Aggie Basketball Game #13:
Texas A&M (8-4; 0-1 SEC) at No. 6 Kentucky (11-2; 1-0 SEC)
Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017 · 8 p.m. (CT)
Rupp Arena (23,000) · Lexington, Ky.
 TV: ESPN (For more info – 12thMan.com/TV)
  Dave O'Brien, Play-by-Play
  Dick Vitale, Commentary
  Kaylee Hartung, Reporter
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RADIO: WTAW 1620 AM (Bryan-College Station)
  Dave South, Play-by-Play
  Mike Caruso, Commentary
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SATELLITE RADIO: Sirius 134 / XM Ch. 191
LIVE AUDIO/STATS: 12thman.com/live
LIVE MOBILE LIVE STATS: tamustats.com
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COLLEGE STATION – After squaring off in a pair of epic showdowns and sharing the SEC Championship last year, Texas A&M and No. 6 Kentucky will face off during the first of two scheduled meetings on the hardwood this season Tuesday at 8 p.m. (CT) when the Aggies visit UK's Rupp Arena.
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Tuesday's affair will be nationally televised on ESPN with Dave O'Brien calling the play-by-play action, Dick Vitale providing color commentary and Kaylee Hartung reporting from the sidelines. Additionally, radio coverage will be available on the Aggie Sports Network, which can be heard locally in the Bryan/College Station area on WTAW (1620 AM).
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A year ago the schools gave the SEC one of its most memorable intra-conference battles of the regular season on Feb. 20 when the Aggies defeated the Wildcats 79-77 in overtime with a buzzer-beater from Tyler Davis. For Davis, the bucket put the final touches on an impressive double-double that left the then-freshman with 15 points and 12 boards.
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The race for the 2016 SEC crown came down the final weekend of conference play with both schools posting a 13-5 league record to share the conference title.
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As fate would have it, the two teams would again face one another in a similarly remarkable encore during the championship game of the 2016 SEC Tournament. The Wildcats got a measure of revenge as the rematch also went into overtime where UK emerged with a 82-77 victory.
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Five Aggie players have seen action against the Wildcats in their career, led by senior Tavario Miller who has faced UK in four games.
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Texas A&M (8-4; 0-1 SEC) enters Tuesday's contest seeking its first SEC victory of the season after falling at home to Tennessee last Thursday while Kentucky (11-2; 1-0 SEC) opened conference play with a 99-76 win at Ole Miss.
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SETTING THE SCENE
• The Aggies play their first true road game of the season as they travel to Lexington to face No. 8 Kentucky inside Rupp Arena ... A year ago, Texas A&M stood out as the only SEC team to post a non-losing record on the road in league play a year ago (5-5).• The series between Texas A&M and Kentucky (six games) has been hotly contested since the Aggies joined the SEC prior to the 2012-13 campaign with all but one game being decided by eight or less points and four games going to overtime. The margin of victory in the series is 7.0 points.
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AGGIES AMONG THE SEC & NATIONAL LEADERS (Through 12/30 games)
• The Aggies rank as one of the SEC's top defensive teams, ranking third in the league in both scoring defense at 64.6 points allowed per game and field goal percentage defense at .385 while being fourth in blocked shots 5.8 per game ... The Aggies rank 19th nationally in blocked shots per game.• On the offensive end, A&M has shown efficiency, ranking third in SEC by shooting 46.9 percent from the field as a team as well as 25th nationally (second in SEC) in assists with an average of 17.6 per contest ... The Aggies are 17th in the country with a 1.49 assist-to-turnover ratio (second in SEC).
 • In the rebounding column, A&M checks in at second in rebounding margin at +5.9 while leading the entire league in offensive rebound percentage at 39.6 percent ... The Aggies are 15th nationally in offensive rebounds per game.
• Nationally, the Aggies rank 15th in fewest fouls this season (193) and 47th in fewest turnovers per contest (11.8).
• Rookie Robert Williams continues to stand out as one of the SEC's brightest freshman, ranking second in the league with 29 blocked shots for an average of 2.4 per game.
• Sophomore Tyler Davis ranks fifth in the SEC in total rebounding at 7.8 per contest while pacing the league on the offensive glass at 3.9 offensive rebounds per outing ... he leads the SEC in field goal percentage, shooting 60.4 percent from the field.
• Second-year guard Admon Gilder appears throughout the lists of SEC statistical leaders, ranking second in steals per game (2.0), third in minutes played (32.2) and fourth in assists per game (4.5).
• Sophomore DJ Hogg continues to rank among the SEC's top sharpshooters, checking in at seventh in the league by shooting 39.2 percent from long range while making 2.4 3-point baskets per contest, third in the SEC.
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TRENDS & SUPERLATIVES
• Freshman Robert Williams collected a swat in all 12 games this season to post the longest streak by an Aggie since Bryan Davis had a 17-game block streak from Nov. 29, 2009 to Feb. 3, 2010.• Junior Tonny Trocha-Morelos pulled down a career-high 12 rebounds during Thursday's loss to Tennessee, producing his second double-digit board contest in his last three games ... He's averaging 9.3 rebounds per contest in his last three games.
• Second-year forward DJ Hogg tied a career-best with five 3-point baskets (5-for-7) in Dec. 21st's win over St Francis ... in his last two games, Hogg is shooting 57.1 percent from 3-point range (8-for-14) with an 18.0 point-per-game average.
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NOTING KENTUCKY
• Kentucky comes into Tuesday's match-up with an 11-2 record with their only two losses coming to No. 2 UCLA and No. 6 Louisville ... The Wildcats opened SEC play with a 99-76 victory at Ole Miss last Thursday.• Highlighted by last season's outstanding recruiting class that was ranked No. 1 nationally by ESPN, the Wildcats are once again one of the youngest and most talented teams in the country ... Five ESPN Top 100 recruits highlights the group, including Top-10 prospects Bam Adebayo, De'Aaron Fox and Malik Monk.
• The Wildcats standing out as the SEC's top scoring team, averaging 93.5 points per to contest and shooting 48.5 percent from the field.
• Rookie Malik Monk leads the league in scoring by contributing 22.4 points per game while fellow freshman De'Aaron Fox is 10th at 15.6 points per game and sophomore Isaiah Briscoe checks in at 11th at 15.5.
• UK head coach John Calipari, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, has guided six teams to the Final Four, in coaching stops at UMass, Memphis and Kentucky.
• UK is coming off a 27-9 campaign a year ago that saw it share the 2016 SEC title with Texas A&M before defeating the Aggies in the final of the SEC Tournament ... The Wildcats' season came to an end in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a 73-67 loss to Indiana.
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SERIES HISTORY VS KENTUCKY (UK LEADS 6-3)
• Tuesday will be the 10th meeting between the Aggies & Wildcats on the hardwood and the seventh since A&M joined the SEC.• The two schools first met during the 1941-42 season when the 'Cats earned a 49-29 victory.
• Last season, the two teams faced off in a pair of epic contests en route to sharing the SEC Championship ... On Feb. 20, the 24th-ranked Aggie defeated No. 14 UK on a buzzer-beating put-back by Tyler Davis ... On March 16, the Wildcats, then ranked No. 16, got a measure of revenge by defeating No. 17 Texas A&M in overtime, 82-77, during the final of the SEC Tournament in Nashville.
• Two years ago on Jan. 10, 2015, the top-ranked Wildcats got their biggest scare of what would be an undefeated regular season as they edged the Aggies 70-64 in double overtime at Reed Arena.
• On Jan. 12, 2013, during its first visit to Rupp Arena as an SEC team, A&M became the first team to hand John Calipari a home conference loss at Kentucky ... UK saw its 24-game home SEC win streak snapped in the affair.
• A&M's Billy Kennedy is 2-4 against Kentucky.
• Kennedy's head coaching counterpart, UK's John Calipari, is 5-2 all-time against the Aggies ... Before his tenure at UK, his lone contest against Texas A&M came on March 22, 2007, while coaching at Memphis ... The Tigers defeated the Aggies 65-64 during the NCAA Tournament's South Regional semifinal at San Antonio's Alamodome.
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