Aggies win again; improve to 3-5 in SEC play

There are plenty of positives to discuss tonight, so we won’t waste any time at the top. But mannnnn what a performance, especially without late injury scratch DJ Hogg.

Let’s break it down.

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Gilder’s best game as an Aggie

You can’t start anywhere else - Admon Gilder played an almost perfect game of basketball tonight.

• 35+ minutes
• 22 points (4/6 3PT; 6-6 FT)
• 7 rebounds
• 7 assists
• 4 steals

Those huge ‘minutes’ numbers don’t even tell the whole story, either... because these are heavy minutes. Every offensive possession needs to flow through him, and he’s asked to create from scratch any time our offensive sets break down. (Spoiler alert: They break down kinda often)

He was great tonight. Maybe the best all-around performance by an Aggie this season, and certainly the best of his Texas A&M career.

Clean the glass

We had possibly our biggest rebounding discrepancy of the season against a power five opponent, crushing Ole Miss 39-23 on the glass. We had as many offensive rebounds (16) as they had defensive rebounds (16).

If every missed shot on offense yields a 50/50 chance that you’ll get to continue your possession, you’re going to win a lot of basketball games.

This dominance in the paint extended to the offensive end, as well. Which leads me too...

The Twin Towers

The ‘Williams and Davis on the floor together’ offensive sets have seen their ups and downs this season, but that lineup was absolutely on fire tonight.

Davis (20 points; 9/11 FG) established position wherever he wanted and finished at will, and Robert Williams (15 points; 6/8 FG) did an excellent job finding space down low and throwing down dunks for fun.

This was the best version of Texas A&M. This was the squad that beat Virgina Tech, took #8 UCLA to the wire, and rolled LSU by 30.

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Yes, West Virginia is an extremely difficult game this Saturday. Yes, the road to the top half of the conference is still a pretty steep uphill climb. And yes, the day might come where we point to the remainder of this season as a completely lost cause.

But we aren’t there. Not yet. Our Aggies were sitting just above the SEC basement at 1-5, and they submitted two gutty performances to keep the season relevant.

#18 West Virginia beckons next, followed by a tasty Vandy/@LSU/Mizzou stretch that could keep the machine chugging in the right direction.

BTHO West Virginia