After stumbling through their game against Penn State on December 5, the Purdue basketball program clinched a much-needed gut-check victory over Maryland on Sunday at Mackey Arena. However, the Boilermakers have no time to rest on their laurels.
The 17th-ranked Texas A&M Aggies, who stand at a very respectable 8-2, are next on Purdue’s challenging non-conference slate, and the two teams will tangle at Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse as part of the 2024 Indy Classic beginning at noon ET.
Texas A&M’s Non-Conference Schedule Just As Formidable
Aggies’ head coach Buzz Williams took a page out of Matt Painter‘s playbook. Painter, the Boilermakers’ head man, has scheduled a very formidable early-season docket, one that has included three ranked teams.
Williams’ team, the fourth ranked team the Boilers will face, has seen equally as rigorous of opponents as Purdue. The Aggies have also faced three ranked teams; they lost to #4 Houston and beat Ohio State and Creighton, both ranked #21 at the time of their meetings.
Texas A&M has also lined up several neutral-court games, Saturday’s game in Indianapolis being the fifth thus far, and Williams hopes it pays off in March for his team.
In the era of NET rankings weighing heavily into NCAA Tournament selection and seeding, neutral site games play a heavily important role. Teams ranked 1 through 50 in the NET rankings qualify for an all-important Quadrant I win, as opposed to just 1 through 30 at home. The neutral site game also doesn’t typically carry the same adversarial environment as a road game, which includes teams 1 through 75 in the first quadrant.
In other words, winning games against ranked opponents at a neutral site carries much stock for the NCAA selection committee.
On Sunday, the Aggies beat Texas Tech in Fort Worth, 72-67, for another coveted win, one that Williams was glad his team was prepared to thrive in such games.
“We’ve been in that position a few times,” a relieved A&M coach Buzz Williams said regarding playing a sturdy opponent away from home. “Central Florida would have been one. Rutgers would have been one. Creighton would have been one. Wake Forest, I think, would have been one.”
Williams also noticed that his squad stepped up in a less-than-friendly environment in Fort Worth, one that was decidedly pro-Texas Tech.
“I thought, for sure, it felt like a road game. I know that analytically it won’t count. I thought the support — maybe it’s the Metroplex (Dallas/Fort Worth area), maybe it’s just the loyal following of Texas Tech… As soon as I walked out, I thought it felt like a road game,” Williams said.
Seeing that Indianapolis is about an hour away from West Lafayette and an easy commute for Boilermaker fans, Williams will most likely feel similar vibes on Saturday.
The Aggies Feature A Superior Defense
If Purdue thought Marquette and Penn State posed a defensive challenge, they will be in for much of the same tenacious defense from Texas A&M.
Statistically, Williams’ team has given up only 64.9 points per game, and have held their opponents to 38% field goal shooting while forcing an average of 14 turnovers each contest.
Their opponent Sunday, Texas Tech, came into the game as the 15th-highest scoring team in the country, and Texas A&M held them to their lowest output (67) of the season.
The Aggies are led in scoring by Wade Taylor IV, who pours in 16.1 points per game. The next highest contributor is Zhuric Phelps, and he adds 13 each time out.
On the glass, one of the bugaboos Purdue has confronted, Andersson Garcia, despite starting only 3 of his the Aggies’ first 10 games, claims a team-high 7.4 rebounds each game.
