Missouri Tigers vs. Texas A&M Aggies Pick & Prediction JANUARY 11th 2023
Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams likes the look of his team ahead of Wednesday's Southeastern Conference home game against No. 20 Missouri in College Station, Texas.
The Aggies (10-5, 2-0 SEC) opened league play with a 66-63 victory at Florida last Wednesday and a 69-56 victory at home over LSU on Saturday.
"Through one week of the season and over the last six days, we've had great growth," Williams said after his team beat the Tigers. "I think it's not the results. I mentioned this to them yesterday, but that's what metamorphosis is.
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"I'm proud of what we've done over the last six days, but I'm really excited about how we could continue to grow."
The Tigers (13-2, 2-1) are coming into this game on the heels of an 85-82 victory over Vanderbilt at home on Saturday. After enjoying fast starts in victories over Illinois and Kentucky and their loss at Arkansas, the Tigers had to overcome an early 10-2 deficit against the Commodores.
"I mean, it's the SEC. Every team's gonna be good coming out," Missouri forward Noah Carter said. "It's 11 a.m. when we started the game, so that might have had a little bit to do with it.
"But no, we just had to bounce back, persevere through all the runs because we're gonna get every team's best shot. So you know, just hunkering down and getting into our groove is all we needed to do."
Missouri has enjoyed surprising success under first-year coach Dennis Gates by playing trapping defense and up-tempo offense. Gates has a nine-player rotation playing with great effort.
Effort has long been a trademark of Williams' teams, and the Aggies embraced that high-energy style this season.
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"I think we played really hard," Williams said Saturday. "We played together. To some degree, we played with great IQ. The prep from our coaches and what we're teaching, it's all of that combined."
Texas A&M presents a significant matchup challenge for Missouri, which usually features a smaller lineup with three or four guards. The Aggies outrebounded LSU 38-27 and outscored them 42-10 in the paint.
Missouri was outrebounded 46-27 in its victory over Vanderbilt. The Tigers allowed the Commodores to grab 15 offensive rebounds.
The Aggies have gained strong inside play from Henry Coleman III, who is averaging 10.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game this season. Julius Marble, who averages 8.9 and 4.7, respectively, on the season, totaled 34 and 15 over his last two games.
Missouri features multiple offensive threats, led by guard D'Moi Hodge (15.9 points per game), forward Kobe Brown (15.5), guard DeAndre Gholston (10.8) and Carter (10.7).
Gates has urged the physical Gholston to become more assertive at both ends of the court as the Tigers try to play bigger than they actually are.
"When you're being challenged by your head coach, teammates, anything like that, you gotta take it personally in a good way," Gholston said. "And I think tonight I just decided to come in with a better mindset and I just executed what Coach asked of me. And my teammates needed me and it worked out for us."
--Field Level Media
Missouri Tigers vs. Texas A&M Aggies Recap JAN 11TH 2023
Tyrece Radford scored 16 points and dished out six assists to lead Texas A&M past No. 20 Missouri 82-64 Wednesday in College Station, Texas.
Dexter Dennis had 13 points and 12 rebounds and Henry Coleman III had 10 points and 10 rebounds Aggies (11-5, 3-0 in Southeastern Conference).
Wade Taylor IV scored 14 points, Hayden Hefner had 12 and Julius Marble added 11 as Texas A&M won its fifth straight game.
Kobe Brown led Missouri (13-3, 2-2) with 12 points. D'Moi Hodge scored 10 points before fouling out and DeAndre Gholston added 10.
Texas A&M outrebounded Missouri 42-25 and shot 53.3 percent from the floor.
The Tigers missed 24 of 31 shots from 3-point range and shot just 35.6 percent overall.
Brown scores first six points for the Tigers and 10 of their first 12 to get them into the game. But he was limited to 10 minutes in the half due to foul trouble.
Dennis hit a pair of 3-point jumpers to get the Aggies going. They grabbed six offensive rebounds during the first 10 minutes of the game to overcome their cold start.
Then they heated up with 11 unanswered points to pull out to a 24-14 lead. Coleman threw down two dunks during that span and Hefner scored five points coming off the bench.
Texas A&M kept attacking the basket against the smaller Tigers to push its lead to 34-16. Radford kept the Aggies rolling with a traditional 3-point play, a driving layup and free throws earned by attacking the rim.
The Aggies closed out the first half with a 43-25 lead, the opened the second half with Taylor's 3-point jumper to move 21 points ahead.
The Tigers countered with a 21-4 run - capped by two 3-pointers by Hodge -- with 10:20 left to cut their deficit to 50-46.
Marble stabilized the Aggies with a traditional 3-point play. After that momentum shift, Texas A&M pushed its lead back to 65-49 with Taylor scoring eight points.
And Missouri never threatened again.
--Field Level Media
- NCAAB
