November 22, 2002
The Texas A&M men's basketball team opens its regular season against the Texas Southern Tigers (0-0) on Sunday at 7 p.m. at Reed Arena.
The Aggies split their two exhibition games, beating MBC Nikolaev, 86-73, on Nov. 11 and falling to the EA Sports All-Stars, 98-94, on Tuesday.
"We are looking forward to tipping off what we think will be an exciting season for Aggie basketball," said A&M coach Melvin Watkins, who is 2-2 in season openers and 3-1 in home openers at A&M. "Texas Southern will be a challenge for us. We expect a hard-fought game since it is the opener for both teams.
"In the exhibition games, we wanted to identify some things as far as our personnel and we were able to do that," Watkins added. "We were also able to go back and break down some areas where we had some concerns. We saw that we can score some points this year, but we also understand that we have to be a better defensive team. That's our challenge."
The Aggies are led by senior guard Bernard King, who averaged 21.0 points in the two exhibition games, including a 26-point effort against EA Sports. Freshman forward Antoine Wright scored a team-high 24 points against MBC Nicolaev and averaged 16.0 points in the preseason, while junior guard Leandro Garcia-Morales added 15.0 points, including a game-high 27 points against EA Sports.
Texas Southern, in its second season under coach Ronnie Courtney, return two starters and 12 lettermen from last year's team which finished 11-17 overall and placed seventh in the Southwestern Athletic Conference with a 6-12 mark.
The Tigers are led by senior guard Ra'Kim Hollis, who averaged 18.1 points and 5.2 rebounds last season. Sophomore guard Michael Sneed added 9.2 points and a team-high 5.8 rebounds as a freshman.
The Aggies have won all seven previous meetings in the series, including six games played in College Station. The Tigers are making their first visit to Reed Arena. The last time A&M and Texas Southern met was in 1993-94, with the Aggies posting a 90-72 victory at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
The game will be broadcast on radio by the Texas A&M Sports Network (KAGG-FM, 96.1 in the Brazos Valley) and can also be heard via the internet (www.AggieAthletics.com) with Dave South on play-by-play and Al Pulliam on commentary.
Tickets are $6 for gallery section seats, $10 for balcony seats, $12 for mezzanine seats and $15 for courtside seats (if available). Tickets can be purchased through the A&M Athletic Ticket Office (979-845-2311) or the Reed Arena Ticket Office (979-862-7333).
Schedule magnets will be give out prior to the game and one fan will win an authentic basketball jersey, courtesy of Post Oak Mall. In addition, three fans will compete for the 2002 Turkey Bowling Championship. Each contestant will win their "bowling ball" and the winner will get all the supplies and fixings to turn their "bowling ball" into a Thanksgiving dinner.