Postgame Thoughts

OKLAHOMA CITY — Bucky Ball has exceeded the wildest of expectations, but the 2025-26 Texas A&M Aggies aren’t done yet.

After a convincing 63-50 win over St. Mary’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Bucky McMillan and the team he had to put together on the fly 11 months ago are one of the best stories in all of college basketball. Even though Bucky Ball is largely known for its high scoring style, it was the tenacious defense that bagged the Gaels Thursday night.

When looking at the season stats for these two teams the other night, a lot seemed to lean St. Mary’s way. They had the seventh-best defense in the country and shot free throws literally better than anybody. One thing stood out, though: turnover margin. They turned the ball over more than they forced turnovers, and they hadn’t seen anything like A&M’s pressure.

That is, if they had their legs back. And they did.

Defense rules the day

St. Mary’s averaged 11 turnovers a game; A&M had forced that many by halftime. The Aggies were just quicker in all facets of the game, and their hands were as fast tonight as they’ve been all season. They poked one ball after another away, picking up 12 steals and forcing 18 turnovers. St. Mary’s was so frazzled by A&M’s pressure that they literally threw inbounds passes to waiting Aggies and tossed balls off of their teammates faces.

For numbers guys, this game was absolute hell. The team with the ninth-ranked offense won with their defense and only scored 63 points. The team with the best free throw percentage made 4 of 11 attempts. The team with no starter over 6-foot-6 won points in the paint by a margin of 28-12. In spite of being 7-foot-3 and 7-foot-1, respectively, St. Mary’s centers Andrew McKeever and Harry Wessels combined for 0 points in 39 minutes of playing time.

The Aggies got in the head of the Gaels right off the bat and it screwed the WCC team up for the whole game. St. Mary’s couldn’t handle the pressure defense and started to anticipate it, even when it wasn’t there. That seemed to lead to a bunch of missed baskets at point-blank range, even though it shouldn’t have. When the Gaels did use their size to their advantage and picked up fouls, McKeever missed all four of his free throws. Wessels only tried a single shot.

I’m sure that St. Mary’s coaching staff and players think it was just a one-off, a bad night, but they were intimidated by A&M’s defensive pressure. This was a slow, steady, grind it out team, and the Aggies immediately took that away from them. St. Mary’s turned the ball over five times before they scored a point.

Rashaun Agee set the tempo for the Aggies, as he has almost all year. He scored the first 7 points of the game and refused to cede the lane to the larger forwards and centers for the Gaels. Even though he was giving up a good bit of size, Zach Clemence did a good job as well. Jamie Vinson, in his appearances, actually did a little muscling of his own on the St. Mary’s bigs.

Agee leads with fearless approach

Agee was aggressive on both ends of the court. In games against teams with a lot of talented big men — think Florida and Arkansas, for instance — Agee got taken out of his game and his point totals cratered. Tonight, he made a point of going to the basket right off the bat, delivering a message of his own that he wasn’t going to back down this time. They could foul him, or try to block his shot, but he was still going to come at them. After he got the first couple of baskets, including a 3, you could almost feel his confidence rise.

A&M did not shoot the ball especially well tonight beyond Agee, but they hit some big shots when it mattered. Ruben Dominguez didn’t score a point after halftime, but his quick outburst of three straight 3-pointers during an 14-2 run late in the first half essentially broke St. Mary’s back. That took the game from 23-22 to 37-24 with only a minute left in the first half. St. Mary’s ended up with 26 first half points, and that was their good half.

Offensively, A&M had Agee and a few quick spurts of solid play, but otherwise they had to deal with the rock fight tempo that St. Mary’s prefers. Honestly, it seemed a lot like what A&M played when Maryland’s coach was here. They didn’t trap or pressure like the Aggies do, but they played tough man defense, especially inside the arc. Everything was contested. The Gaels couldn’t stop Agee, let A&M got hot from 3 a couple of times and that was your ballgame. Like past Aggie teams, St. Mary’s was not built to score points in bunches.

A&M’s going to have to get more out of Rylan Griffen and Pop Isaacs, at the very least, against Houston. They had 4 and 3 points, respectively, and that won’t hack it against UH, who can score points in bunches. The Aggies aren’t Idaho, and they’ll be able to do better against the Cougars, but they can’t have a couple of their big scorers having off nights. We’re to the point now where off nights mean doom.

One guy who did have a good night was Ali Dibba, who scored 9 points, grabbed 7 rebounds and added 3 steals. He was certainly one of the guys who did a great job harassing St. Mary’s guards and pressuring them into mistakes.

Tonight’s win reinforces just how good a job McMillan has done during his short tenure in Aggieland. It took Buzz Williams five years to win a tournament game at A&M, and his two victories were against Nebraska (which had never won a tournament game before today) and Yale. Williams’ teams either would not or could not adjust from the style they always played, which frequently consisted of long offensive dry spells. McMillan’s scheme was designed to prevent those dry spells, but tough defenses have slowed down A&M’s up-tempo offense. But the team that couldn’t defend anyone in November just shut down a consistent tournament team while forcing a season-high 18 turnovers. The Aggies will have a tough test against Houston, but if their shooting comes to life as their defense did tonight, the Cougars will have ample reason to be nervous.