By ROBERT CESSNAKANSAS CITY -- Donald Sloan wanted the basketball, and the Aggies needed to get it to him.
Texas A&M's seemingly insurmountable 16-point lead was down to a point after a bucket by Nebraska's Jorge Brian Diaz. Cornhusker fans finally had something to cheer about while Aggies everywhere had to be suffering from horrific flashbacks to recent Big 12 tournament losses -- against Texas Tech last year and Oklahoma State three years ago.
Sloan played in both of those losses but was more focused on the present. His body language seemed to be demanding for the ball from B.J. Holmes, who gladly obliged. It didn't matter that Sloan was well behind the 3-point arc or that he faced a tough shooting angle. He was taking the shot, which hit nothing but net to push A&M's lead to 57-53.
"Sometimes you just do things that you don't normally do," Sloan said. "That was one thing that I normally don't shoot is deep balls."
But he's had an uncanny knack this season for making big plays. He had a slew of them in Thursday's 70-64 quarterfinal victory at the Sprint Center, hitting 3 of 5 beyond the arc en route to a game-high 23 points. He added four assists with no turnovers in a solid 35 minutes.
No play was bigger than his long 3-pointer.
"It was just a huge 3," A&M head coach Mark Turgeon said.
Sloan had done his best to make it a much easier victory for the 23rd-ranked Aggies, who had to play without injured point guard Dash Harris. Sloan's first 3-pointer capped an 8-0 start by the Aggies that also included a pair of his free throws.
Sloan also hit a 3-pointer with 7 seconds left for a 37-28 lead, offsetting a Nebraska surge just before halftime.
Sloan also started the second half by hitting a midrange jumper, grabbing a rebound and assisting on Khris Middleton's 3-pointer in just 37 seconds to force Nebraska to take a timeout. He also made sure Nebraska didn't answer his game-changing 3-pointer by assisting on another Middleton 3 and hitting a running jumper to give A&M a 62-55 lead.
It seems that the bigger the challenge, the better Sloan plays.
He wasn't much of a factor in Saturday's 69-54 victory at Oklahoma, hitting 4 of 11 shots, including 0 of 4 on 3-pointers. But he wasn't needed.
Yet in the previous game he was 7-of-15 shooting en route to a game-high 19 points in a 76-61 victory over Oklahoma State. He added five rebounds, three assists, one steal and only one turnover in 35 minutes. OSU's James Anderson, the Big 12's Player of the Year, had 27 points but was only 7-of-19 shooting, including 4 of 13 from 3-point range.
The bottom line was Anderson lost and Sloan won.
Anderson was the league's best player, but Sloan might have been the Big 12's most valuable. A&M wouldn't have earned a first-round bye without him. And if Sloan had missed Thursday's game, the Aggies would be back in College Station on Friday instead of getting a rematch with top-ranked Kansas.
Nebraska head coach Doc Sadler paid Sloan high praise, mentioning him in the same breath as former A&M All-American Acie Law IV.
"Donald Sloan is their Acie Law," Sadler said. "Acie Law made so many big shots that senior year. Donald Sloan did the same. He stepped up and made that play, and you gotta give him credit for it. Was it big? No question it was huge, but he made the shot."
It wasn't as big as Law's shot that beat Texas four years ago, but judging from Thursday's game, Sloan's legacy at A&M is far from finished.
Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.
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