Matchup with aTm

How many jump shots is OU going to make? If OU plays like they did the first half Sunday, only a handful of teams in the country can beat them, and they would have to play well too.

A&M is actually an easier defensive gameplan than UNI, will come down to execution.
 
We are 1.5 to 2.5 point favorites depending on which Casino you frequent in Vegas. Opened at 2.5 point favorities
 
They were very very solid at home this year (only loss was to South Carolina by 3) and beat some good teams there (including, ISU, Baylor, Kentucky, etc), but haven't really done much away from home, so it's hard to say.

They were in the Battle 4 Atlantis and went 2-1 against 3 NCAA tourney teams
- They beat Texas well before Texas found their stride
- Beat Gonzaga by 1
- Lost to Syracuse

Road losses:
L at Arizona St
L at Arkansas
L at Vanderbilt
L at Alabama
L at LSU (but then beat them soundly in the SEC tournament)

They looked very good against Kentucky in the SEC tourney championship game that they lost in OT, especially considering the crowd was probably 95% UK fans.

Jalen Jones is their Spangler, the senior blue-collar workhorse down low.
Alex Caruso is their Cousins, the senior point guard who keeps everything flowing and always believes they can win.
Danuel House is their Buddy, the senior star guard who can absolutely take over a game at any point.

It's gonna be experience vs. experience. Simply put, we have to bring our A-game to win, which will be the case from here on out.
 
A&M is a hard team to peg. From what I have seen they are prone to extended offensive droughts, but stay in games with physical defense and rebounding. They remind me a lot of Sampson's teams in that way.

It's hard to get much of a feel for how A&M would fare against top 10 level competition as the best team they played is easily Kentucky (extremely fortunate to split with UK). They did get some nice wins against Texas, Baylor, and Gonzaga early in the season, but the vast majority of their schedule since January has been pretty weak. I'm not saying any of this is predictive. Just that their sample size against the Kenpom top 25 is somewhat limited.
 
Back
Top