Howdy.
Sorry that I’ve been gone for a while. But I’m back! Feels good.
Today’s newsletter won’t really focus on one thing more so than being a update as to what’s going on in College Station right now. With a plethora of sports concurrently running at the moment, I guess I’ll just briefly give recaps and thoughts about what’s been going on right now. There’s been a lot to keep track of, but I’ll do my best to hit everything.
No more wasting time - let’s get to it! Especially with a bunch happening as of late.
Buzz and the Guys are Dancing
It was a tense stretch of games, but Buzz Williams and the Aggies are once again back in the Big Dance, earning a nine-seed and heading to Memphis to take on the eighth-seeded Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Trev Alberts Extravaganza. Old Big 12 rivals will square off once again in the South region of the 2024 NCAA Tournament bracket, with the Ags riding a late surge of wins to punch their ticket to March Madness after a period of time where it looked grim - Texas A&M had five straight losses from late February to early March before righting the ship and winning the last three regular season games and their first two SEC Tournament games, punctuated by a potential season sweep of Kentucky.
A big reason of the Ags’ turnaround to play their way into the tournament? The emergences of Manny Obaseki and Solomon Washington as bonafide scoring options, Obaseki in particular. The former highly-touted wing from Allen seemed like he had all the athleticism and tools but could never quite put it together through his first two years and change with the program. Then, he was inserted into the lineup and caught fire, proceeding to light up opponents with a confidence that the 12th Man hasn’t seen from the junior in his collegiate career. With graceful drives to the rim (including absolutely yamming a dunk on Kentucky’s Ugonna Onyenso - again), a newfound willingness to pull the trigger from deep, and an ability to create for himself that has unlocked a new level to this team and relieved a lot of pressure off of Wade Taylor (who continues to star) and Tyrece Radford, the Aggies are playing some of their best basketball, even after blowing a large lead to Florida in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament.
The Cornhuskers aren’t a foe that’ll lay over and succumb to the Ags’ recent momentum, though - they also made it to the semifinals of their respective conference tournament, and they have a propensity to light it up from three-point land from time to time, something that has haunted the Aggies in the Buzz Williams era (cue Vietnam flashbacks to the Florida semifinal and the Penn State game last year). Get ready to hear the name Keisei Tominaga a lot. If they’re on, they can really do damage.
A full-length preview will come later in the week. But just happy to see momentum pretty high around the program after a dire stretch late in the season. Really would love a win, though.
Shoutout to Andersson Garcia for breaking the program record for most rebounds in a season, and to Wade for breaking the A&M record for most three-pointers in a season. Legends.
So Are Joni Taylor and the Gals
Not enough people are talking about the turnaround that Joni Taylor has engineered with the women’s basketball team this season. After winning just two (2) SEC games a year ago, Taylor hit the transfer portal hard and brought in a slew of contributors that, combined with familiar faces such as Janiah Barker, have turned around the program, earning themselves an 11-seed in the Women’s Tournament to go against…
…the sixth-seeded Nebraska Cornhuskers.
The committee really thinks they’re hilarious, huh?
Following an 11-point loss to top-ranked South Carolina in the SEC Tournament, the Ags now set their sights on Corvallis, Oregon, where the four-headed monster of Barker, Aicha Coulibaly, Lauren Ware, and Endyia Rogers are set to wage battle against the Huskers. A team that has eerily resembled the men’s squad in that they dominate the glass and who make their identity on the defensive side of the court, notching a healthy amount of steals and not allowing many easy buckets to fall from their opponents, they’ll look to create some March magic and earn their first win in the Big Dance in the Joni Taylor era.
Time to go bust some brackets, ladies!
Schloss and the Boys Enter SEC Play
We figured the baseball team would be good heading into the season. So far, the results have been encouraging, as the Ags started their season by going undefeated through the (admittedly soft) non-conference slate, highlighted by a resounding 9-2 win over Texas in Austin. Always good to knock off the Longhorns, even if it’s a “meaningless midweek game”.
However, the true tests were really going to start in conference play, with a loaded SEC awaiting and resulting in basically no breaks for the Aggies from here onwards. And it all kicked off in a doozy of a weekend slate on the road against now-#6 Florida and one of the best players in the country in two-way star Jac Caglianone. Despite taking the Saturday contest in a comfortable 10-5 win, two late hits in the Friday and Sunday games broke Aggie hearts and resulted in A&M dropping the series 2-1. The Maroon and White fell to #7 after rising to #4 in the previous week.
Is it cause for panic that the Gators were able to put up pretty impressive offensive numbers after the Aggies’ pitching staff looked like they had turned a corner in the non-conference slate? No. Sometimes the offenses of the SEC are going to be able to put up these numbers, and that’s fine. It is an insanely hard conference. The staff is going to adjust.
The guys will be fine.
Jace LaViolette and Braden Montgomery still look like the all-world duo that they were touted as in the preseason. Jackson Appel has been an on-base machine, while Gavin Grahovac has played lights-out as a freshman. Hayden Schott has come up clutch on numerous occasions. Ted Burton has also been a consistent veteran presence, quietly having a great start to his season after coming over from Michigan. Ryan Prager (outside of Friday) has been absolutely dominant to start the year, while Justin Lamkin, Evan Aschenbeck, Brad Rudis, Josh Stewart, Chris Cortez, and Shane Sdao have all had really good starts to their years as well.
The team has plenty of talent. They’ve been getting wins, and winning at Gainesville for the first time since 2006 isn’t something to slouch at either. They’re gonna drop series in conference play - that’s just how it’ll go sometimes. But don’t overreact. Jim Schlossnagle and em will be fine.
Let Trisha Ford Cook
How about the season that softball has had, huh?
The Aggies now sit at #12 (branding!) in the nation after coming out guns ablazing, sitting at a 25-3 record and having series wins on the road at Mississippi State, at home against South Carolina, and at a neutral site against Oregon, all ranked teams at the time (in fact, the Bulldogs are still ranked at #18). Behind elite performances both from the bats and from the arms, it’s been a well-oiled machine down at Davis Diamond as the Ags just continue to keep winning.
It starts from the quartet of outstanding arms on the mound, headlined by Emiley Kennedy, who has been a revelation and has played her way into the upper echelon of pitchers in the country. With a 1.10 ERA, 0.97 WHIP (walks and hits allowed per inning pitched), and a sparkling 13-2 record, she’s held batters to a mere .171 batting average and has thrown more than three times the amount of strikeouts as walks allowed, all while adding three saves and pitching 12 complete games (89 innings pitched in total). She’s been absolutely outstanding so far.
Shaylee Ackerman also has a sub-2.00 ERA while going 5-1 in her six starts, and Emily Leavitt and Brooke Vestal have combined to go undefeated in their nine starts. Leavitt has been a master of command, only allowing just seven walks on the season as opposed to striking out 31, while Vestal has held opposing batters to just a .178 batting average.
Then there are the bats, and they’ve gotten contributions on offense from pretty much everyone. With six regular starters that have an OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) of over 1.000, it’s been a balanced and lethal attack that has punished opposing pitchers at a high rate. Amari Harper and Allie Enright have batting averages over .400, a whopping number; Jazmine Hill and Trinity Cannon have paced the team in homers and RBIs; Koko Wooley has displayed a great glove; Julia Cottrill and Rylen Wiggins have also provided both great power and contact on a routine basis. Combined with Kennedy Powell, Kramer Eschete, Aiyana Coleman, and Keely Williams, this team is deep and talented in the batter’s box.
Overall, the squad is fuckin cooking with gas right now. Trisha Ford has done an incredible job this year, and they deserve more love. Go to Davis Diamond, man.
Trev!
To round this out, the long-awaited search for a new Athletic Director has finally come to an end. And it was someone who I was not expecting at all.
Shoutout to Dr. B. He was my professor on the study abroad I went on last summer and worked on the selection committee to reel him in.
Texas A&M lured Nebraska AD Trev Alberts away from Lincoln, from his alma mater, to take on the same role in College Station. And man, Husker fans are pissed.
This is why I said the committee was funny. This is why I called it the Trev Alberts Extravaganza. Alberts won the Butkus Award for best linebacker in the country during his time as a football player in Nebraska. He had his number retired. He was a Husker legend. So him coming to A&M is a huge deal.
Alberts was credited with a number of accomplishments during his time in Lincoln, including hiring current football head coach Matt Rhule, gaining funds for an expansion project for the Huskers’ Memorial Stadium, landing a 15-year, $300 million multimedia rights agreement with Play Fly Sports (thanks for the info TexAgs) and planning the largest-attended women’s sporting event in history, with 92,000 fans packing Memorial Stadium for “Volleyball Day in Nebraska”, watching the Cornhuskers sweep Omaha in an outdoor volleyball match.
Super excited to see what he can bring to the table in Aggieland. He’s been highly touted and finally gives the Ags some stability at the top after a period of turmoil.
That’s why basketball needs to win more than ever. Otherwise Nebraska fans are going to be insufferable.
Go get ‘em, Buzz.
That’ll basically do it for this one! Once again, sorry about such a long break in between articles, but it’s good to be back. First round preview for men’s basketball coming soon.
Take care y’all.
-Sourav