The Texas A&M basketball team is on the verge of going to its fifth straight NCAA Tournament, and yet with all that success the Aggies have only once had one of the four byes in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament.
The Aggies could have their second bye by Saturday night, when the Big 12 regular season will be over.
All 12 teams play on Saturday, with A&M and Oklahoma tipping off the day's schedule at 11 a.m. in Norman, Okla. Win or lose, the Aggies may not know if they get that bye until the 5 p.m. Kansas State-Iowa State game is over.
The least complicated scenario of the many that involve five teams is if the Aggies win at OU, they need either Missouri or Baylor to lose to get that extra day of rest. Baylor is hosting Texas and Missouri is entertaining Big 12 champion Kansas, one of only four teams that knows its seed going into Saturday.
A&M would get the No. 2 seed if it tied only Kansas State and Missouri at 11-5. For that to happen, KSU and Baylor would have to lose to Iowa State and Texas, respectively, and Missouri would have to upset Kansas.
If A&M loses to OU, the Aggies would still receive a bye if Missouri loses and Baylor wins at home against Texas. A Texas victory in that case would definitely reduce A&M's chances, because the Longhorns have one of the first tiebreakers over A&M and Baylor -- a better divisional record. The difference between the three teams would then be that the Longhorns swept Oklahoma State, while Baylor and A&M split with the Cowboys.
Having a bye would appear to be a must for winnning the Big 12 Tournament, as no team that has had to win four games in a row has ever won the title and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The one time the Aggies had the bye they did little with it, losing to Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals in Oklahoma City in 2007.
A&M has not had much luck in Norman, winning just once in 15 attempts, but this is not the same Sooner team the Aggies are used to facing. Oklahoma has lost seven straight games and will either be the ninth or 10th seed in the upcoming tournament.
The Sooners have been without preseason All-American Willie Warren for most of the Big 12 season and are relying on two freshmen -- 5-foot-10 Tommy Mason-Griffin and 6-10 Tiny Gallon -- for most of their production.
*
NOTES -- Saturday's game will be Mark Turgeon's 100th as A&M's coach. He is 70-29. ... The other three teams locked in to their seeds for the Big 12 Tournament are Oklahoma State at No. 7, Iowa State at No. 11 and Nebraska at No. 12. ... With Warren, The Sooners led the Aggies going into the final minute at Reed Arena, but Donald Sloan scored the final four points to give A&M a 65-62 victory.
TEXAS A&M BASKETBALL
* Saturday's game: No. 23 Texas A&M (21-8, 10-5 Big 12) at Oklahoma (13-16, 4-11), 11 a.m.
* TV/radio: ESPN, Ch. 27/WTAW, 1620 AM
LINEUPS
TEXAS A&M (21-8, 10-5 BIG 12)
PLAYER POS. HT. WT. CL. PPG RPG
Dash Harris G 6-1 175 So. 5.0* 3.4
Donald Sloan G 6-3 205 Sr. 18.1 3.7
Khris Middleton F 6-7 215 Fr. 6.1 3.7
David Loubeau F 6-8 230 So. 9.2 4.9
Bryan Davis F 6-9 250 Sr. 9.9 7.9
OKLAHOMA (13-16, 4-11)
PLAYER POS. HT. WT. CL. PPG RPG
T.Mason-Griffin G 5-10 203 Fr. 13.8* 4.9
Cade Davis G 6-5 199 Jr. 10.3 3.7
Tony Crocker G 6-6 209 Sr. 11.8 6.3
Beau Gerber F 6-8 230 Sr. 0.6 0.3
Ryan Wright F 6-9 241 Sr. 4.2 4.4
*assists per game
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