Texas A&M (24-8) has been placed as the 7th seed in the Southwest Regional of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and will meet Florida State (21-10) Friday at approximately 3:10 pm in the second round of the tournament at the United Center in Chicago. The winner will meet either Notre Dame or Akron in the third round at Chicago. Kansas is the top seed in the Southwest. Other match-ups in A&M’s eight-team section have Purdue vs St. Peters and Georgetown meeting the “First Four” match-up between Southern Cal and Virginia Commonwealth. It’s A&M’s sixth straight NCAA Tournament after a drought of 19 years. The Aggies and FSU game will tip 30 minutes after the Notre Dame vs Akron game that tips at 12:40 p.m.
QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Turgeon
On the matchup with Florida State… “I think we mirror each other a bit. They’re a little bit longer, a little bit taller than we are across the board. Maybe a little more athletic. But we’re a lot alike. You know, I just told the players. We worry about three teams. We worry about Akron, Notre Dame and Florida State. That’s all that matters to us in the next seven days. First of all is Florida State, and you try and figure out a way to beat them. Then you worry about the next two. I’m just happy to be in it, I really am. I’m really proud of this team and what we’ve accomplished. Hopefully we can get a lot better this week and go get us a couple of wins.”
What do you know about Florida State and the status of Chris Singleton? “They really defend. They’re tall, long and defend and they get after you. I think teams shot 36 percent for the year and 39 percent for the league (against them), so they did a great job. I know nothing about Singleton. They were really good when Singleton was in there. I think they were 9-3 in the league before he got hurt. I’ve heard rumors that he might be back. So we’ll see if he’s back. We’re just going to worry about us and try and play well.”
On the team’s seed and the Big 12’s draw… “Well, that’s life. I don’t feel like the Big 12 got a lot of respect when it came to the seeding. When I saw Texas come up as a 4, I knew Colorado was in trouble. But you know, that’s life. The good thing for us, after we lost to Boston College, I never thought we’d be in. And to know you’re clearly in with a couple weeks to go in the season is a good feeling. We get to go to a great city in Chicago and play a great team in Florida State that’s a lot like us. They really like to defend and rebound. It’ll be a good matchup for us. We’re happy to be in and looking forward to it.”
On the field of 68… “I’ve talked to a lot of coaches, and I don’t think anywhere from a 3 to a 12 there’s much difference in the teams this year. It’s just a number in front of your name. The bad thing as you go, if you’re a lower seed, is you have the chance if you win to play someone close to home on (basically) their home floor. That could happen to us again, but we have to beat a really good Florida State team for that to happen and Notre Dame has got to beat Akron. That’s why you play the games. It should be a great and exciting tournament, and (getting in) 6 years in a row, I think A&M should be pretty proud of that.”
NOTABLE
– Texas A&M will be making its sixth straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament and 12th overall … prior to this streak, A&M had never played in consecutive NCAA Tournaments and had not been to the NCAAs since 1987 … 6 of the Aggies’ 12 appearances, and 6 of their 9 NCAA wins, have come since 2006.
– A&M is now one of just 12 schools that have made the NCAA Tournament in each of the last 6 seasons (A&M, Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Marquette, Michigan State, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, Texas, Villanova, Wisconsin, Xavier).
– Texas A&M and Pittsburgh are the only schools in the country to win an NCAA Tournament game in each of the last 5 years.
– A&M is one of just 3 schools to have won a postseason game in each of the last 6 years (5 NCAA/1 NIT), joining North Carolina (5 NCAAs/1 NIT) and Memphis (4 NCAAs/2 NITs).
The top four seeds of the tournament are Ohio State (East), Kansas (Southwest), Pittsburg (Southeast) and Duke (West).
Just five Big 12 teams made the tournament as Colorado was not chosen despite a strong end of their season. Kansas will meet Boston University Friday in Tulsa in the Southwest, 4th seed Texas will meet Oakland in Tulsa Friday in the West, 11th seed Missouri will meet Cincinnati Thursday in Washington DC, and 5th seed Kansas State will meet Utah State Thursday in Tucson.