Wednesday's update on Texas A&M's M*A*S*H unit, otherwise known as the men's basketball team, included good and bad.
A&M senior point guard Dash Harris hurt his arch on the final play of the first half of A&M's 64-54 loss at Kansas on Monday. He returned in the second half but played with a decided limp and couldn't perform at the level he did in the first half, when he scored all four of his points, grabbed six of his eight rebounds, had four of his seven assists and both of his steals.
The good news is Harris' sprained arch shouldn't keep him out long, if at all.
"There's no permanent damage. It's just sore for him," A&M head coach Billy Kennedy said. "So it'll be a situation that's day-to-day, and we don't know if he'll play or not on Saturday at Reed Arena againt Oklahoma State. We sure hope so."
If Harris can't play, Kennedy said he's not sure who will run the point.
Elston Turner, who is more of a shooting guard, is considered Plan B since freshman point guard Jamal Branch transferred to St. John's last month. Plan C is moving forward Khris Middleton to the point, but he missed the Kansas game to rest his knee, which has been giving him trouble since he injured it the first game of the season.
"Obviously, Elston will have to handle the ball the majority of the time and get us in offense, which I think he can do," Kennedy said. "But after that we're just going to be experimenting. Naji Hibbert may be the next best ball-handler on the team, but that's not his natural position by any means. The good thing is we've got all week, and knowing Dash and his toughness, I think there's a chance that he could play."
Kennedy said Harris wanted to play in the second half Monday despite being hobbled. Kennedy let him because he was told the injury couldn't get any worse.
Kennedy seemed less certain about the availability of Middleton, who played 10 games after having minor knee surgery but collided with Ray Turner on Saturday in A&M's 81-75 overtime victory over Oklahoma and bruised the same knee.
"They want to do another MRI," Kennedy said. "He feels better not using it obviously, but his situation is day-to-day also. I really don't want him to practice until he's close to 100 percent, because it didn't work the last couple of weeks, taking days off and going half speed. I don't want to have that in our practice. I don't think it's good for him or good for us."
Forward Kourtney Roberson is also out with an injured foot, although he is no longer wearing a boot. Kennedy originally said Roberson would be out four to six weeks, which means he could return as early as next week.
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Kennedy could be in similar situation next season at point guard with the graduation of Harris, who is playing 35 minutes a game in Big 12 play.
Kennedy stayed in Kansas City to watch a junior college game Tuesday night. He has one very good selling point in recruiting: the opportunity to play.
"We are all over the place recruiting," Kennedy said. "We know we need perimeter help, and we would like to get one post guy. We need to provide some depth, so we don't have an A, B or C issue at the point. That was something I was concerned about in May when I got the job, do we have enough guards that can get the ball up the floor. If everything went right, we may have made it through, but it didn't, so that's why we are in the situation we are in."
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With Harris slowed, Elston Turner and David Loubeau took all but two of A&M's shots in the second half against Kansas. The other two shots came in the first 10 minutes of the 24-point half for the Aggies.
Turner and Loubeau each took 18 shots for the game, with Turner totaling 24 points and Loubeau 15.
"We've got to have a third scorer step up and a second scorer now with Khris not playing," Kennedy said. "Loubeau has to continue to be a 14- to 16-point scorer. We got six points off the bench the other day, and that's six points more than a dead man. We don't get a lot of scoring off the bench, so we have to have some guys step up and make shots and get some confidence and still be good defensively."
A&M's bench points came courtesy of two first-half Daniel Alexander 3-pointers. Ray Turner, who is averaging 9.9 points a game, played 10 minutes and did not take a shot or grab a rebound.
Kansas only got one more point from its bench but had three players score in double figures and a fourth with eight points.
A&M's bench had more fouls (eight) than points and nearly as many turnovers (4).
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The Aggie women are seeing a lot of zone defenses, and until they start shooting better and scoring in transition, teams will continue to pack in their defense to counter A&M's size advantage.
The Aggies have shot less than 40 percent in all but one of their losses. Part of that obviously is poor shooting, but some of it is not getting any easy baskets in transition.
In the 57-53 loss to Oklahoma State on Tuesday, A&M did not have a fast-break point despite forcing 28 turnovers.
"We've got to get the ball into post, and at same time we've got to do better than hitting one out of three jumpshots by our perimeter players," A&M head women's coach Gary Blair said. "We have some problems, and you think that you have fixed it by winning three games, two on the road, and then all of a sudden that ugly thing reappears and you settle to become a jump-shooting team."
Being at the halfway mark with plans of making a run in the NCAA tournament, Blair gave his own state of the union address to the players, telling them what they need to improve on and what they've done well.
He then took it a step further.
"The economy is good because people are coming to see us," Blair said. "Fans have kept us in a number of games here where we might not deserve to win, but our fans have been great."
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The box score included some strange individual lines in the A&M women's loss at OSU. A few that stand out: Sydney Carter's 2 for 14 from the field, Kelsey Bones' no defensive rebounds in 27 minutes of play and only six points from the bench. A&M also had twice as many turnovers as assists (26-13). For the season, A&M has one more turnover than assist (285-284). Last season, A&M finished with 619 assists to 532 turnovers.
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Blair said OSU celebrated like they had just won a conference championship after beating A&M.
"Give them credit, another team beat the defending national champion," Blair said. "We are going to get everyone's best, and we've got to respond to that."
OSU is unranked at 12-4 overall and 4-3 in the Big 12.
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The move to the SEC next season is beginning to hit home with Blair, who after 10 years at Arkansas has been in the Big 12 with the Aggies for nine years.
"I had the opportunity to go to Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday and Stillwater on Tuesday, and that's the last swing playing those Big 12 teams," Blair said. "Those two places are my two favorite places in the league."
Blair took it a little further the night before after the loss at OSU.
"I hate not coming back to this place," Blair said. "You get a familiarity with the schools, and your fans get going and it's just great. Now we're going to have to go find new teams and new rivalries. We're going to the SEC. I'll spin it a different way next year."
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A&M's men will play both of their games against Baylor before the A&M-BU women's teams meet for the first time this season.
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