By ROBERT CESSNAThe Texas A&M women's basketball team doesn't have a midweek game, but what the Aggies do have is some extra practice time. And what they do with it will be crucial to making a run in postseason.
A&M is 7-5 since starting the season with a school-record 12 straight victories. The Aggies have lost their last two road games to end any chance at winning the Big 12 regular season title, and they can't afford many more losses and expect a successful postseason.
It's imperative that A&M finish in the Big 12's top four and earn a first-round bye in the Big 12 tournament. Only once in league history has a team that didn't earn a first-round bye win the event. Sixth-seeded Oklahoma won four straight games in 2004, including victories over the top three seeds, so it can be done.
Last year A&M became the only fourth-seeded team to win the tournament, and the Aggies caught some unbelievable breaks when fifth-seeded OU, top-seeded Kansas State and second-seeded Baylor all were upset.
A&M also made its own breaks with a sizzling finish to the regular season. The Aggies won their last six games which included defeating 17th-ranked Oklahoma State, eighth-ranked Baylor and 11th-ranked Oklahoma in succession.
A&M again needs that kind of finish if it wants to earn a high seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The 14th-ranked Aggies (19-5, 7-4) are in fifth place in the Big 12, which is exactly where they were picked in the coaches' preseason poll. A&M is only a half game ahead of sixth-place Iowa State (18-6, 6-4), but it also is just two games back of second-place Baylor (21-3, 9-2).
Opportunity or disaster awaits A&M, which still has to play five ranked teams, and it won't take long to see what the future holds. A&M plays 12th-ranked Texas (19-5, 7-3) at 11 a.m. Saturday at Reed Arena. The Longhorns have won five straight since A&M mashed them in Austin on Jan. 28. UT has won at Baylor and Iowa State, living up to its preseason pick as the league's second-best team.
Texas, however, isn't the league's hottest team. That would be second-ranked Oklahoma (23-2, 11-0), which has won 19 straight since losing to top-ranked Connecticut. The Sooners come to Reed Arena on Monday for a 6:30 p.m. game. Much will be determined about A&M's future in the 72-hour span beginning Saturday.
A&M also has road trips to fifth-ranked Baylor and 16th-ranked Kansas State, but they aren't even in the conversation with Texas and OU looming so large.
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A&M needs to find scoring help for Danielle Gant and Takia Starks if the stretch run is to be successful.
They also were the team's leading scorers last season, but Morenike Atunrase, Patrice Reado and A'Quonesia Franklin didn't allow opponents to zero in on Gant and Starks. The departed trio combined for 26.5 points per game and helped fuel the 12-game winning streak that put A&M in the Elite Eight.
The scoring by Gant and Starks is down a couple of points, but worse, A&M's next three leading scorers are averaging only 20.7 points per game. Teams have beaten A&M by blanketing Gant or Starks while keeping the other players in check.
Starks and Gant combined for 37 points in the 71-59 loss at Oklahoma, but the others were held to 22 points on 9-of-29 shooting. Gant and Starks combined for 32 points on 14-of-32 shooting in the 60-53 loss at Texas Tech, but the rest of the team was 8 of 28 from the field.
Iowa State limited the 5-foot-11 Gant to only five shots in the Cyclones' 67-50 victory. Starks had 18 points, but the others missed 21 of 31 shots. Baylor took away Gant's inside game, holding her to 2-of-7 shooting in the Lady Bears' 64-61 victory.
Florida State was the first team to corral A&M's leading scorers. Starks was 3-of-18 shooting in the 60-53 loss, while Gant was held to 10 field-goal tries in 40 minutes.
A&M is averaging 67.5 points per game overall but only 55.2 in its losses. The scoring problems are compounded by the lack of an offensive-minded post player and average 3-point shooting.
Senior La Toya Micheaux is a solid defender and sets a mean screen, but the 6-foot-3 senior is averaging only 2.8 points per game and shooting 28 percent from the field despite playing 25 minutes per game. That allows opposing defenses to focus more attention on others.
A&M does have four players with at least 15 3-pointers, but the Aggies are much more effective shooting from set plays instead of settling for 3s when closer shots aren't available.
A&M is making 32.3 percent of its 3-pointers for the season, which is tied for eighth in the league. Only second-division teams Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Missouri are worse.
Guard/forward Tanisha Smith has shown flashes of complementing Starks and Gant. The junior college transfer is the only player other than Starks and Gant to score in double figures in A&M's losses, scoring 17 against Florida State and 19 against Baylor. But in A&M's last two losses she was only a combined 2-of-15 shooting.
Points off transition and forcing turnovers from defensive pressure are other ways A&M can get more players involved with the offense. That was the case in nonconference, when forward Adaora Elonu was the Big 12's freshman of the week three times and redshirt freshman Tyra White and freshman Sydney Carter each earned the honor once.
Since the start of Big 12 play, Oklahoma's Whitney Hand has won the award there times and Texas' Ashleigh Fontenette has won it twice, while no A&M player has won it.
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A&M slipped three spots to 11th in the USA Today-ESPN Coaches' Poll this week.
The Aggies have fallen to 13th in the Rating Percentage Index (RPI), which is used by the NCAA to supplement the selection of at-large teams and the seeding process for the NCAA Tournament. Texas has climbed to 10th.
In a move that helps make all these computer rankings seem bogus, Oklahoma has climbed to No. 1 ahead of Connecticut, a team that beat the Sooners by 28 points.
Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.
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