UCLA defeats A&M; Too many mistakes
Well, my hopes for a 1-1 road trip against two of last year’s Final Four were dashed this afternoon. The Aggies lost 65-62, but blew a chance to tie the game in the final minute.
This was the first ever regular season network appearance for Texas A&M in basketball. That’s astounding, but just shows that basketball has historically not been the focus for our athletics program. The fact that they were there is a testament to how far Billy Gillispie has advanced the program. I don’t know how long he will stay, but it will be fun to follow his career; the guy can coach.
That said, there were lots of mistakes today. As I said Tuesday night, the defense is pretty much ready to roll. The offense once again seemed discombobulated. At times, dribbling seemed to be difficult today. For whatever reason, they had a tough time getting it into their big men down low. I’m not quite sure why that was, but good teams will definitely do that to you. At this point, my biggest concern is guard play. Law has been inconsistent. And leadership and decision-making at the point seems to be lacking.
But for all of those short-comings, this is a team that should show well through the regular season and do quite a lot in March. I believe its really early to assess how good this team can really be. I know that they are nowhere near as sharp as they were last year. Hopefully, these two games, though losses, will help them later in the season in terms of strength of schedule and maturity.
And now to conference games…