Texas A&M men’s basketball enters March on its longest losing streak of the season, having dropped three in a row with the latest being a surprising two-point loss to unranked Vanderbilt on their home floor.
It now faces the toughest two-game stretch yet; a road test at No. 3 Florida followed by hosting No. 1 Auburn. The Aggies ( face the real possibility of entering the final night of the regular season against LSU on a five-game losing streak.
Head coach Buzz Williams acknowledges there is much for the Aggies to work on, but the struggles around the 3-point line on both ends of the floor may tell the biggest story.
Of the five Aggies who’ve taken at least 50 3-pointers, just one player is shooting better than 31.1%. Meanwhile, A&M has surrendered 237 made 3-point attempts this season, second most in the conference behind Mississippi State’s 262.
A&M has been ranked all season and is still likely to make the NCAA Tournament — even if the Aggies are just 7-6 over the past six weeks. But here is why a Texas A&M season that began so promisingly, with a 13-2 start to the year, has gone a bit off the rails in SEC play.
More: Texas A&M vs Vanderbilt basketball: Aggies fight late but lose to Commodores
3-point shooting Aggies’ Achilles heel
Shooting the basketball has been an issue for A&M all season long. Despite the guard duo of Wade Taylor IV and Zhuric Phelps averaging 15.3 and 14.4 points per game, respectively, the Aggies are considered one of the worst offensive teams in the conference.
A&M is 15th in the SEC in scoring, averaging 73.9 points per game, while being the worst team in the conference in field goal percentage at 42%.
As bad as the Aggies are as an offensive unit, their biggest issue, specifically, is 3-point shooting on both ends of the floor. A&M is last in the conference in 3-point shooting percentage (30.6%) and 11th in opponent 3-point shooting percentage (32.7%), with a heightened level of inefficiency over the last few games.
The conference is full of sharpshooters, and the Aggies learned that the hard way against Mississippi State, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.
“It started in Starkville with (Mississippi States) Josh Hubbard. We were aware of (Tennesee’s) Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler on Saturday and did a better job in the second half,” Williams said following the Vanderbilt loss. “We didn’t execute our metrics well enough against Tyler Nickel tonight.”
The four shooters combined total in the last three games was 92 points; 20 made shots were 3-pointers while shooting 20-for-33 from beyond the arc (60.6%). Add to the fact that A&M as a team made 20 total 3-pointers, shooting 20-for-75 (26.7%) as a team and the discrepancies during the losing streak become clearer.
Guard CJ Wilcher would be third in the SEC in 3-point field goal percentage (42.2%) if he had taken enough to qualify, totaling 90 attempts on the year. Taylor is 17th in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage (33.1%), making 60-of-181 attempts.
Phelps has made just 29 of his 107 3-point attempts, while Jace Carter and Hayden Hefner have combined to make 37 of 131 attempts. No one else on the team has attempted more than 46 3-pointers this season.
Texas A&M’s resume is solid, but Aggies can’t let up yet
Although the Aggies’ 14-8 record in Quad 1 and Quad 2 games is likely to earn them an invitation to the Big Dance, they can’t let off just yet. A&M has slid closer to the middle of the pack in the SEC standings, setting up a tough road in the upcoming conference tournament.
As of now, A&M should avoid the opening day of games in Nashville, Tenn. That won’t be the case if it slides to eighth place or lower in the standings. And with two of the top-10 teams in the country coming up, the Aggies will likely be underdogs.
The Aggies are currently sixth in the SEC standings, one game behind Missouri and Tennessee (10-5), and two games back of next opponent Florida (11-4).
A&M is just one game ahead of Kentucky and Ole Miss (8-7) and two games ahead of Mississippi State and Vanderbilt (7-8).
The SEC tournament runs March 12-16.
Reach Texas A&M beat reporter Tony Catalina via email at ACatalina@gannett.com. Follow the American-Statesman on Facebook and X for more. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Get access to all of our best content with this tremendous offer.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: How Texas A&M’s 3-point shooting is sinking Aggies on both ends
