Texas A&M's morning basketball practice was a little more congested than in the past few weeks, which was just fine with coach Mark Turgeon.
Backup guard Derrick Lewis, who has been out with a sprained ankle for nearly a month, returned to the practice court. On Monday, Turgeon dubbed Lewis the Aggies' best practice player.
But most importantly -- and of most interest to A&M and its fans -- point guard Dash Harris, minus the soft cast he had on his right wrist the past week, suited up for both practices.
Harris has tendonitis in the wrist, and he also bruised the other side of it at the end of the regular season. He missed both Big 12 Tournament games, a victory over Nebraska and loss to eventual champion Kansas.
Harris had started 28 of 29 games before that, coming off the bench because of the tendonitis in a win over Baylor.
"[Dash] looked good and if he doesn't have a setback, fall on it again, by Friday [against Utah State in Spokane in the first round of the NCAA Tournament] he should be close to 100 percent," Turgeon said. "The tendonitis is still there and this is just a bone bruise and he's just got to play through a little pain, and I think by Friday the pain will be real limited and he'll be able to do anything he needs to do. The bone bruise has actually helped the tendonitis because of the rest and the soft cast."
Harris leads the team in assists at 3.3 per game and is scoring 5.0 points a game. It's his defense, though, that the Aggies obviously missed in the tournament.
"Defensively and depth, we just didn't guard the way we are capable of guarding last weekend, so we have to get that back and Dash really helps us do that," Turgeon said.
Harris leads the team in steals with 42, but it's the pressure he puts on the ballhandler that the Aggies missed the most.
B.J. Holmes did more than was asked of him in running the team from the point in Harris' absence. He only committed two turnovers and did well defensively despite the numbers -- 26 points -- All-American Sherron Collins put up in the semifinals.
"B.J. did a great job of guarding the ball," Harris said. "A lot of things off the dribble and trying to create his own shot, B.J. did a great job of getting in front of him. I told my teammates that watching from the bench hurt more than my wrist did. Every bucket [Collins] scored, it was eating me up."
Harris is working his way back slowly. He started Monday with dribbling, which he said was no problem and added he hopes to add a dimension to his game each day.
"I haven't even tried to shoot yet," Harris said. "Certain things, passing I use my wrist a lot so I haven't done too much of that, the tape limits my motion. I'm going to ease my way back into it, not take too many steps in one day."
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One of the few disappointments for Turgeon about the NCAA Tournament bracket was that the first game will feel more like a road game than a home game for the Texas Aggies against the Utah State Aggies.
Turgeon said he believed a team that worked so hard to finish second in the No. 1 RPI conference in the nation should not have to play so far from home.
The good news is that A&M has probably already gone through the worst scenario it could possibly face, taking on No. 1 Kansas in Kansas City in the semis of the Big 12 Tournament, and was leading for most of the game.
"We won't play in a tougher environment in the NCAAs, and there may be a team better than Kansas, but we'll have to see," Turgeon said.
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For first-team All-Big 12 performer Donald Sloan, who arguably raised his game a level or two at the Big 12 Tournament, the end of a great career is near.
The senior guard from Seagoville plans on three more weeks of playing for the Aggies. Still, he knows that things are about to change.
"After this you never know what is going to happen," Sloan said. "I'm not going to be on a team as close as this one. Not going to get the media coverage like we do now. Like to soak it all now, the last few weeks of being an A&M player, because after that I'll be a former Texas A&M basketball player."
With what Sloan has done at A&M -- he and Bryan Davis will leave as the winningest players in program history -- he won't be a forgotten A&M basketball player.
With a good NCAA run, Sloan could finish fifth all-time in scoring at A&M. He is currently eighth, right behind Josh Carter, with 1,501 points. He's also eighth in assists with 363 and tied for sixth with Acie Law IV with 114 3-pointers.
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