Harris update: Dash Harris returned to the starting lineup after missing the Big 12 tournament with a bruised right wrist. Harris' stats were nothing to write home about, but his presence on defense was obviously evident.
A&M's opponents shot better than 50 percent at the Big 12 tournament. Utah State, a highly-ranked shooting team, made 39 percent of its shots.
"I'm about 85 percent right and I'm trying to get better every day, and I think I'm doing that," Harris said. "It's just getting the confidence back in my physical abilities, using my hands, and by Sunday I think I'll be fine."
Harris said he had no problem dribbling and passing, it just hurt to shoot a little bit. He was 0 for 2 from the field but did make 3 of 4 free throws, which is not always a strong suit.
"My legs felt a little heavy today because I hadn't played in a while," Harris said. "I had a lot of time to sit there and just play with the ball so that helped out [on the free throws]."
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Sloan waits his time: Donald Sloan let the game come to him for most of his 34 minutes Friday, but when Utah State made a run in the second half and A&M was struggling to score, Sloan took it upon himself to right the ship with two big buckets and an assist.
"I guess you could say that [picking up my team] is what goes through my mind because at the end of the day had we lost I would have felt that it was all my fault, that I wasn't involved enough as I could have been. That I didn't hunt down the ball as I should have," Sloan said. "But it's pretty good when you have balanced scoring like we did today, when everyone contributes."
Sloan had one of his 10 shots blocked by Pooh Williams, who at 6-foot-3 has nearly a 40-inch vertical leap. Sloan said he was surprised when Williams got a piece of his jumper from the top of the key. "It threw me off a little bit, it normally doesn't happen, but it did."
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Clearing the bench: A&M was so far clear of Utah State at the end of the game that coach Mark Turgeon had the luxury of getting everyone in the game. Turgeon played junior Marshall Carrell, freshman James Blasczyk and junior Andrew Darko in the final minute.
"Just to say you played in an NCAA tournament game I think is pretty important, so I wanted to make sure I did that," Turgeon said. "It doesn't happen much in this tournament, so yeah, it was fun."
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Walkup going for poster: Nate Walkup was having trouble hitting from long range so he turned to attacking the basket. It worked the first time with a nice finish, but the second time he was called for a charge while trying to go over Tyler Newbold.
"I tried to attack the basket and tried to beat him to the spot," Walkup said. "Yeah, I tried to put him on a poster."
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Quote of the Day: "They are strong, big, very well coached. One thing I will mention, they have a zero-knucklehead factor. Sometimes we can have a chance to gain a little advantage if we play a team that has the knucklehead factor. They don't, and that's a credit to Mark [Turgeon] and the job he's doing and the caliber of kid they have, because there was none of that."
-- Stew Morill, Utah State coach about the A&M team.
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Et cetera: A&M is 3-0 against Utah State this season over all sports, beating the Aggies in football, softball and basketball. ... A&M avoided the No. 5 vs. No. 12 jinx. Over the past 25 years, a No. 5 has defeated a No. 12 seed in all but three NCAA tournaments. Last season the No. 5 seed won 3 of 4 games. This season, Cornell defeated Temple for the only No. 12 seed victory. ... A&M tied its tournament record with eight 3s in a game. ... USU shot a season-low four free throws, missing all of them. ... USU was outrebounded (39-31) for only the fifth time all year. ... Bryan Davis did not score much again for the third game in a row, but he did get nine rebounds and took a charge by Tai Wesley. It gave Wesley, USU's leading scorer, his fourth foul and came just after the other Aggies pulled within single digits for the final time.
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