November 13, 2001
The Texas A&M men's basketball team closes its preseason exhibition schedule against the EA Sports Midwest All-Stars on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Reed Arena.
Aggie Athletes Involved, in conjunction with Twin City Mission, will be collecting Coats for Kids before the game. Fans who donate coats, blankets, sweat shirts or sweaters will be admitted to the game for $2.
EA Sports was 0-9 on its preseason tour going into Tuesday night's game at Texas. Among the All-Stars defeats have been losses to DePaul (114-96), Missouri (93-82), Michigan (94-68), Marquette (88-80), Notre Dame (95-70) and Wisconsin (95-64).
The All-Stars are a 10-man team of former college players. They are led by former Cleveland State standout Anthony Jackson (6-7), who was averaging 22.2 points going into the Texas game, including a 37 -point performance against Missouri. Jackson scored 20 or more points in six of the All-Stars first nine games.
EA Sports also features Xavier's Aaron Turner (6-8), who is averaging a team-best 8.6 rebounds, and former Michigan standout Josh Asselin (6-11).
The Aggies defeated Australia's Team ezybonds, 96-78, in the exhibition opener last Thursday. Junior guard Bernard King led a group of six Aggies scoring in double figures, finishing with 17 points, while sophomore Nick Anderson scored 14 points, senior Andy Leatherman had 12 and junior Keith Bean, freshman Daryl Mason and sophomore Michael Gardener each had 10.
"We still have a lot of areas we'd like to improve on before we start the season next week," A&M coach Melvin Watkins said. "We liked a lot of what we saw in the first exhibition, but we'd like to see more consistency and continue to improve."
Sophomore forward Jesse King, who was injured late in the first exhibition game (sprained neck) is listed as doubtful for Wednesday's game but is expected to return for the regular-season opener against George Washington on Monday at 7 p.m. at Reed Arena.