Saturday, January 25
Austin, Texas
1:30 PM
Texas A&M
at
Texas
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
F/C
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
Photo by: Craig Bisacre/Texas A&M Athletics
No. 13 Aggies Face Longhorns in Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown
Jan 24, 2025 | Men's Basketball
AUSTIN – The No. 13 Texas A&M men's basketball team (15-4 overall/4-2 vs. SEC) makes its first trip to the state capital in more than a decade for a road matchup with the Texas Longhorns at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Moody Center.
STATISTICAL COMPARISON
NEED-TO-KNOWS
MIRROR OPPONENTS: Saturday's game will be the second game of the Aggies' "mirror" matchup with the Longhorns. The M&W has won the first game in its three mirror series. Other upcoming mirror games are Oklahoma (1/28) and at LSU (3/8).
RIVALRY SERIES: Texas A&M's 80-60 win over Texas at Reed Arena (1/4) gave the Aggies a half-point in the Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown rivalry series. Another half-point is up for grabs on Saturday.
NET SUCCESS: As of 1/23, Texas A&M has earned 10 wins against NET Quad 1/2 opponents, including six Q1 conquests. A&M is tied for second-most Q1/Q2 wins behind the 11 by Auburn and Alabama and tied for third-most Q1 wins behind Auburn (10) and Oregon (8).
AP SUCCESS: The Aggies are 5-2 vs. AP Top 25 teams, which ties for the most ranked wins in school history (with 1978-79 Aggies) and ties for second-most ranked wins among all D1 teams in 2024-25.
FULL STRENGTH AGGIES: All four of the Aggies' losses in 2024-25 have come when they were missing a key player due to injury - Zhuric Phelps (out) at UCF; Wade Taylor IV (out) vs. Alabama, at Kentucky; and Solomon Washington (6 minutes before exiting).
ZHU IMPACT: SMU transfer Zhuric Phelps ranks No. 2 in scoring with 20.7 points per SEC game.
He is the league's only player averaging 20.0+ points and 6.0+ rebounds in SEC games.
With 124 points in SEC games, he is one of four players with 100 or more (Mark Sears, UA, 127; Walter Clayton Jr., UF, 115, Alijah Martin, UF, 108).
PAYNE TRAIN: Minnesota transfer Pharrel Payne hit 66.7 of his FGA (4-of-6) vs. OM on 1/22 and his season FG% actually went down (68.8 to 68.6).
Since the start of December, Payne has been bringing the pain with a 81.1 FG% (43-53), which leads the nation in that span of time (min. 30 FGA).
He's hitting 80.0% (24-30) in SEC games, which leads the league among players with at least 25 FGA. He draws an average of 5.3 fouls per SEC game.
FORMULA FOR SUCCESS: Texas A&M pounds the offensive glass for a NCAA-best 16.4 offensive rebounds/G, which helps the Aggies average 5.1 FGA/G than its opponents.
The Aggies also average 2.6 fewer turnovers, 6.4 more free throw attempts and 2.5 fewer personal fouls than their opponents.
TREND BULLETS
TV/RADIO
- It will be the Aggies' first game in Austin since 2012.
- The Aggies beat the Longhorns, 80-60, in the first meeting for the SEC "mirror" opponents at Reed Arena on 1/4.
- Texas is the most-played opponent for Texas A&M with 225 previous meetings. Texas leads the all-time series, 138-87.
STATISTICAL COMPARISON
| Statistic | Texas | TX Opp. | Texas A&M | A&M Opp. |
| FGM | 27.8 | 23.6 | 25.9 | 21.6 |
| FGA | 57.5 | 57.4 | 60.7 | 55.6 |
| FG% | 0.483 | 0.411 | 0.426 | 0.389 |
| 3PM | 7.7 | 6.4 | 6.8 | 8.2 |
| 3PA | 20.7 | 20.2 | 22.6 | 26.7 |
| 3P% | 0.373 | 0.316 | 0.303 | 0.307 |
| FTM | 16.1 | 12.6 | 17.1 | 14.1 |
| FTA | 21.5 | 19.1 | 25.1 | 18.7 |
| FT% | 0.748 | 0.663 | 0.679 | 0.753 |
| Off. Reb | 9.6 | 10.6 | 16.4 | 10.6 |
| Def. Reb | 26 | 22.6 | 25.3 | 22.2 |
| Rebounds | 35.6 | 33.2 | 41.7 | 32.8 |
| Assists | 13.2 | 11.5 | 12.4 | 14.1 |
| Steals | 6.8 | 5.3 | 8.2 | 7.6 |
| Blocks | 4.3 | 2.8 | 4.5 | 5 |
| Turnovers | 9.7 | 12.4 | 12.2 | 14.8 |
| Points | 79.4 | 66.2 | 75.7 | 65.6 |
NEED-TO-KNOWS
MIRROR OPPONENTS: Saturday's game will be the second game of the Aggies' "mirror" matchup with the Longhorns. The M&W has won the first game in its three mirror series. Other upcoming mirror games are Oklahoma (1/28) and at LSU (3/8).
RIVALRY SERIES: Texas A&M's 80-60 win over Texas at Reed Arena (1/4) gave the Aggies a half-point in the Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown rivalry series. Another half-point is up for grabs on Saturday.
NET SUCCESS: As of 1/23, Texas A&M has earned 10 wins against NET Quad 1/2 opponents, including six Q1 conquests. A&M is tied for second-most Q1/Q2 wins behind the 11 by Auburn and Alabama and tied for third-most Q1 wins behind Auburn (10) and Oregon (8).
AP SUCCESS: The Aggies are 5-2 vs. AP Top 25 teams, which ties for the most ranked wins in school history (with 1978-79 Aggies) and ties for second-most ranked wins among all D1 teams in 2024-25.
FULL STRENGTH AGGIES: All four of the Aggies' losses in 2024-25 have come when they were missing a key player due to injury - Zhuric Phelps (out) at UCF; Wade Taylor IV (out) vs. Alabama, at Kentucky; and Solomon Washington (6 minutes before exiting).
ZHU IMPACT: SMU transfer Zhuric Phelps ranks No. 2 in scoring with 20.7 points per SEC game.
He is the league's only player averaging 20.0+ points and 6.0+ rebounds in SEC games.
With 124 points in SEC games, he is one of four players with 100 or more (Mark Sears, UA, 127; Walter Clayton Jr., UF, 115, Alijah Martin, UF, 108).
PAYNE TRAIN: Minnesota transfer Pharrel Payne hit 66.7 of his FGA (4-of-6) vs. OM on 1/22 and his season FG% actually went down (68.8 to 68.6).
Since the start of December, Payne has been bringing the pain with a 81.1 FG% (43-53), which leads the nation in that span of time (min. 30 FGA).
He's hitting 80.0% (24-30) in SEC games, which leads the league among players with at least 25 FGA. He draws an average of 5.3 fouls per SEC game.
FORMULA FOR SUCCESS: Texas A&M pounds the offensive glass for a NCAA-best 16.4 offensive rebounds/G, which helps the Aggies average 5.1 FGA/G than its opponents.
The Aggies also average 2.6 fewer turnovers, 6.4 more free throw attempts and 2.5 fewer personal fouls than their opponents.
TREND BULLETS
- Texas A&M and Tennessee are the only SEC schools that haven't allowed more than 28 FGM in a game this season. The two teams are No. 1 and No. 2 among SEC schools in FGM defense at 20.7 (UT) and 21.6 (TAMU).
- Texas A&M hoops has rallied from a 15-point or more deficit to at least a tie six times in the past two seasons, including twice already in 2024-25. (Comeback history on page 6)
- Texas A&M has earned at least 20 trips to the FT line 14 times (11-3 record). The Aggies have earned 40+ FTA in three games, including 48 vs. Alabama (3rd-most in school history).
- The Aggies hit 77.8% on FTA vs. OM, but their seven FTM were the second-fewest of the season.
- Texas A&M averages just 1.6 free throw MAKES fewer than its opponents' free throw ATTEMPTS per game (17.1 FTM to 18.7 FTA).
- Pharrel Payne ranks No. 2 among SEC players in FTM and FTA in league games with averages 4.8 FTM and 7.5 FTA/G, but he earns his trips in just 19:30 of action per game.
- Wade Taylor IV's 4-point game vs. OM (1/22) stopped his streak of double-digit games at 21. Despite seeing 29:00 minutes of action vs. OM (1/22) and taking six 2-point FGA, Taylor only drew two fouls and zero FTA.
- Taylor has made 50-56 FTA (.893) this season.
- He averages a 2.18 assist/turnover ratio, well ahead of his career best of 1.49 in 2022-23.
- Zhuric Phelps has reached double-digit points in 10 straight games and 15 of 18 as an Aggie. He has 5+ rebounds in eight straight games, including a season-high 10 vs. ACU (12/28).
- Phelps needs four steals to reach an exclusive group of D1 players with 1,400+ points, 400+ rebounds, 250+ assists and 200 steals. A fourth-year senior, Phelps would join five other Covid 5th year players to reach the numbers - Mark Sears, Alabama; Dayvion McKnight, Xavier; Kadary Richmond, St. John's; Nendah Tarke, Towson; and Posh Alexander, Dayton.
- Texas A&M has earned 40+ rebounds in 12 games, while just allowing 40+ opponent rebounds just three times. The Aggies rank No. 11 nationally in rebound margin at 8.9/G.
- In the "doing the little things" category, Andersson Garcia led the Aggies with a +9 plus/minus vs. Ole Miss while scoring zero points (0-1 FGA), grabbing five rebounds (2 off/3 def), blocking two shots and dishing an assist in 21 minutes.
- The Aggies are 4-1 in games when the opponent hits 10+ 3-pointers and 5-1 when the opponent connects on more than 34.0% of its 3FGA.
TV/RADIO
- The matchup airs on the Texas A&M Radio Network, locally on 1620 AM/94.5 FM or worldwide on the 12th Man Mobile App with Andrew Monaco and Dr. John Thornton describing the action. It is also available on SiriusXM on channels: 160 or 192.
- The game will be broadcast on ESPN2 with Tom Hart and Dane Bradshaw providing the description.
Media Availability: Bucky McMillan
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