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Aggies Ready to Battle Undefeated LSU on Saturday in HoustonAggies Ready to Battle Undefeated LSU on Saturday in Houston
Men's Basketball

Aggies Ready to Battle Undefeated LSU on Saturday in Houston

The Texas A&M men's basketball team battles undefeated LSU on Saturday in the second game of a college basketball doubleheader at the Toyota Center. The A&M-LSU game will tipoff one hour after the end

Dec. 19, 2008

HOUSTON - The Texas A&M men's basketball team battles undefeated LSU on Saturday in the second game of a college basketball doubleheader at the Toyota Center. The A&M-LSU game will tipoff one hour after the end of the Texas-Michigan State game (approx. 4 p.m.), which starts at 1 p.m.

Complete Game Notes in PDF Format Get Acrobat Reader

GAME #11
Texas A&M Aggies (9-1, 0-0 Big 12)
vs.
LSU Tigers (8-0, 0-0 SEC)

Saturday, December 20, 2008
Approx. 4 p.m. (CST)
Houston, Texas
Toyota Center (18,300 cap.)

Television
None

Radio
Texas A&M Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Dave South
Analyst: Al Pulliam
Sirius Satellite Radio: 123
www.aggieathletics.com
Network Affiliates
Atlanta                        KPYN-AM      900
Athens                        KLVQ-AM      1410
Austin                         KJCE-AM      1370
Brenham                    KWHI-AM       1280
Carthage                    KGAS-AM      1590
College Station         WTAW-AM    1620
College Station         KZNE-AM      1150
Comanche                 KCOM-AM     1550
Dallas                         KFXR-AM      1190
El Campo                   KULP-AM      1390
Gonzales                    KCTI-AM        1450
Houston                      KBME-AM     790
Marshall                      KMHT-AM      1450
New Braunfels           KGNB-AM      1420
San Antonio               KSJL-AM       810
San Saba                   KBAL-AM      1410
Sulphur Springs         KSST-AM      1230
Victoria                       KVNN-AM      1340

TEXAS A&M AGGIES
www.aggieathletics.com
Record: 9-1 (0-0 Big 12)
Ranking: Receiving votes (AP)
Last Game: Beat SMU (66-56) at home on Wednesday
Current Streak: Won five straight
Head Coach: Mark Turgeon (Kansas `87)
            Record: 187-131 (11th year)
            at Texas A&M: 34-12 (2nd year)
            vs. LSU: 2-0

PROJECTED TEXAS A&M STARTERS
No.       Player                          P          Ht.        Wt.       Cl-Ex              PPG     RPG     APG
15        Donald Sloan            G         6-3      205     Jr-2L               12.5     3.6       4.0
3          Derrick Roland          G         6-4      185     Jr-2L               4.9       2.0       2.0
23        Josh Carter               F          6-7      200     Sr-3L              14.5     4.2      2.1
0          Bryan Davis               F          6-9      240     Jr-2L               10.7      6.8      --
41        Chinemelu Elonu      C         6-10    235     Jr-2L                8.1       6.3       --
           
LSU TIGERS
www.lsusports.net
Record: 8-0 (0-0 SoutheasternConference)
Ranking: Receiving votes (coaches)
Last Game: Beat Nicholls State (68-56) at home on Wednesday
Current Streak: Won eight straight
Head Coach: Trent Johnson (Boise State `78)
            Record: 167-121 (10th year)
            at LSU: 8-0 (1st year)
            vs. Texas A&M: 0-0

PROJECTED LSU STARTERS
No.       Player                                      P          Ht.        Wt.      Cl         PPG     RPG     APG
11        Bo Spencer                           G         6-1      185     So.      11.6    3.9       2.2
5          Marcus Thornton                   G         6-4      205     Sr.       17.3    4.9       --
14        Garrett Temple                      G         6-6      190     Sr.       6.8       4.6       4.2
1          Tasmin Mitchell                     F          6-7      235     Jr.        12.9    6.9       --
21        Chris Johnson                       F          6-11    210     Sr.       9.5       7.6       --

Additional Information:
Big 12 Conference: http://big12sports.com/
Southeastern Conference: http://secsports.com/
NCAA: http://www.ncaa.com/

Weekly Texas A&M Press Conference Audio:
Links to the audio from Texas A&M's weekly basketball press conference on Tuesday at Reed Arena:

Head Coach Mark Turgeon
http://cstvpodcast.cstv.com.edgesuite.net/texasam/081216_turgeon.mp3

Senior Guard/Forward Josh Carter
http://cstvpodcast.cstv.com.edgesuite.net/texasam/081216_carter.mp3

Junior Guard Donald Sloan
http://cstvpodcast.cstv.com.edgesuite.net/texasam/081216_sloan.mp3

Junior Forward/Center Chinemelu Elonu
http://cstvpodcast.cstv.com.edgesuite.net/texasam/081216_elonu.mp3

Half Price Holiday Hoops

  1. Texas A&M men's and women's home games through Jan. 5 will be half price.
  2. For more information, go to http://www.12thmanfoundation.com/tickets/B08-Holiday.asp.

Series Notes

  1. LSU leads the series, 14-10. The series is tied, 3-3, in games played at neutral sites.
  2. The Aggies are 2-1 against the Tigers in Houston. A&M posted wins in the 1971 Bluebonnet Classic (73-68) and the 2002 Space City Hoops Classic (79-77). LSU won a 1983 game at The Summit (75-65).
  3. A&M beat the Tigers, 79-53, last year in College Station. LSU won in Baton Rouge (64-52) in 2006-07.
  4. The Tigers eliminated the Aggies from the 2006 NCAA Tournament with a memorable 58-57 second-round victory in Jacksonville, Fla. Darrel Mitchell drained a long three-pointer with :03 left to lift LSU to the win. The Tigers went on to the NCAA Final Four.
  5. A&M is 20-30 all-time against members of the Southeastern Conference but has won four straight, including an 86-78 overtime win at Alabama last Saturday. The Aggies are 8-3 in their last 11 games vs. SEC schools.
  6. Mark Turgeon is 2-0 in his career against LSU. In addition to A&M's win last year in College Station, Turgeon's Wichita State team upset the Tigers, 57-53, in Baton Rouge in 2006-07.    

Key Game Notes

  1. The Aggies meet the LSU Tigers for the fourth straight season on Saturday at approximately 4 p.m. at Houston's Toyota Center.
  2. The game is the second in a college basketball double-header. Texas and Michigan State meet in the first game at 1 p.m.
  3. Mark Turgeon 34-12 record ties for the best coaching start in Big 12 history with Tech's Bob Knight (34-12 in 2001-03).
  4. A&M is 1-1 in neutral site games and is 2-1 in all games away from College Station. LSU has played all eight of its games at home.
  5. The Aggies have won five straight and are coming off a 66-56 win against SMU at home on Wednesday. The Tigers are a perfect 8-0 to start the season and defeated Nicholls State, 68-56, at home on Wednesday.
  6. The last time A&M played in Houston was a 70-61 overtime loss at the University of Houston in 2003-04.
  7. The last time A&M played on a neutral court in Houston was at the 2002 Space City Hoops Classic at Reliant Stadium, where the Aggies defeated LSU, 79-77.

Sidebars

  1. The Aggies and Tigers have met in each of the previous three seasons. The only players who have seen action in all three games are A&M's Josh Carter and LSU's Garrett Temple. In the 2006 NCAA game, Carter scored 9 points (3-4 3-pt. FG) and Temple had 8.
  2. A&M has six players from the Houston area -- James Blasczyk (Friendswood HS), Chris Chapman (Memorial HS), Andrew Darko (Conroe HS), Junior Elonu (Alief Elsik HS), B. J. Holmes (Hastings HS) and Nate Walkup (Deer Park HS).

Busy Week

  1. The LSU game is the last of four games A&M has played in the last eight days.
  2. After Saturday's game, the Aggies will be idle until Dec. 28, when they play host to Sam Houston State.

About LSU

  1. The Tigers went 13-18 last year and placed 6th in West Division of the Southeastern Conference at 6-10.
  2. LSU is in its first year under Head Coach Trent Johnson, who led Stanford to three NCAA Tournaments in four seasons. Before that, Johnson spent five years at Nevada, where he led the team to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in 2004.
  3. The Tigers are led by senior guard Marcus Thornton (6-4), who averages 17.3 points per game. Junior forward Tasmin Mitchell (6-7) adds 12.8 points per contest.

Last Year vs. LSU
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP, Jan. 5, 2008)- Mark Turgeon sat most of his starters for the the bulk of the second half. A&M won in front of a non-conference record crowd of 12,255.

SMU Recap
COLLEGE STATION (AP) -  Josh Carter scored 14 points, Bryan Davis grabbed 11 rebounds and Texas A&M defeated SMU 66-56 Wednesday night for the Aggies' fifth straight victory. A 3-pointer by Carter, a steal and a layup by Carter and two inside baskets by B.J. Holmes gave the Aggies a 62-51 lead with 1:39 left. Robert Nyakundi led SMU with 18 points. He hit two 3-pointers as the Mustangs took an early 8-2 lead, but the Aggies (9-1) came back and led 37-27 at the half. The Mustangs have lost four of their last five.

Player Notes

  1. Senior Josh Carter owns the school record for career three-point field goals with 247, which ranks eighth in Big 12 history. The old A&M mark was 232 by Bernard King (1999-03). Carter is the most accurate three-point shooter in school history, making 42.4 percent. He led the nation in 2006-07 by making 50.0 percent.
  2. Carter leads the Big 12 in free throw percentage (.900, 36-40) and has made 20 straight. The school record for a season is .865 by Mike Floyd in 1974-75. In Carter's career, A&M is 57-11 when he scores in double figures.
  3. Carter has had three 20-point games this season, including 23 last Saturday at Alabama, and is averaging a team-best 14.5 points. A two-time honorable mention All-Big 12 pick, he was a second-team preseason selection.
  4. Carter has started in 80 straight games -- every game since the start of his sophomore season. He has played in 111 career games and is on track to break the school record of 132 by Dominique Kirk (2004-08).
  5. Junior Bryan Davis has averaged 10.0 points and 8.2 rebounds in the last five games while making 69.2 (18-26) percent from the field. He leads the team in rebounds (6.8) and is second in blocks (15). Davis was named to the all-tournament team at the South Padre Island Invitational. A&M is 17-3 when Davis scores in double figures.
  6. Junior Donald Sloan has started in 46 straight games since the start of his sophomore year (2007-08). He has scored in double figures in five of the last six games and tied his career-high with 21 points against Florida A&M. Sloan leads the team in assists (4.0) and ranks third in the Big 12 in assist/turnover ratio (2.7).
  7. Junior Chinemelu Elonu scored 17 points with a career-high 14 rebounds and a career-best 6 blocks against Florida A&M. It tied for the third most blocks in school history. In the last three games, Elonu has averaged 10.0 points, 9.7 rebounds and 4.3 blocks.
  8. Sophomore B.J. Holmes has averaged 11.7 points in the last seven games while making 45.7 percent (16-35) from three-point range. Holmes hit a rainbow three-pointer with two seconds left to send the Alabama game into overtime. He led the team in scoring two of the last five games, scoring a career-high 16 points against Alabama and added adding 14 against Arizona.
  9. Junior Derrick Roland scored 10 points against SMU, making 4-of-7 from the field including his only three-point attempt. Roland is regarded as one of the country's top defenders and held Arizona's Chase Budinger to just 3 points on 1-of-6 shooting in the second half of A&M's come-from-behind victory.
  10. Sophomore Nate Walkup has become the Aggies' new "Mr. Clutch" for making big shots in tight games. His trey against Arizona with 20 seconds left proved to be the game-winner. He hit a three-pointer with 14 seconds left at Alabama, which set up B.J. Holmes trey at the end of regulation that sent the game into overtime. Walkup also hit key jumpers late in close games against Stephen F. Austin and SMU.

Team Notes

  1. A&M set Big 12 and A&M records for free throw percentage by making 20-of-20 against Florida A&M last Monday.
  2. In the last five games, A&M has made 83.2 percent (89-107) from the free throw line. The Aggies made just 64.5 percent through the first five games and ranked last in the Big 12 last season at .633.
  3. The Aggies are 24-of-26 (.923) from the free throw line in the last two minutes of "close games," which are defined as games within 10 points. In the last four games, the Aggies are 15-of-16 (.938) in "crunch time."
  4. The Aggies rallied from 14-point deficits to beat Arizona and Alabama. A&M was five points down with 15 seconds left in regulation against Alabama, but came back to win in overtime.
  5. A&M had just 4 turnovers (16 assists) against Arizona, a school record for fewest in a game. Turnovers were not kept as an official statistic until the mid-1970s.
  6. A&M's 74 home wins in the last four years are the second most in the nation in that period behind Memphis (77).
  7. A&M is 61-19 in the last three seasons, ranking it among the winningest teams in the country in that span.
  8. A&M is one of just nine schools to win an NCAA Tournament game in each of the last three seasons.
  9. A&M and Kansas are the only Big 12 schools to win at least 21 games in each of the last four seasons.
  10. In the last eight games, the Aggies are averaging 25.5 bench points.
  11. A&M has scored at least 22 points in the paint in all nine  games, averaging 31.0 points in the paint per game.
  12. The Aggies placed fifth in the preseason Big 12 coaches poll and received votes in both major national polls.

Family Game Day

  1. Texas A&M basketball will present the Family Game Day Experience on Saturday, Jan. 3, when the women's team plays George Washington (5 p.m.) and the men's team plays McNeese State (8 p.m.).
  2. Children (Grades 8 and younger) will be treated to an open-gym with the A&M players as well as t-shirts, posters, etc. Adults will receive a tour and a Q&A session with the coaches.
To register, call 979-845-4531. Cost is $35 for children and $45 for adults and includes game tickets. Without tickets, the price is $30 for children and $40 for adults