SPOKANE, Wash -- Five first rounds, five victories. It doesn't sound all that daunting to pull off, but it is.
And the best way to prove it is that the roll call for the accomplishment is down to two schools this season.
Six teams began the season with a chance at a fifth straight first-round victory in the NCAA tournament. Three of them didn't even make the Big Dance. A fourth, Texas, lost in overtime on Thursday.
That leaves Pittsburgh and Texas A&M.
Considering North Carolina, UCLA and Connecticut were among the six, it's not bad company for the Aggies, who had not made the NCAA tournament for 19 years when they began the streak in 2006.
Now it's time for the Aggies to put together a long winning streak in one tournament like the other five schools on the list have. Winning five straight first-round games is a nice note, and considering from where A&M came, it's almost impossible to believe (at least for those of us who saw the Aggies play in the late 1990s and early 2000s).
But in truth, it doesn't match making one Final Four.
Very few people remember first-round winners. After all, there are 32 of them each year. Win a first-round game and you share publicity nationwide with 31 other schools for a day or two, then people forget you.
Make a Final Four and you have a starring role in a week-long series.
A&M basketball is still starving for that kind of attention. A&M came close to getting it when All-American guard Acie Law IV and former head coach Billy Gillispie came a point away from knocking off Memphis and reaching the Elite Eight in 2007. A&M had made some noise at storied Rupp Arena when it beat Louisville in the second-round that year.
If A&M is to take that next step, there must be more.
The Aggies are setting themselves up to duplicate 2007 or better.
A win over Purdue on Sunday would likely give the Aggies an opportunity to knock off one of the best basketball program over the last 25 years in Duke. A victory over Duke would be the signature win the Aggies need to announce they've reached the next level.
Putting the Aggies in the Elite Eight is premature, but finishing in a tie for second in the Big 12 and beating the WAC champion convincingly in the first round of the NCAAs makes it seem possible.
"We're proud of that," A&M head coach Mark Turgeon said of reaching the second round for the fifth straight year, "but we didn't come here just to win the first game. It's huge, but hopefully down the road we'll expect to be in it and expect to make runs."
A&M has a great chance to make one right now.
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