November 08, 2007
Game notes for Friday's season opener against McNeese State at Reed Arena...
Game #1
#14 Texas A&M Aggies (0-0, 0-0 Big 12) vs. McNeese State Cowboys (0-0, 0-0 Southland)
Friday, Nov. 9
7:05 p.m. (CDT)
College Station, Texas
Reed Arena (12,500 cap.)
TELEVISION
Fox Sports Net (Texas only)
Play-by-Play: Brett Dolan
Analyst: Jim Haller
RADIO
Texas A&M Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Dave South
Analyst: Al Pulliam
Sirius Satellite Radio: Channel 153
SERIES
Tied, 1-1
In College Station: A&M leads, 1-0
at Reed Arena: 0-0
Last Meeting: McNeese State 83, A&M 68 (Dec. 20, 1995 in Lake Charles)
TEXAS A&M AGGIES
Record: 0-0 (0-0 Big 12)
Ranking: 14th (USA Today/ESPN), 16th (AP)
Last Game: Beat Tarleton State, 71-62 (exh.)
Head Coach: Mark Turgeon (Kansas ?'87)
Record: 153-119 (10th year)
at Texas A&M: 0-0 (1st year)
vs. McNeese State: 0-0
PROJECTED STARTERS (exhibition stats)
No. Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl.-Exp. PPG RPG APG
22 Dominique Kirk G 6-4 185 Sr-3L 8.5 3.0 3.0
15 Donald Sloan G 6-3 205 So-1L 7.0 4.5 --
23 Josh Carter F 6-7 200 Jr-2L 13.5 3.5 --
30 Joseph Jones F 6-9 255 Sr-3L 13.5 3.5 --
12 DeAndre Jordan C 7-0 255 Fr-Hs 9.0 6.0 2.0blk
MCNEESE STATE COWBOYS
Record: 0-0 (0-0 Southland)
Ranking: None
Last Game: Lost to LSU-Shreveport, 86-80 (exh.)
Head Coach: Dave Simmons (Louisiana Tech ?'81)
Record: 42-47 (3rd year)
at McNeese State: 15-17 (2nd year)
vs. Texas A&M: 0-0
PROJECTED STARTERS (exhibition stats)
No. Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl.-Exp. PPG RPG APG
10 John Ford G 5-10 152 Sr-3L 11.9 3.6 3.1
1 Rorey Lawrence G 6-6 185 Sr-1L 5.2 2.8 --
24 John Pichon F 6-6 212 Jr-2L 6.5 6.3 --
3 Jarvis Bradley F 6-6 210 Sr-2L 15.1 7.3 --
15 Kleon Penn C 6-11 285 Sr-1L 2.1 2.9 --
Key Game Notes
* Friday?â„¢s season opener is an official ?White-Out? game. Fans are asked to show their support by wearing white shirts.
* The Aggies are 8-1 in home openers at Reed Arena and have won seven straight.
* A&M has won 34 straight regular-season non-conference home games since an 82-80 loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in 2003-04.
About McNeese State
* The Cowboys went 15-17 last year and placed third in the Southland Conference with a 9-7 mark in their first season under Coach Dave Simmons.
* Simmons was an assistant coach at Northwestern State two years when NSU visited Reed Arena (a 73-61 A&M win). NSU finished 26-8 and advanced to the seocnd round of the NCAA Tournament that season.
* Simmons played at Louisiana Tech (1977-81), where he was teammates with Karl Malone.
* McNeese State lost its lone exhibition game to LSU-Shreveport (86-80). Senior forward Jarvis Bradley (6-6) led the Cowboys with 26 points in that game. Bradley was a second-team all-conference pick in 2006-07.
* McNeese Assistant Coach T.J. Marcum is a 2000 graduate of Texas A&M. He was a team manager as a student and served as A&M?â„¢s director of basketball operations under Melvin Watkins in 2003-04.
Series Notes
* The series is tied, 1-1, with each team winning at home. McNeese is visiting Reed Arena for the first time.
* The Aggies beat the Cowboys, 97-68, in College Station in 1994-95, but A&M dropped an 83-68 decision in Lake Charles in 1995-96.
* The Aggies are 105-36 all-time against members of the Southland Conference.
NIT Dead Ahead
* The Aggies are one of four regional hosts in the Dick?â„¢s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-off. The first round will be on Tuesday at Reed Arena and will pit Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. UTEP at 5 p.m. followed by A&M vs. Oral Roberts at 8 p.m. The losers will play at 5 p.m. on Tuesday with the winners meeting at 8 p.m. The winner of the regional will advanced to the NIT semifinals on Nov. 21 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The championship game is set for Nov. 23.
Aggies Meet in NBA
* History was made on Tuesday night when the Atlanta Hawks played the New Jersey Nets. It marked the first time two former A&M players squared off in an NBA game. Antoine Wright, a first-team All-Big 12 pick in 2005, scored 15 points to lead the Nets to an 87-82 victory against Acie Law?â„¢s Hawks. Law, a consensus All-American at A&M last year, scored 7 points.
Coach Turgeon
* Mark Turgeon was named Texas A&M?â„¢s 20th men?â„¢s basketball coach on April 10, 2007.
* A former player and assistant coach at Kansas, the 42-year-old Turgeon spent the previous seven years at Wichita State. The Shockers advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in 2006 and posted road wins against LSU and Syracuse last season.
Success Streaks
* A&M has posted three straight 20-win seasons for the first time in school history.
* A&M has made two straight NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in school annals.
*A&M has advanced to postseason play three straight years, starting with the 2005 NIT. The Aggies had consecutive NIT appearances in 1985 and 1986 before making the NCAAs in 1987, the only previous time in school history they had three consecutive postseason appearances.
* The Aggies have never made four straight postseason appearances.
* A&M is 5-4 in postseason play (2-1 NIT, 3-3 NCAA) in the last three years, the most postseason wins in a three-year period in school history.
In the Rankings
* The Aggies are ranked 14th in the USA Today/ESPN preseason poll and are 16th in the AP poll.
* A&M has been ranked in the top 15 in 20 straight coaches?â„¢ polls dating back to the start of last season.
* A&M has appeared in both polls for 20 consecutive weeks, a school record.
* The Aggies previously had eight-week runs in the AP poll in 1959-60 and again in 1978-79.
* A&M has climbed as high as No. 6 in the polls four times last season, a school record. The previous high ranking was No. 8 in 1959-60.
* Prior to last season, A&M had not been ranked in 26 years (since 1980-81).
Home Domination
* A&M has won 23 of its last 24 home games, including 12 of its last 13 in Big 12 play.
* The Aggies will tie a school record with 20 home games this season. A&M also played 20 home games in 2004-05 (17-3).
* The Aggies have won 34 straight regular-season non-conference games at Reed Arena. The last loss was to A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 13, 2003 (82-80).
* A&M was 18-1 at home last season, a school record for home victories that also matched the Big 12 record for home wins (Iowa State in 1999-00).
* The Aggies are 34-3 (.919) at home the last two seasons and are 51-6 (.895) in the last three years. Their 51 home wins in that span are the second most in the country behind Memphis?â„¢s 53 victories.
Reed Arena
* Reed Arena is going into its 10th season as the home of Texas A&M basketball. The 12,500-seat facility opened in 1998 and is named for Houston veterinarian Chester J. Reed ?â„¢47 and his wife, Billie Jean, who contributed the nucleus of the assets that fund the facility.
* A $22 million, 68,000-square-foot expansion project is underway that includes practice gyms, locker rooms, film rooms, a weight room, training facilities and offices. It is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2008.
* The attendance record for men?â„¢s basketball at Reed Arena is 13,203, which was set against Missouri in last season?â„¢s home finale. The top 11 single-game attendance marks in A&M history (and 15 of the top 19) have been set in the last three years. The top eight non-conference attendance marks also have been set in the last three seasons.
* A&M had a school-record six sellouts last season, third most in the Big 12. A&M set every school attendance record, averaging 9,812 fans overall and 12,640 in Big 12 play.
* A&M is 91-47 (.659) all-time at Reed Arena. A&M was 40-41 (.494) at Reed in its first six seasons.
Winning Ways
* Senior Joseph Jones and Dominique Kirk are the winningest starters in school history. The Aggies have gone 70-26 since the pair arrived on campus. Kirk has started in all 96 games in that time while Jones has started 95 times (he missed one game in 2005-06 with an injury).
* The A&M record for wins in a four-year period is 85 (85-40 from 1978-82).
* If the Aggies make the NCAA Tournament this season, Kirk and Jones, along with junior Josh Carter, would become the first A&M players to appear in three straight NCAA Tournaments.
Knocking ?'Em Down
* A&M made a school-record 215 three-point field goals last season, breaking the previous mark of 203 set in 2005-06.
* The Aggies led the Big 12 and ranked second nationally in three-point accuracy, connecting on a school-record 42.2 percent.
* National leader Josh Carter and senior Dominique Kirk have combined for 272 career three-pointers, making them the most prolific shooting tandem in school history.
Living Large
* With six players listed at 6?â„¢9? or taller, the Aggies are one of the tallest teams in college basketball.