Aggie Basketball is Back!
This means nothing to my few readers, but I must give public props to my school for the improvement they’ve made in their basketball programs. Its a meteoric rise, if you will. 
First the men. I have waited almost 20 years for them to return to the NCAA tournament and not only are we going this year, we are actually pretty firmly in. At least by my estimation. I realize I take a risk in saying this since the selection happens tomorrow.
It has been a long and dreary road back to a competitive team. For the longest time, our basketball facility held us back. Heck, I graduated in that building 21 years ago. But finally in the last 5 years or so we have a grand facility. I’ve never been in it, but it looks beautiful from TV. The court reminds me almost of the old Boston Garden. But anyway, recruits now have something to get excited about.
We also have a legitimate coach, Billy Gillispie. Just look at that first name…I may not have to say anything more. But alas, he’s taken the likes of UTEP to the same NCAA tournament and now in his second year with us, he’s doing the same thing. Just watching him coach and hearing about how he coaches in practice gives me assurance that he’s the real thing.
For instance, we recently beat #4 Texas with a last-second three-pointer from well behind the arc. It was a miracle shot. And the game was billed as the "signature win" that we needed to gain enough credibility to get into the NCAA tournament. So the team could easily have rested on its laurels. But Gillispie had 7 players in practice shoot that same shot. Only one made it. His lesson: we win on consistent performance throughout the game, we win with defense, offense comes through defense, and we don’t depend upon lucky shots. In short, we must outwork other teams.
They promptly closed the year out with a blowout against Bobby Knight and Texas Tech to ensure Knight of his first losing season in over two decades. Then against Colorado in the Big XII tournament, a 33 point blowout. Colorado was competing for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Some said that only the winner of that game would have gone, but we’ll never know. A&M has closed the year (to this point) with eight straight wins and the last two blowouts. I think they are clearing deserving of an NCAA bid…its not even close.
So now we’ll see what they do in the rest of the Big XII tournament. Today is a big rematch with Texas. And if they get past them, then who knows? This is a stunning reversal for a team who has never played past Thursday in the Thu-Sun tournament.
I have less to say about the women, but they too are experiencing a renaissance. Last year’s NCAA overall champion, Baylor, narrowly beat our ladies in the Big XII women’s tournament. It was a 1 point loss. I watched the team beat Nebraska the previous night and they play that same style of aggressive, tough defense. And it looks like they have a couple of scorers too.
So needless to say, Aggie basketball is back. Now if I we can just work on that football team a little bit…