Texas A&M
.png&width=60&height=60&type=webp)
(#2) Kansas
Aggies Battle No. 2 Kansas to End in 65-60 Loss
Jan 05, 2005 | Men's Basketball
January 05, 2005
Bill Self had no idea how right he was when he said going against close friend Billy Gillispie wouldn't be any fun.
Texas A&M -- 17-point underdogs despite an 11-0 record -- tied Self's second-ranked Kansas Jayhawks at 58 when Antoine Wright hit a jumper with less than a minute to play.
Then, Kansas' Alex Galindo hit a tiebreaking 3-pointer, and Christian Moody and Aaron Miles each made two free throws in the final seconds for a hard-fought 65-60 victory in the first Big 12 game of the season.
``I am proud of him,'' Self said of Gillispie, who was his assistant coach for five years at Tulsa and Illinois. ``I would rather not play friends.''
Ironically, Galindo originally signed with Gillispie at Texas-El Paso. But he asked to be released and allowed to go to Kansas after Gillispie, at Self's urging, took the job at Texas A&M.
``Galindo makes a miraculous shot, one he will remember,'' Gillispie said.
He and Self still talk frequently. Self even said the two would probably get together later Wednesday night.
``I sat next to him for five years,'' Gillispie said. ``His teams play hard and they don't turn the ball over. You expect his teams always to play great.''
Texas A&M, which has lost 18 straight regular-season Big 12 games and not had a winning season in a decade, had generated little attention despite having its best start in 83 years.
But the Aggies made believers of the Jayhawks, who got their second big scare in as many games.
``They looked real good to me,'' said Miles, who fed a perfect pass for Galindo's big 3-pointer.
``They play hard,'' he said. ``Regardless of how much talent a team has, if you play hard you're always going to have a chance.''
Galindo, a 6-foot-7 freshman who was hampered by injuries most of the early season, also made a key 3-pointer in overtime of Kansas' 70-68 win on Saturday against No. 9 Georgia Tech.
``It gave me confidence,'' Galindo said. ``Making a shot like that to win a game today is better than making a shot to win a game against Georgia Tech. This is the Big 12. That's one of our goals to win the Big 12 championship. We beat a great team.''
Kansas (10-0), without injured star Wayne Simien, struggled all night against the Aggies' aggressive, pressing defense. Texas A&M held the Jayhawks to 41 percent shooting and outrebounded them 33-27.
The Jayhawks are off to their best start since the 1996-97 team won its first 22 games.
Galindo's 3-pointer put Kansas on top 61-58 with 40 seconds left. After Moody missed two free throws, Acie Law drove the lane and scored to bring the Aggies within a point.
Moody was then fouled immediately and made both of his free throws for a 63-60 lead. Miles added a pair of foul shots just before the buzzer to make it 65-60.
``Christian missed those two free throws and then when he got fouled the next time he said, `I'm making these,''' Miles said. ``We've got to have people step up and be confident like that.''
Antoine Wright, the Aggies' 6-foot-7 junior and the second-leading scorer in the Big 12 with 18 points per game, had only one point in the first half but wound up with 14. Freshman Joseph Jones had 16 for the Aggies.
Miles had 15 for Kansas, and Michael Lee had 10. Keith Langford and Moody each had nine.
``They are a great team,'' A&M forward Chris Walker said. ``We don't believe in moral victories.''
POSTGAME QUOTES
TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH BILLY GILLISPIE
On Kansas: "Kansas made more foul shots than we did and they executed better. They kept scoring and we couldn't seem to stop them. They got to the foul line late and we couldn't get there enough. They are a very experienced team and they just whipped us. (Aaron) Miles was great like he always is and (Keith) Langford played really well late. (Alex) Galindo made another miraculous shot that he will remember for a long time."
On the game: "It was a tough loss. We know that we are going to have to play defense like we did tonight in order to survive in the Big 12. We ended up getting beaten and we have to do better than we did tonight. We have great respect for Kansas as we do for every opponent, but we made a lot of mistakes tonight. At the end we didn't force Kansas into a lot of ball screens like we wanted to and they (Kansas) were able to make some easy shots. It wasn't our best game of the year, but we battled hard."
On playing against Coach Self: "I sat on the bench with him for five years and I know his team was going to play very hard. His teams are always organized and they (Kansas) didn't turn the ball over very much tonight. Coach Self is one of the best coaches in the country. You always have to expect his teams to play great and really hard and that is why they are always good."
On Joseph Jones: "He is tough and he will be a good player. We need to learn how to get the ball to him better. He is open a lot of times but we are just not throwing it to him enough. He is a tough freshman and he is getting better every single day."
A&M JUNIOR FORWARD CHRIS WALKER
On playing Kansas: "Kansas is a great team. They defend really well and they have a lot of great players. Our hat is off to the Kansas Jayhawks tonight. Kansas wanted it bad and in the end they made the big shot to win it."
On the game: "We have been working very hard in practice all week and that is the story of our team. When we practice well we come out and play well and when practices are less than par we don't play as well. A lot of guys on our team believed that we could get a victory tonight and I think that's why we played so well."
KANSAS HEAD COACH BILL SELF
On Texas A&M: "They played great. They played so hard and wanted it so bad tonight. They guarded us well the whole night, (Billy Gillispie) does a good job coaching them. They have three really good players. Joseph Jones was the best player in the game tonight, at least from my perspective. They just scrapped against us. They beat us on the glass. Our first-shot defense was fine, but they beat us to the rebounds."
On the game: "People expected us to blow them out. That wasn't going to happen with our guys still hung over from the Georgia Tech game. That and the weather affected our team tonight. The fans were once again unbelievable, they deserve the assist on the win tonight. I am proud of our guys, we didn't play well, but we were able to piece together a win. We got a lot of good looks in the first half. Whenever J.R. (Giddens) gets five good looks and comes away empty, we have to piece it together."
On other players stepping up their play: "Our three leading scorers had two points, and somehow we won the game. The young kids stepped up. Christian (Moody) made two huge free throws after missing two. It was great to see him do that."
On Alex Galindo: "Once again, he doesn't rebound it like he should and I am going to talk to him about that, but he certainly likes to shoot it when it's crunch time."
On Michael Lee: "Mike would be the first to tell you that he has been pressing. He has been trying too hard. We had to have him tonight. J.R. wasn't effective and Keith (Langford) had two fouls early, but Mike stepped up and played well."
On the play of the young team: "We play so young, and we are young. But tonight we played to our age. It's getting to the point in the season where we have to step up and play more mature."
KU SENIOR GUARD MICHAEL LEE
On what coach Self told him before the game: "He just said to be solid. A lot of times when I get myself in trouble, I try too hard. I might try and get a steal that I know I can't get. He told me to be solid and do what I can do."
On his two late free throws: "All I was thinking was `I've got to make them.' That's the only thing. I didn't think about missing them or anything else but the shot in front of me."
KU SENIOR GUARD AARON MILES
On the play of Texas A&M: "They're a well-coached team. They play hard and they have some good players on their squad. Coach Gillispie is doing a great job over there. They're playing a lot better than they were last year. They defended well and offensively they made plays."
On the importance of tonight's game: "Obviously, one of our goals is to win a conference championship. Tonight's game was a conference game so it was a big game. Every game in conference is going to be tough and every conference game is going to be a big game. Every game is going to be a battle."
KU SENIOR GUARD KEITH LANGFORD
On Texas A&M: "They play very hard and they play to the strengths of their team. They're a different team than they've been in the past. They are going to be really good."
On KU's shooting woes: "It seems like it's been that way so many times this season. When the ball goes in, it goes in. When it doesn't, it doesn't. I am just glad guys are staying poised down the stretch -- the last five or six minutes of the game."
On his improved free throw shooting: "I've been listening to my `You-Can-Do-It' tapes. Seriously, everytime I go to the free throw line I think I am zero-for-zero. I act like I haven't shot any in the game, so I don't think of it as a big deal. Even though I wasn't into it as much offensively tonight, I had to do what I could down the stretch."
