KANSAS CITY -- Texas A&M head men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon is feeling pretty good going into this year's Big 12 tournament.
He has a bye for the first time in his three years at A&M. His team has been playing better and better as the season has progressed, and he believes the Aggies are in a no-lose situation when it comes to making the NCAA Tournament.
"I think these games play a part in your seeding, and maybe we can help our seeding this weekend," Turgeon said. "I'm not sure we can hurt it because we are playing really good teams, but we definitely think it could help our seeding."
The No. 4 seed Aggies will open at 2 p.m. Thursday against No. 12 seed Nebraska in the quarterfinals at the Sprint Center. Nebraska upset No. 5 seed Missouri 75-60 in the first round Wednesday.
A&M has won 8 of 10 entering the tournament with its two losses to No. 1 Kansas and No. 21 Baylor. And after playing in close games throughout much of the Big 12 season, the Aggies have won three straight by double-digits.
"Quite frankly, I don't see how [Kansas] won," Turgeon said of A&M's 59-54 loss to the Jayhawks. "They didn't play well. We didn't play well and the game was right there for us to win. At Baylor, I thought Baylor was great, and if we could have just got one rebound we'd have won that game. The good thing is late in year we've been dominant at home, which was a relief."
After losing 70-66 at Baylor on Feb. 24, the Aggies became the only team in the Big 12 this season to win three straight by at least 10 points, beating Texas 74-58 and Oklahoma State 76-61 at Reed Arena and Oklahoma 69-54 in Norman, Okla.
It was the first time the Aggies had finished a season winning three straight by double digits in more than 75 years. A&M had won five Big 12 games by four points or less prior to that stretch.
"All the close games and then to break a record like that ... that was refreshing down the stretch," Turgeon said. "Dash [Harris] got hurt Saturday and he wanted to play and not having to put him back in was nice."
Harris hurt his right wrist in the second half against Oklahoma and has been wearing a soft cast on it. He had trouble with the wrist earlier this season and injured it in a different place Saturday.
While the Aggies are a lock for the NCAA Tournament, they have plenty left to play for before Sunday's 65-team field is announced.
"I think you are always trying to get better, and if you advance in this tournament it means you are beating good teams," Turgeon said. "I think anything you can do this time of year helps your program. I'm looking forward to going up there and playing well and hopefully staying a little bit longer than we stayed last year in Oklahoma City."
A&M lost to the Mike Singletary-led Red Raiders in the first round last year.
Donald Sloan, only the second A&M player to be selected first team All-Big 12, remembered how Singletary carved up the Aggies for 43 points. He doesn't want a repeat in his final Big 12 Championship appearance.
"We fell really short losing the first game without a bye," Sloan said. "I said before the season my goal was to get at least to the semifinals, if not win it all. It will be tough no matter who we are playing because everyone plays their best basketball at the tournament."
If A&M wins it's opener, it likely will face Kansas, the No. 1 seed for the sixth time in 13 years.
"I feel our chances are good since we played well against a No. 1 team in Kansas," Sloan said. "We played them pretty well even though it was our home court. We feel pretty good about having a chance to compete against them."
A&M has not had much luck at the Big 12 tournament over the years, winning two games only once. In 2008 in Turgeon's first year at A&M, the Aggies beat Iowa State 60-47 and No. 3 seed Kansas State 63-60 in the first two rounds at the Sprint Center. A&M then lost to eventual national champion Kansas 77-71 in the semifinals.
"We had some success there, won two games and we pushed the national champion to a possession game at the end, so we are confident going back there," Turgeon said. "It's been a good building for us. It's good for me to get home. I see a lot of familiar faces, and it makes me feel good about myself and what I've done."
A&M has had a bye just twice before, going 1-2 in those tournaments. The Aggies beat Colorado 86-53 in the quarterfinals but lost 74-70 in the semifinals to Texas as the No. 4 seed in 2006 in Dallas. As the No. 2 seed in 2007, A&M lost to Oklahoma State 57-56 in the quarterfinals.
*
NOTES -- Only four teams have made the Big 12 tournament final without a bye: No. 9 seed Baylor last year, No. 5 seed Missouri in 2003, No. 5 seed Oklahoma State in 1999 and No. 10 seed Missouri in 1997. All four lost in the title game.
Notice about comments:
Theeagle.com is pleased to offer readers the ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. theeagle.com cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not theeagle.com. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "report abuse" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website. Full terms and conditions can be read here.
Aggiesports.com is proud to offer our users enhanced commenting features. You can now build user-to-user connections, follow friends’ recent posts, add an avatar that fits your personality and more. If you have posted here before you’ll need to sign up again, and if you’ve never posted start now by signing up! If you've already registered for the new comments on www.theeagle.com then just use your Eagle username to log in and start commenting.