Print story | Email story

Cessna: Aggies lost this one early on
Main: Red Raiders upset No. 6 A&M men | Fans: Loss makes for a long drive home
Podcast: Gillispie, Knight, players talk about the game

By ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Sports Writer

The road to Atlanta got a lot bumpier for the Texas A&M men's basketball team.

The Aggies will have to play better than they did in Tuesday's 77-75 loss to Texas Tech if they are to make the final four of the Big 12 Tournament, let alone the Final Four.

The game officially ended on a last-second shot by Texas Tech's Jarrius Jackson, but the Aggies lost this one long before that.

A&M should have put this one away in the first 6 minutes when Tech scored a measly bucket. But the Aggies missed two layups and simply weren't sharp. They led 11-2 but could've led 22-2 or in that ballpark.

"They could have knocked us out of the game," said Texas Tech head coach Bob Knight, who made the Aggies pay dearly for not doing so. And while Knight's squad jumped back into the hunt for an NCAA Tournament berth, the loss probably cost A&M any shot at a No. 1 seed.

Enlarge photo

Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Dave McDermand Texas A&M head basketball coach Billy Gillispie buries his face in his hands after the Red Raiders battled back to take the lead late in the second half of the game against the Aggies.

Knight's motion offense finally got going, and when it did, it shredded the nation's best field-goal defense. Texas Tech hit 51.9 percent from the floor. For the Red Raiders, it was basketball at its best. They had just four turnovers and shot over 53 percent from the floor in the second half, weaving through the Aggies with no trouble at all.

Jackson and unheralded freshman Decensae White were 6-of-9 shooting 3-pointers, and when the Aggies denied the 3, the Red Raiders drove inside to score or to get fouled.

Texas Tech, not A&M, played like the Big 12 leader down the stretch. Knight outcoached A&M's Billy Gillispie. The Tech players outplayed the Aggies. And maybe the crowd wasn't as crazy as it was a week ago for Texas on ESPN's Big Monday.

It all added up for a Terrible Tuesday.

The poised Red Raiders never trailed in the final 6:28, ending A&M's 21-game home winning streak and silencing a soldout crowd of 12,926, most of whom won't enjoy Valentine's Day quite as much as they might have.

It was an upset much greater than Tech's earlier victory over A&M in Lubbock. Knight is one of the game's greatest coaches, but he doesn't have even a first-division Big 12 team. Tech had dropped five straight since beating the Aggies the first time around.

Tech had lost the last two games each by a bucket, but it also lost by 13 points at Missouri and 14 at Oklahoma.

The Red Raiders are not worried about their NCAA Tournament seeding. They just want to make the field, and considering they now own three victories over Top 10 teams, their path is set.

In Aggieland, it's gut-check time for the maroon and white.

A&M's other losses were "good" ones by NCAA selection-committee standards. A&M actually acquitted itself well against LSU and UCLA, and losing in Lubbock is always understandable, even if it's deplorable.

This one stings, though.

In the past, A&M losing at home to Kansas or a Knight-coached team was expected, but not any more. The best team didn't win Tuesday night, and this growing basketball community won't deal with it very well. Many will find it unacceptable. Others simply won't tolerate it.

Sound familiar?

It's the way Aggie fans deal with losses at Kyle Field, where A&M plays that other sport.

But how fans deal with losses is a sidenote. How the Aggies respond will determine their fate, and Gillispie's squad has shown a resiliency that could show itself again.

And in April, fans might be able to point at this loss and label it the one that jump-started A&M to the Final Four.

Former Texas A&M men's basketball coach Shelby Metcalf, who passed away Thursday, was honored before the start of the game. The crowd stood and clapped for several minutes.

Former Eagle sports writer Charean Williams, a graduate of Texas A&M, was honored during the game for being the first woman to vote on NFL Hall of Fame inductees. Williams, who covers the NFL for the Fort Worth-Star Telegram, is on the Pro Football Writers of America 40-member selection committee.