By ROBERT CESSNAA pair of somewhat subdued season-ending basketball press conferences took place Thursday at Reed Arena.
Texas A&M men's coach Mark Turgeon had visions of a press conference all right -- in Houston before a ton of national media members as the Aggies answered questions about facing top-seeded Duke on Friday in the Sweet 16. Aggie women's coach Gary Blair expected to be boarding a plane to Sacramento for an eventual showdown with Stanford.
A pair of second-round losses in the northwest ended the Final Four aspirations for both programs. A&M's men lost 63-31 in overtime to Purdue on Sunday in Spokane, Wash., while the women fell to Gonzaga 72-71 on Monday night in Seattle.
Both coaches said those losses will linger.
And Turgeon won't be watching any basketball Friday night.
"I won't be able to watch tomorrow for sure," he said. "I'm trying to make plans, which I don't ever do. I'll be at a movie probably during the Purdue-Duke game or somewhere I don't have to watch it. That will be hard. That will be really hard."
Turgeon, though, believes better days are ahead.
"You just think one time it's going to be A&M's turn to hit that shot," he said. "I know it's coming. The world is round. Things happen. If you watch Seinfeld ... that one show, how it always comes and goes and it's your turn. Eventually, it's going to be our turn. Hopefully, it's a year we have a great team, and we'll win a game at the buzzer we're not supposed to win because we didn't play well. Then it helps us advance and get to where we want to get and where we want to be. We're just saving it up."
Things certainly went hard-luck George Costanza's way at the end of Seinfeld's fifth season, when he landed a job with the New York Yankees. And it had nothing to do with the best man getting hired, just a cosmic bit of karma turning Costanza's way.
Blair said the best team doesn't always win, a cliche we've all seen come to life over and over in sports. He thought the Aggies were better than the Zags, and it's hard to argue the point if you examine the two teams.
"They played tremendous," Blair said of the Zagas. "We played OK. But things happen. They make bumper stickers about that."
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Sloan & Davis will be missed: A&M's men will be hard pressed to replace senior point guard Donald Sloan, who had the ability to create his own shot along with a gift for leading.
"He was pretty special," said Turgeon, who added that the Aggies might have to replace Sloan's ability to score and create scoring opportunities by committee.
The defensive excellence of forward Bryan Davis also will be missed, Turgeon said.
Sloan and the 6-foot-9 Davis have been invited to the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament on April 7-10 in Virginia. Davis also was invited to play in the college all-star game at the Final Four.
Turgeon said Davis' size might allow him to be go in the NBA draft's second round, while Sloan also might have played himself into the second round. Turgeon said both should make a lot of money playing pro basketball over the next decade.
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Sloan among A&M's Top 5?: Turgeon said he's been following A&M basketball for only four years but believes Sloan has to rank among the school's Top 5 players of all time.
That would be a tough list to crack. Acie Law IV and Sonny Parker are no-brainers, but John Beasley, Carroll Broussard, Bennie Lenox, Rynn Wright and Vernon Smith are others to consider.
Sloan has been on four straight NCAA Tournament teams, and he probably would make it on most current Aggie fans' lists since old-timers often get squeezed out.
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Staying put: Turgeon said he hasn't been contacted by any schools looking to hire him away from A&M. His name had been mentioned as a candidate for the Oregon job where the Ducks are looking to replace Ernie Kent. Turgeon was an assistant at Oregon from 1992-97.
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Playing New Mexico in Houston a bust: Turgeon loves to play a tough schedule -- if he has the players to handle it. He won't duck anyone, but he doesn't want to play a team in Dallas, San Antonio or Houston if the fans aren't going to show up, which was the case when the then 16th-ranked Aggies lost to 9-0 New Mexico on Dec. 12 at the Toyota Center in Houston.
"I was disappointed. I can say that now," Turgeon said. "We had 4,000 people at that game. That's disappointing. We'd have had 50,000 this weekend, so now they're mad at me that I didn't get the team there, so now we're even. I thought [the New Mexico game] was ridiculous."
A&M will play in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando next season and play host to Washington in the Big12/Pac 10 Challenge. A&M still has to add a few games finalize its schedule.
Turgeon said it's always tough to get a home-and-home series, because you often have to pay for it, but he added that former head coach Billy Gillispie did a good job of getting A&M to increase the budget for that.
"And I won't let them shrink it," Turgeon said.
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The Roland wait starts: Turgeon will meet Friday with senior guard Derrick Roland, who suffered a season-ending injury against Washington on Dec. 22.
The basketball program is working with David Batson, the school's director of compliance, in making an appeal to the NCAA for Roland to be granted another year of eligibility.
"We're going to fight hard for him," Turgeon said. "I don't want to fight it in the media."
Turgeon said it might be a month or longer before the NCAA rules on Roland, who also has some academic work to do.
The Aggies got a favorable ruling from the NCAA on Dec. 10 when it ruled freshman Ray Turner eligible.
"I don't know if he would have been eligible had it not been for David Batson," said Turgeon.
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Rooting for the Big 12: Turgeon said Syracuse and Kentucky are probably the two best teams in the Sweet 16, but wouldn't be surprised if both lost Thursday night. In fact, Syracuse did, falling 63-59 to Butler.
"It's been a crazy tournament," he said.
Turgeon said he's rooting for all the Big 12 teams.
"Even Baylor?" asked one reporter.
"Even Baylor," Turgeon said. "They got a great team. They got a great shot. They've had a good draw, and they know it and made the most of it and gained confidence."
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A big letdown: Blair said A&M deserved a No. 2 seed but let down the selection committee, the team's seniors and the A&M basketball community with the second-round loss.
He said he's done a lot of second-guessing the final play when Danielle Adams missed a 14-footer along the baseline. Blair said maybe he should have put Tanisha Smith on the wing for a second option.
"But that's playing the what-if game," Blair said.
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Freshmen need to mature: Blair said he's never had such a highly ranked freshman class contribute so little.
Forward Diamond Ashmore and guards Kristi Bellock, Adrienne Pratcher and Cierra Windham scored only 92 points combined.
A&M's schedule, one of the toughest in the country, helped the Aggies earn a high seed for the NCAA tournament, but it didn't allow for many blowouts which didn't give Blair a good chance to give his freshmen some playing time.
Blair is hopeful they hit the weights and conditioning drills hard, stay in College Station for summer school and show up ready for a big fall.
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Play longer: A&M likely will need a big season out of senior-to-be point guard Sydney Colson, who was hampered by a stress reaction in her leg this season.
Blair said Colson has All-Big 12 potential but needs to average more than 20.5 minutes per game.
"But I can't let her play 30 minutes with as many points as she is costing me at one end," Blair said. "I like and need her energy, but she doesn't have to get a steal every time. I just want her to be solid [on defense]."
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Other changes for the women: Guard Maryann Baker and post Kelsey Assarian need to graduate from role players to prime-time players, Blair said.
Wing Tyra White needs to become a consistent scorer on the wing or possibly Sydney Carter needs to move from the point to the wing, provided Colson settles in at the point. Carter, however, has to become a better shooter to play on the wing.
Pratcher needs to earn more playing time at the point.
Incoming freshman Karla Gilbert from A&M Consolidated, a Parade All-American, is expected to be in the rotation from the get-go.
Her size (6-4) will be needed against Baylor, Oklahoma and Iowa State.
Danielle Adams is expected to become a starter next season, but what does that do to A&M's pressure defense if the 6-1 Adams and Gilbert are in the lineup together?
Those are questions that won't be answered until next fall.
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On the mend: A&M senior forward Katrina Limbaha had surgery Thursday to repair her injured shoulder. Junior walk-on Catherine Snow will have shoulder surgery next week.
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