December 01, 2003
Game notes for Tuesday's road opener at Tennessee in Knoxville...
GAME #4
Texas A&M Aggies (3-0, 0-0 Big 12)
at
Tennessee Volunteers (2-0, 0-0 SEC) 6 p.m. (CST)
Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2003
Thompson-Boling Arena (24,535 cap.)
Knoxville, Tenn.
RADIO: Texas A&M Sports Network Dave South, play-by-play Al Pulliam, commentary Airtime: 5:40 p.m. (CST) ONLINE: www.AggieAthletics.com TELEVISION: Fox Sports South (Fox Sports Southwest in Texas) Dave Neal, play-by-play Barry Booker, commentary Brian Woodrum, producer
The undefeated Texas A&M Aggies (3-0) venture out on their first road trip of the season to battle the unbeaten Tennessee Volunteers (2-0) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. (CDT) at Thompson-Boling Arena (24,535 cap.) in Knoxville, Tenn. The game will be televised by Fox Sports South and will be carried in Texas (with the exception of the Dallas area) by Fox Sports Southwest. The Aggies are coming off an 88-79 win against Prairie View A&M at home on Saturday, while the Volunteers defeated Tennessee State, 81-56, at home on Friday. A&M beat Tennessee, 83-66, last year in College Station, but the Volunteers lead the series, 3-1. The Aggies are 16-28 all-time against members of the Southeastern Conference, but are 3-0 against SEC teams under coach Melvin Watkins. A&M last ventured to Knoxville in 1985-86, dropping an 88-70 decision. A&M was 2-8 in road games last season, while Tennessee was 12-5 at home. The Volunteers are 2-0 at home this season.
ABOUT THE VOLUNTEERS: Tennessee finished 17-12 last season and placed fourth in the Southeastern Conference*s East Division with a 9-7 mark. The Volunteers advanced to the postseason National Invitation Tournament (NIT), where they lost at home in the first round to Georgetown, 70-60. Third-year head coach Buzz Peterson welcomes back two starters and eight lettermen from that team, including junior forward Brandon Crump (6-10), who is averaging 12.0 points and a team-best 11.0 rebounds per game, and sophomore guard C.J. Watson (6-2), who is adding 10.5 points and 8.0 assists per contest. Junior forward Scooter McFadgon (6-5), a transfer from Memphis who sat out last season, leads the team in scoring with a 21.5 average. Another transfer, sophomore forward Jemere Hendrix (6-8), is averaging 10.5 points and 8.0 rebounds. Rounding out the starting lineup is sophomore guard John Winchester (6-4), who is contributing 7.0 points per game. As a team, the Vols are averaging 81.0 points per game and making 49.1 percent from the field while limiting their opponents to just 63.0 points and 35.9 percent field goal accuracy.
SERIES: Tennessee leads the series, 3-1, but A&M won last year in College Station, 83-66. The Volunteers are 2-0 against the Aggies in Knoxville, but A&M is making its first appearance at Thompson-Boling Arena, which opened in 1987. A&M is 16-28 all-time against teams from the Southeastern Conference, but is 3-0 under coach Melvin Watkins, who has also led A&M teams to victories against Alabama (65-58 in 1998) and LSU (79-77 last year). Watkins is 2-0 against Tennessee, including a 72-51 win in Charlotte, N.C., in 1996, his first season as head coach at North Carolina Charlotte.
TEXAS A&M vs. TENNESSEE (UT leads, 3-1) Year Winner Site 1951-52 UT, 60-52 Knoxville, Tenn. 1985-86 UT, 88-70 Knoxville, Tenn. 1985-86 UT, 70-64 New Orleans, La.* 2002-03 A&M, 83-66 College Station *Sugar Bowl Classic
THE COACHES
- TEXAS A&M: Melvin Watkins (UNC Charlotte '77)
- 56-91 at A&M (6th year)
- 98-111 overall (8th year)
- 2-0 vs. Tennessee
- 2-1 vs. Buzz Peterson
TENNESSEE: Buzz Peterson (North Carolina '86)
- 34-28 at Tennessee (3rd year)
- 139-78 overall (8th year)
- 0-1 vs. Texas A&M
- 1-2 vs. Melvin Watkins
SIDEBARS: Melvin Watkins is 4-1 in his career against SEC teams and has won four straight since a 75-60 loss to South Carolina in 1996, his fourth game as head coach at UNC Charlotte...Watkins and Tennessee coach Buzz Peterson are both from the state of North Carolina. The 49-year-old Watkins is from Reidsville and the 40-year-old Peterson is from Asheville. Both earned high school All-America honors. Watkins went on to lead North Carolina Charlotte to the 1977 NCAA Final Four, while Peterson was a member of North Carolina's 1982 NCAA Championship team. Watkins went on to become head coach at Charlotte from 1996-98, while Peterson's first head coaching job was at Appalachian State (Boone, N.C.) from 1996-00. The pair met twice at those schools, with Watkins' team posting a 75-53 win in Charlotte in 1996 and Peterson's squad following with a 66-60 victory in Boone in 1997. They met as assistants in 1988-89, with Charlotte beating Appalachian State, 77-63, in Charlotte...A&M has no players from Tennessee, but the Volunteers have two from Texas -- junior forward Brandon Crump (Houston, Klein HS) and sophomore guard Stanley Asumnu (Houston,Westbury Christian).
LAST YEAR'S GAME: COLLEGE STATION (Dec. 4, 2002) -- Kevin Turner scored all of his 16 points in the second half and hit four straight three-pointers in the final 3:05 to lift Texas A&M to an 83-66 victory over Tennessee. Bernard King added 19 points and 11 assists to lead the Aggies (4-1). After being held to a pair of free throws in the first half, Turner never missed in the second half, making all five of his shots. UT (2-1) trailed by as much as 15 but cut the lead to 63-62 with 5:26 remaining. A&M scored on its last six possessions, hitting five three-pointers to blow past Tennessee in the final three minutes. Ron Slay scored 21of his game high 24 points in the second half to bring the Vols back into the game before Turner's three-point barrage. Slay also added a game high 12 rebounds. A&M never trailed and took a 39-27 lead at halftime. The Vols went on a 12-4 run with eight minutes left capped off with four straight free throws by Slay and Brandon Crump to cut the Aggies lead to 63-62 with 5:26 remaining. The Vols were limited to four points on four Slay free throws in the final five minutes. Antoine Wright added a double-double for the Aggies with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
PRAIRIE VIEW A&M RECAP: COLLEGE STATION (AP) -- Antoine Wright scored 23 points, including five 3-pointers and a key dunk with just over a minute left, as Texas A&M beat Prairie View A&M 88-79 on Saturday. Texas A&M (3-0) led for most of the game but Prairie View (0-3) kept it close, pulling to within 81-75 with just more than a minute left. A&M's Bobby Leach stole the ball and threw it down the court to Wright, whose dunk put the Aggies up 83-75 with 1:01 left. The play elicited an outburst from the Panthers' bench and a technical foul helped A&M seal the game. Andy Slocum had 21 points and a career-high 16 rebounds for the Aggies. Jesse King, A&M's leading scorer and rebounder, had all 15 points and six of his seven rebounds after halftime. Kevin Cooper led Prairie View with 25 points and Roderick Riley added 15 points and 11 rebounds. The Panthers took a 21-15 lead midway through the first half, but Wright answered with a trio of 3-pointers in the next three minutes to put A&M up 38-28. He hit his first five 3-pointers and finished 5-of-6. Prairie View cut the lead to four on two occasions, but Slocum's 16 points and 12 rebounds in the first half helped A&M extend its lead to 51-41 lead at halftime.
LOOKING AHEAD: The Aggies are back on the road this weekend to play Oakland on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Detroit, Mich., in a homecoming game for Detroit native Jesse King. A&M assistant coach Bobby Kummer also is from Detroit. Oakland finished 17-11 last year an is the preseason favorite to win the Mid-Continent Conference. The Golden Grizzlies took No. 5-ranked Missouri to the wire on Saturday before falling, 90-85, despite the loss of top scorer Mike Helms, who fouled out with eight minutes left. Helms is the top returning scorer in the nation this season after averaging 26.9 points last year. After the Oakland game, A&M will have a week off before resuming play against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at home on Dec. 13. The Aggies travel to San Antonio on Dec. 18 to play Texas-San Antonio in the Alamodome, site of the 2004 NCAA Final Four, before playing host to Grambling on Dec. 21. After Christmas, A&M plays at Houston, the first meeting between the old Southwest Conference rivals since that league disbanded after the 1995-96 season.
THE NEW KING? A&M's leading scorer the last four years was guard Bernard King, who finished his eligibility as the Big 12's career scoring leader. The surname remains at the top of the A&M scoring chart this season, but it belongs to senior forward Jesse King, who has compiled a 17.0 scoring average and has scored in double figures in all three games. King also ranks second on the team in rebounding with an 8.7 average. He opened the year with 13 points and a career-high 11 boards against Arkansas-Pine Bluff (his first career double-double), and followed with a career-high 23 points and eight boards against Alabama A&M. Then, against Prairie View A&M he got into quick foul trouble and was scoreless in the first half, but bounced back with 15 second-half points. King ranks among the top 20 nationally in three-point percentage, making 75.0 percent (6-of-8), which ranks him third in the Big 12. King also is making 71.4 percent from the line (15-21) after entering the season as a career 51 percent foul shooter.
THE WRIGHT WAY: The 2003 Big 12 freshman of the year and a candidate for All-America honors as just a sophomore, Antoine Wright got off to a tough start, making just 1-of-9 three-pointers in the first two games and averaging just 10.5 points. But Wright broke his slump in a big way against Prairie View A&M, making 5-of-6 three-pointers and finishing with 23 points, just two shy of matching his career high.
BIG ANDY: Senior center Andy Slocum is rapidly emerging as a dominating force in the paint. Against Prairie View A&M, a team that featured a 6-11, 327-pound center, Slocum dropped in 21 points and posted a career-high 16 rebounds, the most by an Aggie in three years. Through three games, Slocum is averaging 9.7 points and a team-best 9.0 rebounds, ranking him fifth in the Big 12.
LEACH & LAW: A&M's achilles' heel in recent years has been inconsistent play at point guard, but coach Melvin Watkins appears to have addressed that problem with the addition of junior Bobby Leach and freshman Acie Law, who have combined for 29 assists and just four turnovers through the first three games. Leach is averaging 6.0 points and 6.3 assists, ranking second in the Big 12 in assists, while Law ranks fourth at 5.0. Leach has had just four turnovers while Law has had none. Law missed the Prairie View game with an ankle injury.
GO LEANDRO: Last season as a junior, Leandro Garcia-Morales was forced to play primarily at point guartd because of the team's depth problems. The addition of Bobby Leach and Acie Law has allowed Garcia-Morales to move back to his more natural shooting guard position and the senior has prospered. He is averaging 7.7 points and is second on the team with 5.0 assists per game, tying him for fourth in the Big 12. Garcia-Morales leads the Big 12 in assists-to-turnovers ratio at 15-to-1 and ranks second in steals with 3.7, which ties him for 11th nationally.
EFFICIENT AGGIES: The Aggies have been highly efficient on offense in the first three games, averaging 24.3 assists and just 10.3 turnovers per game, leading the Big 12 in both categories. The also lead the league in turnover margin at +10.0 per game.
FILLING IT UP: The Aggies are averaging a whopping 90.0 points per game, tying them for second in the Big 12 and eighth nationally. A&M ranks 13th nationally in averaging scoring margin at +24.3.
HOT SHOOTING: While the Aggies are making just a lukewarm 45.2 percent from the field, they are connecting on a blazing 44.8 percent from three-point range, ranking them 10th nationally. A&M is making an average of 8.7 three-pointers per game, well ahead of last year's school record of 7.0. Seven different Aggies have made at least one three-pointer in the first three games.
PLEASE LUIS: Sophomore forward Luis Clemente, who sat out last season, has shown rapid improvement the first three games. After opening with four points and five boards against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Clemente had eight points against Alabama A&M and 10 against Prairie View A&M. He is averaging 7.3 points and 3.7 rebounds and is a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line. Clemente shined on the Aggies Italy tour in August, averaging 15.8 points and 9.4 rebounds.
ACCURATE WATKINS: Sophomore guard Marcus Watkins leads the Aggies in field goal percentage at .647. Watkins scored a career-high 13 points in the win against Alabama A&M, making 6-of-8 shots. After wearing No. 23 last year, Watkins has switched to the No. 32 jersey vacated by Bernard King. No. 32 was Melvin Watkins' number at UNC Charlotte in the mid-1970s. UNCC retired the number in 1977.