January 15, 2004
GAME #13
Texas A&M Aggies
(7-5, 0-1 Big 12)
vs.
#12 Kansas Jayhawks
(10-2, 2-0 Big 12)
3:05 p.m. (CST)
Saturday, Jan. 17, 2004
Reed Arena (12,500 cap.)
College Station, Texas
RADIO:
Texas A&M Sports Network
Dave South, play-by-play
Al Pulliam, commentary
Airtime: 2:45 p.m. (CST)
ONLINE: www.AggieAthletics.com
TELEVISION:
ESPN (national)
Dave Strader, play-by-play
Fran Fraschilla, commentary
The Texas A&M Aggies (7-5, 0-1) will be looking for their first Big 12 Conference win of the season when they play the No. 12-ranked (ESPN-USA Today, #14 AP) Kansas Jayhawks (10-2, 2-0) on Saturday at 3:05 p.m. (CST) at Reed Arena (12,500 cap.) in College Station, Texas. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN. A&M has been idle since an 82-77 loss in its Big 12 Conference opener at Missouri last Saturday. Kansas is coming off a 73-67 win at home against Kansas State on Wednesday and has won four straight. The Aggies are 5-1 at home this season while the Jayhawks are 2-1 in true road games. Kansas beat the Aggies last season in Lawrence, 85-45, and lead the series, 8-0. Kansas is the only Big 12 opponent A&M has not beaten.
About Kansas
The Jayhawks return three starters and 11 lettermen from last year's team, which finished 30-8 overall, won the Big 12 title with a 14-2 mark and advanced to NCAA Championship game, where they lost to Syracuse, 81-78. Kansas is in its first season under head coach Bill Self. The preseason favorite to repeat as Big 12 champions (media poll), the Jayhawks were ranked as high as No. 1 nationally in early December before losing to Stanford (64-58) and at Nevada (75-61). The Jayhawks boast a balanced scoring attack with five players averaging at least 9.7 points per game. Kansas is led by junior guard Keith Langford (6'4"), a Texas native (Fort Worth) who is averaging 16.8 points and 4.3 rebounds, and junior forward Wayne Simien (6'9"), who is adding 16.3 points and a team-high 9.0 rebounds. Junior guard Aaron Miles (6'1") adds 10.5 points and leads the Big 12 in assists with 6.0 per game. Miles ranks second in the league in steals (2.3). Freshman guard J.R. Giddens (6'5") contributes 9.8 points and has made a team-high 19 three-pointers. Junior guard Michael Lee (6'3") missed nine games with a broken collar bone but returned to action against Kansas State on Wednesday and scored a career-high 16 points. Kansas leads the Big 12 in team free throw accuracy, making 76.9 percent.
The Series
Kansas leads the series, 8-0, and is the only Big 12 team A&M has not beaten. The Jayhawks are 3-0 in games played in College Station, including a 2-0 mark at Reed Arena. The last time the teams met at Reed Arena two years ago, Kansas posted a 86-74 victory, the closest game in the series to date.
TEXAS A&M vs. Kansas
(Kansas leads, 8-0)
Year Winner Site
1967-68 Kansas, 78-52 Manhattan, Kan.
1996-97 Kansas, 89-60 Lawrence
1997-98 Kansas, 83-65 College Station
1998-99 Kansas, 95-57 Lawrence
1999-00 Kansas, 78-57 College Station
2000-01 Kansas, 100-70 Lawrence
2001-02 Kansas, 86-74 College Station
2002-03 Kansas, 85-45 Lawrence
The Coaches
TEXAS A&M
Melvin Watkins (UNC Charlotte '77)
60-96 at A&M (6th year)
102-116 overall (8th year)
0-5 vs. Kansas
0-0 vs. Bill Self
KANSAS
Bill Self (Oklahoma State '85)
10-2 at Kansas (1st year)
217-107 overall (11th year)
0-2 vs. Texas A&M
0-0 vs. Melvin Watkins
Sidebars
Under coach Melvin Watkins, A&M has beaten every Big 12 team except Kansas...First-year Kansas coach Bill Self is 0-2 against the Aggies, losing twice as head coach at Oral Roberts...Self's first Oral Roberts team lost to the Aggies, 79-66, at A&M's old arena, G. Rollie White Coliseum, in 1993-94...A&M beat Self's second ORU team, 60-58, in the first round of the 1994 Bank IV Classic in Tulsa...Before coming to A&M, Associate Head Coach Lew Hill served as an assistant coach for four years at East Carolina (1994-98), the last two under head coach Joe Dooley, who is is now an assistant at Kansas...Dooley was an assistant with Hill at ECU for two years prior to taking the head coaching job...Hill played college basketball at Wichita State, where he earned all-conference honors and led the team to the NCAA Tournament in 1988...Hill began his coaching career as an assistant at East HS in Wichita in 1989-90...A&M junior guard Bobby Leach played the last two seasons at Neosho County Community College in Chanute, Kan....two Kansas players are from Texas -- junior guard Keith Langford (North Crowley HS, Fort Worth) and senior forward Bryant Nash (Turenr HS, Carrollton)...Kansas assistant coach Tim Jankovich was head coach at North Texas from 1993-97 and is a former assistant at Texas, Baylor and Texas-Pan American.
Tentative Starters
TEXAS A&M AGGIES (7-5, 0-1)
No. Player P Ht. Cl. PPG RPG
50 Andy Slocum C 7-0 Sr. 10.2 8.8
3 Jesse King III F 6-7 Sr. 13.0 5.8
21 Antoine Wright F/G 6-7 So. 15.0 4.1
10 Leandro Garcia-Morales G 6-1 Sr. 5.4 2.7a
30 Bobby Leach G 6-0 Jr. 4.4 3.9a
Off the Bench
No. Player P Ht. Cl. PPG RPG
22 Kevin Turner G 6-2 Sr. 8.4 2.4
1 Acie Law IV G 6-3 Fr. 7.6 4.4a
5 Nick Anderson F 6-6 Sr. 4.4 3.1
11 Luis Clemente F 6-8 So. 4.4 2.5
23 Keith Blanks F 6-5 Fr. 4.2 1.5
32 Marcus Watkins G 6-4 So. 3.9 2.2
42 Marlon Pompey F 6-8 Fr. 2.8 1.0
12 Dylan Leal G 6-4 Sr. 0.8 0.1
33 Justin Loewe G 6-4 Fr. 0.5 0.3
Watkins Quoteboard
"I didn't think the Missouri game got away from us, they just made some plays and got some critical baskets. They were at home and they've also got some pretty good players. When you've got that combination you're going to put together some good runs. I thought we did some things very well. We didn't let a big, hostile crowd get to us. We kept our composure and had a chance to win the game down the stretch. Kansas is a very talented team that can hurt you in a lot of ways. We need to play our best basketball. We're excited about playing at home in front of a big crowd at Reed Arena."
Tale of the Tape
A&M KU
Record 7-5 10-2
Conference 0-1 2-0
Ratings Pct. Index (RPI) 244 12
Streak L1 W4
Field Goal Pct. .440 .455
Opponent FG Pct. .461 .380
3-Pt. Field Goal Pct. .364 .280
Opponent 3-Pt. Pct. .368 .328
3-Pt. Field Goal Avg. 6.8 5.4
3-Pt. FG Attempts Avg. 18.8 19.3
Free Throw Pct. .699 .769
Opponent FT Pct. .677 .704
Rebound Avg. 39.9 39.3
Offensive Reb. Avg. 15.5 13.4
Rebounding Margin +4.9 +4.7
Turnovers Avg. 14.8 15.3
Opp. Turnovers Avg. 15.8 17.4
Assists Avg. 17.7 16.3
Blocks Avg. 1.3 5.9
Steals Avg. 7.4 8.1
Scoring Avg. 79.9 76.5
Opponent Scoring 75.8 64.0
Scoring Margin +4.2 +12.5
Missouri Recap
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- Arthur Johnson had 19 points, 12 rebounds and a key blocked shot to lead Missouri to an 82-77 win over Texas A&M on Saturday. Rickey Paulding added 16 points for Missouri, which was ranked as high as No. 3 early in the season. A&M trailed 71-58 with 4:46 to go, but the Aggies closed with a late run. Acie Law's 3-pointer got the Aggies within 76-71 with 1:04 left, and Jesse King's layup cut the margin to 77-73 with 42 seconds remaining. Missouri made five-of-six free throws after that and the Aggies could get no close than four points. Kevin Turner led A&M with 14 points, making 4-of-7 three-pointers. Antoine Wright and King added 12 points each, Andy Slocum had 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Leandro Garcia-Morales finished with 10 points. A&M took a 42-41 lead on Turner's 3-point shot with 16:12 left in the game, but Missouri responded with a 20-6 run for a 61-48 lead with 8˝ minutes remaining. A&M had six turnovers in that run. The Aggies missed six of their first seven shots in the game and trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half, but rallied with a 13-1 run that put them ahead 30-28 with 1:45 left. Johnson scored two baskets down the stretch for a 34-31 halftime lead.
Last Year Against Kansas
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Kirk Hinrich scored 23 points and Nick Collison added 15 and 12 rebounds as seventh-ranked Kansas coasted to an 85-45 win in Big 12 Conference action on Feb. 26, 2003. Hinrich hit a jumper and a layup before Jeff Hawkins nailed a 3-pointer with just under eight minutes remaining in the first half to open a commanding 31-9 lead for the Jayhawks. Collison had nine points and eight boards during the game-opening surge as Kansas bounced back from having a seven-game winning streak snapped against Oklahoma. Keith Langford contributed 18 points and fellow guard Aaron Miles chipped in 10 points and 10 assists. Jayhawks forward Wayne Simien was on the court for just one minute as he continued to have trouble with his right shoulder. The 6-9 sophomore dislocated it on Jan. 4, forcing him to miss 11 games. Leandro Garcia-Morales returned from an ankle injury and led the way with nine points for A&M, but the Aggies dropped their sixth straight conference road game.
Two Years Ago at Reed Arena
COLLEGE STATION (AP) -- Drew Gooden had 22 points and 13 rebounds for his 15th double-double of the season and No. 2 Kansas defeated determined Texas A&M 86-74 on Jan. 26, 2002. Kansas won its fourth straight game since its second loss of the season to UCLA on Jan. 12, 2002. The Aggies were riding a two-game winning streak that included an 80-74 upset of No. 24 Texas and they stayed with the more talented Jayhawks through much of the first half. Then the Aggies went cold and Kansas, No. 2 in the nation in scoring, used a 10-1 run over the final 3:29 of the first half for a 43-31 lead. The Jayhawks stretched the run to 16-1 with the first three baskets of the second half to keep control of the game. Kansas pulled ahead 74-51 with 7:47 to go but the Aggies used an 11-2 run to pull within 76-62 and kept up the battle until the end. Nick Collison added 19 points for the Jayhawks and Aaron Miles added 18. Bernard King led A&M with 22 points, the most ever scored by an Aggie against a Kansas team. Gooden has had a double-double in 45 of his last 47 games. The Jayhawks broke from a 33-30 lead with eight straight points starting with a layup by Collison and a 3-pointer by Kick Hinrich.
Quickie Notes
*After averaging just 14.0 points off the bench in the previous three games, the Aggies have averaged 37.5 in the last two games.
*Senior center Andy Slocum has had five double-doubles, tying him for the Big 12 lead, and is averaging 12.8 points and 10.2 rebounds in the last five games.
*Jesse King has scored in double figures in a team-high nine games.
*Antoine Wright has averaged 20.6 points and 3.0 three-pointers in the last five games.
*Leandro Garcia-Morales has averaged 8.0 points and made 73 percent from the field and 75 percent from three-point range (6-of-8) in the last three games.
*As a team, the Aggies rank third in the Big 12 and 37th nationally in scoring (79.9). The Aggies rank 17th nationally in offensive rebounding (15.5), and 27th in assists (17.7).
*After committing a season-high 28 turnovers against Louisiana-Monroe, the Aggies have averaged just 12.5 in the last two games.
*The Aggies rank second in the Big 12 in three-pointers made per game (6.8), and made 11-of-27 (.407) against Missouri.
*Kevin Turner's career three-point percentage of .434 ranks as the best in school history and is the third best in Big 12 annals.Turner ranks third in the league, and 12th nationally, in three-point percentage (.512).
*A&M ranks last in the Big 12 in scoring defense (75.8) and field goal percentage defense (.461), and is 11th in three-point percentage defense (.368), but has allowed just 70.5 points and 42.9 percent shooting (.325 on three-pointers) in the last four games.
*The Aggies have posted a rebounding margin of +15.3 in the last three games, including a huge 43-16 rebounding edge against Louisiana-Monroe, one of the most dominating rebounding performances in school history. The Aggies have outrebounded nine of 12 opponents, including three straight.