of the assets used to fund the facility.
The top 14 single-game attendance marks in A&M history (and 18 of the top 20) have been set in the last four years. The top 14 non-conference attendance marks also have been set in the last four seasons.
A&M averaged 11,013 fans per game in Big 12 play last season.
All-Sports Power
Texas A&M captured three NCAA team championships in 2008-09 (men's golf, men's outdoor track and field, women's outdoor track and field), the most of any school in the country.
The Aggies finished 13th in the 2008-09 NACDA Director's Cup, which includes every Division I institution. A&M placed 12th in 2007-08, its highest finish.
A&M captured the 2008-09 State Farm Lone Star Showdown against Texas for the second straight year. Points are awarded in each sport to the head-to-head winner between the schools.
The Laboratory for the Study of Intercollegiate Athletics (LSIA) named Texas A&M as the most efficient athletic department in the Big 12. The study analyzed the number of national and conference championships won compared to athletic budgets.
Roster Notes
The 17 players on the 2009-10 roster are from seven different states.
The roster includes 10 upperclassmen with four seniors and six juniors.
The three returning starters (Sloan, Davis, Roland) are all seniors from Dallas.
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