KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Texas A&M was playing for its NCAA Tournament life Thursday night, but little did most fans know that the Aggies were dealing with much larger issues.
Sandra Sloan, the mother of sophomore point guard Donald Sloan, died Thursday morning. She called her son Tuesday night, saying she wanted to see him one more time.
Sloan drove to Dallas from College Station to visit his mom, and didn't get much sleep Tuesday night. He didn't get much Wednesday night, either, and when he flew to Kansas City on Thursday morning to join his teammates, basketball was probably the last thing on his mind.
On a lesser but still serious note, A&M freshman post DeAndre Jordan, who was fighting a fever, went to the hospital after Thursday night's warm-up for the Iowa State game.
A&M head coach Mark Turgeon said team officials initially thought it was food poisoning, but they wanted to make sure Jordan didn't have appendicitis.
Suddenly, a men's basketball game against Iowa State didn't seem that huge, but it was.
The Aggies needed this game in the worst way to shake off a late-season slide.
Turgeon knew what a loss would mean -- in the short and long term. The Aggies had good excuses for a possible letdown against the Cyclones, but A&M's first-year coach didn't want to use them. More than anything else, he wanted something good to happen for his players.
Thanks to unheralded bench hands like B.J. Holmes, Beau Muhlbach, Derrick Roland and Chinemelu Elonu, A&M found a happy ending as the Aggies gutted out a 60-47 victory over Iowa State in a first round Big 12 tournament game put in perspective.
"Sometimes when things like this happen, they inspire you or they put a cloud over [you]," Turgeon said. "And I thought we had a little cloud over us at the start of the game.
"And then we fought through it."
A&M's quartet of Holmes, Muhlbach, Roland and Elonu played 65 minutes against ISU. In Big 12 play, they group averaged a combined 34.7 minutes per game, with Muhlbach playing in only 11 league games, Holmes in 13 and Elonu in 14.
A&M's quartet of Holmes, Muhlbach, Roland and Elonu played 65 minutes against ISU. In Big 12 play, they group averaged a combined 34.7 minutes per game, with Muhlbach playing in only 11 league games, Holmes in 13 and Elonu in 14.
Bryan Davis also stepped up for 10 points, six rebounds and four blocks in 26 solid minutes.
The team effort offset an off night shooting for Josh Carter, Dominique Kirk and Joseph Jones. A&M's top trio hit just 6 of 21 shots from the field with five turnovers.
"We did it by committee," Turgeon said. "It wasn't a routine game for us by any stretch of the imagination."
But it was a victory this program needed, one the Aggies got after a slow start. A&M's players hit the court looking like their minds were elsewhere as ISU jumped to a 7-2 lead.
"I thought our guys were sleepwalking, and [that] really concerned me," Turgeon said. "We jumped them pretty good that first time out, and they woke up."
No one would have blamed Sloan if he'd have mailed this one in, but he showed the fight and heart legends are made of.
"I don't think I've had to deal with something like this my whole life," Sloan said.
He dealt with it by nearly posting triple-double. He had 12 points, nine rebounds and nine assists to go with two steals and only three turnovers in 35 minutes.
"I think I made the right decision [to play]," Sloan said in reference to his mother's passing. "I think she would have wanted me to come up and play in this game for her."
The gritty effort cemented a spot for A&M in the NCAA Tournament and earned it a rematch with Kansas State, which handed the Aggies a 75-54 thumping in the regular season.
"I am really looking forward to that game," Sloan said.
So are his teammates and Turgeon.
"We're disappointed a little bit the way we finished in the league because we lost a lot of home games, too many home games this year," Turgeon said. "We're trying to make up for it here in this tournament."
A&M got off to a good start Thursday night, earning a victory that was a huge step forward in so many ways for Turgeon, the players and the program.
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