re: Texas A&M Basketball 2017-2018 (tOfficial) - Sweet Sixteen - Great season, Ags!

Klarvin is gonna be so pissed

Overall, a great win. Largest win margin against a ranked team in program history. Even better considering the team overcame a rough start and any potential issues of overseas travels.

Three morning after thoughts:

1. The depth is real.
2. Our slow start is reminiscent of last season.
3. It’s possible that WVU is overrated.

Depth

The bench is as advertised. Even with two starters missing, we had 7 players contribute good minutes, with the possibility still there for more to get in good time. Our newcomers will deliver, just have to keep everyone healthy.

PG - After leading the Ags in scoring against Tarleton State, Starks continues to show the pre-season reports coming out of camp were legit. He’s really, really good. He was a little cold shooting last night, but he showed off his handles. Had a number of moves that caused an audible gasp from the crowd. And the coaching staff likes Caldwell more? Even if Caldwell is just as good as Starks, we’re in really good hands. Too early to tell anything definitive on Wilson, but he contributed well. All we need for him to do is play like he did last night.

SG - Gilder is still a beast, no surprise there. Chandler was obviously rattled the whole game and only put in 8 minutes, so hard to tell anything about him yet. Not really anything of concern for a freshman playing in his first game on the national stage. Hopefully he can settle in over the next several games.

SF - Hogg had a great game, 19pts, 4-6 from 3, 7 rebs, 6 assists...solid all over the court. He looks noticibly stronger too. Flagg did what he needed to do, putting in 20 minutes and 7pts.

PF - We’ll cover Trocha here, he had a decently bad game by his standards. He had some lazy defensive play and was a non-factor on offense. No real concerns about him though based on the past two seasons.

C - Davis tied Gilder for a game high 23 points. He’s cut some weight but looks just as strong, if not stronger due to his increased mobility. Just have to keep feeding him.

Slow Start

The joke at my house was that someone forgot to tell our guys they play with a different shaped ball in Germany. It was crazy, every single player on our team couldn’t catch a pass without bobbling it around like a cat playing with a ball of yarn. Some of the slow start can be attributed to Hogg and Gilder being held out of the starting lineup, presumably due to their disciplinary issue, but our tendency to start slow will nip us at some point if we don’t take care of it. Coming back from down 13 though was a great feat, we looked like we were going to get run out of the gym (err, hangar) and powered back.

“Press” Virginia

There’s a decent possibility that West Virginia just started the season overrated. Their full court press seemed weak and they were completely gassed when we started building a good lead. I’d like to say we just straight out-talented them, but we’ll be watching to see how they do the rest of the season.

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1. The depth is real.
2. Our slow start is reminiscent of last season.
3. It’s possible that WVU is overrated

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also, Tyler Davis is so much more agile now and that's huge. Starks looked really good as a true fish breaking the press and getting to the rim and playing good defense. I liked how he looked more than Wilson

I can't wait until we can get a lineup with gilder, flagg, hogg, williams, and davis. So much athleticism, no one is going to score on that and everyone sans Flagg can get their own offense

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I can't wait until we can get a lineup with gilder, flagg, hogg, williams, and davis.

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the possibilities are endless with this roster. I loved when we moved hogg to the 4 and had starks, gilder, and flagg in the backcourt last night. Teams are going to go through hell trying to figure out if its better to go Big or Small against us.

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4. November 17th better be a sellout crowd.

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Against UCSB? I expect we will see a good turnout but you have unrealistic expectations if you think that should be a sellout.

I can see it after the holiday break once conference play starts or even against a ranked opponent at home beforehand, but this fanbase isn't going to show that kind of support to any team before football season ends. It's just not the nature of the fanbase.

Gilder has a net rating over over 100 and a PER of over 39

I want to see some small ball lineups with Caldwell Starks Gilder Hogg and Williams

Or shift Gilder down to the 2 with Flagg at the 3 for a little bigger backcourt

Ags up to #16 in new AP poll

and gilder was just named conference player of the week

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Ags up to #16 in new AP poll

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