March 07, 2007
The No. 2-seeded Texas A&M men's basketball team will play the winner of Thursday's Nebraska-Oklahoma State game on Friday at 6 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship at the Ford Center.
| GAME INFO |
| Friday, March 9, 6 p.m. (CST) Ford Center (18,879), Oklahoma City Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship Quarterfinals |
| RECORDS |
| Texas A&M: 25-5 Oklahoma State: 21-11 |
| RANKINGS |
| A&M is ranked 7th by both The Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today. |
| TELEVISION |
| Dave Armstrong, play-by-play Reid Gettys, commentary |
| RADIO |
| WTAW-AM 1620 (Local) Dave South, play-by-play Al Pulliam, commentary (broadcast time 5:30 p.m.) |
| INTERNET |
| Live Video: None Live Audio: (Aggies All-Access) Live Stats: (big12sports.com) |
| SERIES |
| OSU leads, 26-11 at Big 12 Tourney: first meeting Last Meeting: (2/21/07) |
| UP NEXT |
| Winner vs. Texas/Baylor winner Big 12 Semifinals Saturday, March 10, 3:20 p.m. (CST) Ford Center, Oklahoma City |
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
THURSDAY (ESPN+ / ESPNU/ *ESPN2)
#8 Iowa State vs. # 9 Oklahoma, 11:30 a.m.
#5 Texas Tech vs. #12 Colorado, 2 p.m.
#7 Oklahoma State vs. #10 Nebraska, 6 p.m.
*#6 Missouri vs. #11 Baylor, 8:20 p.m.
FRIDAY (ESPN+ / ESPNU)
ISU-OU winner vs. #1 Kansas, 11:30 a.m.
TT-CU winner vs. #4 Kansas State, 2 p.m.
OSU-NU winner vs. #2 Texas A&M, 6 p.m.
MU-BU winner vs. #3 Texas, 8:20 p.m.
SATURDAY (ESPN+ / ESPN2)
Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 3:20 p.m.
SUNDAY (ESPN)
Championship Game, 2 p.m.
RADIO
Texas A&M Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Dave South
Analyst: Al Pulliam
MEDIA RELATIONS CONTACTS
Colin Killian, Associate SID/Basketball
Cell: 979-229-4706
email: ckillian@athletics.tamu.edu
Alan Cannon, Associate AD/Media Relations
Cell: 979-777-4200
email: acannon@athletics.tamu.edu
Team Headquarters
Sheraton: 405-235-2882
TEXAS A&M AGGIES
Record: 25-5 (13-3 Big 12)
Ranking: 7th (USA Today/ESPN), 7th (AP)
Last Game: Beat Missouri, 94-78, at home on March 3
Head Coach: Billy Gillispie (Texas State '83)
Record: 98-56 (5th year)
at Texas A&M: 68-24 (3rd year)
at Big 12 Tournament: 1-2
PROJECTED AGGIES STARTERS
No. Player Ht. Wt. Cl-Ex PPG RPG APG
1 Acie Law IV 6'3" 195 Sr-1L 18.2 3.1 5.3
22 Dominique Kirk 6'3" 180 Jr-2L 6.5 3.2 2.5
23 Josh Carter 6'7" 195 So-1L 12.5 3.9 .519 3FG
30 Joseph Jones 6'9" 250 Jr-2L 13.2 6.6 .544 FG
44 Antanas Kavaliauskas 6'?10" 250 Sr-1L 12.5 6.4 .580 FG
Postseason Honors
JOSH CARTER, Sophomore
*Honorable Mention All-Big 12 (Big 12 coaches' poll)
*Big 12 Player of the Week (Jan. 2)
*Big 12 Player of the Week (Feb. 12)
BILLY GILLISPIE, Head Coach
*Big 12 Coach of the Year (Big 12 coaches' poll)
*Big 12 Coach of the Year (CollegeInsider.com)
JOSEPH JONES, Junior
*Second-Team All-Big 12 (Big 12 coaches' poll)
*Second-Team All-Big 12 (AP)
*Big 12 All-Defense Team (media)
*Second-Team All-District (NABC)
ANTANAS KAVALIUASKAS, Senior
*Honorable Mention All-Big 12 (Big 12 coaches' poll)
*Big 12 All-Improved Team (media)
DOMINIQUE KIRK, Junior
*Big 12 All-Defensive Team (Big 12 coaches' poll)
*Big 12 All-Defense Team (media)
*Second-Team Academic All-Big 12
ACIE LAW IV, Senior
*ESPN.com First-Team All-America
*Big 12 Most Valuable Player (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
*Big 12 Most Valuable Player (CollegeInsider.com)
*First-Team All-Big 12 (consensus)
*First-Team All-District (NABC)
*Big 12 Player of the Week (Feb. 5)
*Big 12 Player of the Week (Feb. 26)
*Second-Team Academic All-Big 12
*Finalist Bob Cousy Award (nation's top point guard)
*Semifinalist, Wooden and Naismith Awards
*Finalist Lowe's Senior CLASS Award (top senior)
LOGAN LEE, Senior
*First-Team Academic All-Big 12
BEAU MUHLBACH, Senior
*Second-Team Academic All-Big 12
Key Tournament Notes
*A&M will play the winner of Thursday's Oklahoma State-Nebraska game on Friday at 6 p.m. The winner will advance to Saturday's semifinals (3:20 p.m.) against Texas, Missouri or Baylor. The championship game will be Sunday at 2 p.m.
*A&M has won four of its last five games.
*A&M is 18-3 in its last 21 games and is 20-3 in its last 23 Big 12 games dating back to last season.
*The Aggies finished 13-3 in Big 12 play, their most wins in the league's 11-year history. The last time A&M had a better conference mark was in 1980, when they won the Southwest Conference with a 14-2 mark.
*A&M is the No. 2 seed, its highest seeding in league history. The previous best was last season, when the Aggies were No. 4.
*The Aggies' last four losses were by a combined nine points, including a three-point loss at then-top-ranked UCLA (75-72) in December. A&M's four conference losses were each by only two points -- at Texas Tech (70-68) and Texas (98-96, 2 OT) and at home against Texas Tech (77-75) on a buzzer beater.
*The last time A&M was a No. 2 seed in a conference postseason tournament was in 1994 in the SWC Classic. The Aggies advanced to the SWC title game, where they fell to top-seeded Texas, 87-62.
*A&M has never played Kansas, Oklahoma State or Nebraska in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship.
*After being the lower-seeded team in seven of its first eight Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship appearances, A&M has been the higher-seeded team for its opening tournament game all three years under Billy Gillispie -- in 2005 as the No. 7 seed against No. 10 Kansas State, in 2006 as the No. 4 seed against No. 5 Colorado, and this year as the No. 2 seed.
*A&M is 1-10 in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship. Last year's 86-54 quarterfinal win against Colorado ended a 12-game conference tournament losing streak dating back to the old Southwest Conference Classic.
*A&M has an all-time record of 17-29 in conference postseason tournaments.
nIn 11 Big 12 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship games, the Aggies have played seven North Division schools and four from the South Division.
Sidebars
*The Aggies have been wearing ribbon patches on their jerseys since early February in honor of former A&M Coach Shelby Metcalf, who passed away on Feb. 8. Metcalf was the winningest coach in Southwest Conference history.
*A&M Coach Billy Gillispie served as an assistant coach at Tulsa from 1997-00 under current Kansas Coach Bill Self. Gillispie also was an assistant to Self at Illinois (2000-02). The pair helped those teams to four straight NCAA Tournaments together, including consecutive Elite Eight appearances in 2000 (Tulsa) and 2001 (Illinois).
*Texas A&M staffer Jerrance Howard played for Self at Illinois from 2000-03.
*One of the Aggies' November signees, Derrek Lewis, is from Union High School in Tulsa.
*Before coming to A&M in 2004, A&M head coach Billy Gillispie had previous experience in the Big 12 Tournament as an assistant coach at Baylor under Harry Miller. The No. 9-seeded Bears fell to No. 8 seed Oklahoma State, 80-66, in the opening game of the inaugural tournament in 1997.
*Billy Gillispie and Texas assistant coach Rodney Terry were assistants on Harry Miller's staff at Baylor from 1995-97.
*Nebraska Coach Doc Sadler served as an assistant under Gillispie at UTEP in 2003-04, moving into the head job when Gillispie left for A&M at the end of that season.
*A&M assistant coach Jeremy Cox served as an assistant under Sadler at Arkansas-Fort Smith in 2002-03 and was promoted to head coach when Sadler joined Gillispie's staff at UTEP. Cox led Fort Smith to the JUCO national title last season and was named NJCAA National Coach of the Year.
*A&M assistant coach Alvin Brooks was an assistant at Texas Tech under James Dickey (now an assistant at Oklahoma State) for the 2000 and 2001 tournaments in Kansas City.
*A&M assistant coach Albert Johnson is a native of Oklahoma City and is a 1998 graduate of Langston University. He also was an assistant coach at Douglass and Marshall High Schools in Oklahoma City and coached Athletes First, an Oklahoma AAU team, from 2000-02. His teams included Kansas State's Clent Stewart, Oklahoma's David Godbold and Kansas' Jeremy Case and Darnell Jackson. In addition, he coached the AAU Dallas Mustangs, which included Oklahoma State's Byron Eaton and Terrel Harris, Iowa State's Wesley Johnson and A&M's Donald Sloan and Derrick Roland.
*Johnson was sidelined much of the season with dermatomyositis, in which the body's immune system attacks normal, healthy tissue. He traveled for his first road game to Kansas on Feb. 3.
*A&M's Joseph Jones is a former AAU teammate of Texas Tech's Darryl Dora and Kansas State's Cartier Martin.
*A&M senior Marlon Pompey played one season (2001-02) at Westbury Christian in Houston under Baylor assistant coach Jerome Tang.
*A&M senior Acie Law IV and Colorado freshman Dwight Thorne are cousins. Their mothers are sisters.
*Missouri Associate Head Coach Melvin Watkins served as A&M's head coach from 1998-04. Watkins' son, Tigers' senior Marcus Watkins, was a freshman on A&M's 2003-04 team with Acie Law and Marlon Pompey.