Recap: Ags fall short yet again to Vandy

Good things just don’t seem to happen when Aggie basketball goes to Vanderbilt.

Once more, sloppy play and yet another fatal scoring drought down the stretch cost the Ags, 72-67, completing a season sweep by the Commodores. If the loss wasn’t hard enough, A&M also announced right before the game that DJ Hogg will miss the rest of the season due to a foot injury.

The defeat sets A&M into a tie for 10^th place in the SEC with three of their final five games coming against the select few SEC teams projected to make the tournament.

So...umm…yeah let’s just get to the takeaways.

Amazing performances wasted

Simply put, Tyler Davis and Robert Williams put on a show this evening. A&M made it a mission from the opening tip to get Davis the ball as much as possible and the big man did not fail deliver. The sophomore tied his career-high of 25 points with 15 of them coming in the first half. The only thing that slowed him down was getting four fouls that forced him to sit for several crucial minutes in the 2^nd half.

Alongside Davis, Williams created so many jaw-dropping highlights tonight that ESPN literally made an in-game segment where they voted what their favorite was so far.

I mean just watch this clip: http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=18701350

Over 20 NBA staff attended just to see the breakout freshman and man did he put on a show. Despite it all, the same old issues of depth and crippling scoring droughts (A&M was held without a field goal in the final four minutes) were too much for these memorable performances to overcome.

Horrendous stretch by Trocha-Morelos to end the game

The final 90 seconds were not pretty for Mr. Trocha. First, the junior attempted a difficult, dream shake-adjace mid-range jumper for a miss and Vandy rebound. Next, with 60 seconds left and down 3, Trocha tried to take his man off the dribble nearly resulting in a turnover before passing it off. But the dagger came with 15 seconds, enough time to create a final game-tying play or still go for a quick and easy 2, Trocha inexplicably launched a 3-pointer out of nowhere that didn’t come close to making it in.

The junior went 0-6 from beyond the arc and looked clearly gassed by the end. I’m sure he will hear plenty in the film room re-watching this game, but in a back and forth affair like tonight, his last-minute lapse proved to be fatal.

No Gimmes from here on out

The rest of the games are toss-ups at best. I include Missouri on that list. The tournaments hopes sailed away a while ago, but now this team is in jeopardy of not ] having any sort of postseason **CBI Tourney PTSD occurring**. With Hogg now gone, Trocha or JC Hampton must step up to aid the big three of Davis, Williams, and Admon Gilder (who must be close to some kind of record for consecutive 40-minute games played at this point).

If the Aggies aren’t able to overcome Auburn this Saturday, the offseason may be starting in early March.

BTHO Auburn