KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The week started in a near-empty Reed Arena, with Texas A&M's Gary Blair laying a little coach speak on his players.
The first day back to the gym after a lopsided victory at Kansas, Blair wasn't about to let his team believe the upcoming week was just a lead-in to the NCAA Tournament.
He spoke of how after a loss other coaches and players try to sell the media, and most importantly themselves, that there are benefits from losing earlier than expected in their conference tournaments.
We can be fresh now next week. We can heal. We can now get back on the practice court and work on what we need to do to get better. Or perhaps my favorite, it doesn't really matter to the seedings.
That's giving a team an easy out.
Blair didn't want any of that and didn't want his players to take that attitude, even if they were to lose.
No, this quiet little gathering on the A&M logo at center court before practice really was to make sure everyone had one thing in mind.
We are going to Kansas City to cut down the nets. Scissors, cords and trophies were all words said with a little extra emphasis.
It was first and foremost on Blair's mind to come away with a Big 12 championship. Therefore, it was going to be first and foremost on his staff and players' minds.
I'm not insinuating in the least that the Aggie women were the only squad with title aspirations. Blair was just making sure his team wasn't going to fall into that other mode.
Blair, while holding court after a quarterfinal win over Texas, even went as far as to say he hoped then-undefeated Nebraska lost only one game all year, to the Aggies the next day.
"I believe it would help Nebraska if they would lose one in the conference tournament to take that monkey off their back and then they would be fine," Blair said. "Let them win the national championship, let me just win this little thing right here."
With the extra incentive of performing for the three women playing in their backyard, with the Aggies focusing on that one aspiration Blair spoke of and with a no-excuses attitude, the fourth-seeded Aggies went ahead and won that "little thing."
With their 74-67 victory over third-seeded Oklahoma on Sunday at Municipal Auditorium, the Aggies went from a subdued, attentive group of players at an isolated practice to an emotional, tears-flowing, high-fiving celebration in front of hundreds of their fans at a gym they may soon call home because of all the friends and family members of the Kansas City trio -- Tanisha Smith, Danielle Adams and Tyra White. It was also the second time the Aggies had held up the hardware during their stay in Kansas City, winning it in 2008 as well.
When the Aggies next convene, Blair is likely to forget -- or at least ignore -- the fact that cutting down nets at a conference tournament was what he wanted most or that he'd be fulfilled with just that "little thing" in Kansas City.
He'll have to bring out the "we won that, now let's have that feeling again" speech with the way the Aggies are playing and with what most experts believe will be a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
But there's no worry there, because when it come to Blair, you can count one thing. He's never at a loss for words.
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