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Aggie men's basketball set to host Florida on Wednesday night

It will be the first “mirror game” rematch for the Aggies, who opened SEC play with a 66-63 win over the Gators in Gainesville
Credit: KAGS-TV

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Texas A&M men’s basketball team puts its season-best six-game winning streak on the line when the Aggies host the Florida Gators at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Reed Arena.

It will be the first “mirror game” rematch for the Aggies, who opened SEC play with a 66-63 win over the Gators in Gainesville on Jan. 4. Other mirror game opponents include: Arkansas, Auburn, LSU and Missouri.

Including the win two weeks ago, the Aggies have won three straight in the series against UF, which is A&M’s longest win streak over the Gators.  

TRENDS & STREAKS:

Texas A&M has opened SEC play with a 4-0 record for a second straight season. Last year’s team started 4-0 and then famously lost the next eight games.

In the four SEC wins, the Aggies have trailed for a combined 5 minutes and 25 seconds. The Aggies did not trail in Saturday’s 94-53 rout of South Carolina.

The Aggies’ six-game winning streak is the team’s longest since closing out the 2021-22 regular season with four victories and winning three games to reach the 2022 SEC tournament final.

Texas A&M and Alabama are tied for the longest active winning streak by SEC teams.

The streak began on the heels losing back-to-back games at Memphis (83-79) and at home against Wofford (67-62) prior to the four-day holiday break.

The Aggies have used the same starting lineup (Coleman III, Dennis, Marble, Radford and Taylor IV) for the last six games.

During the streak, Tyrece Radford is team’s leading scorer at 15.3 points while hitting 55.2% of his FGs and 46.2 of his 3-pointers. In the 11 games (6-5) prior to the streak, Radford was slashing 10.8 pts/31.5%/27.5%.

Since scuffling through a streak of 5 games with 6 or fewer points, Dexter Dennis is averaging 14.3 points in his last 3 games, including double figure efforts against LSU (17 points), MU (13) and SC (13).

Hayden Hefner was 0-fer 2023 entering MU but has come off the bench to hit 5-of-9 shots the past two games, all 3-pointers.

Henry Coleman III has posted back-to-back double-doubles with 10 pts/10 rebs vs. MU and 12/11 vs SC.

Wednesday’s game marks the Aggies’ fifth straight game against first-year SEC head coaches.

GETTING TO THE LINE:

The Aggies rank No. 1 nationally free throws made per game and No. 2 in FTs attempted. Texas A&M has shot 100+ more free throws than seven SEC teams.

The Aggies average 19.2 - 26.1 FTM-FTA per game, which is well ahead of the pace set by ALL Texas A&M squads after 1970. The school records for FTM-FTA are 22.5 FTM by the 1967-68 squad and 31.8 FTA by the 1968-69 team.

Texas A&M has been to the line 25 or more times in 13 of 17 games and has hit 20 or more FTs seven times.

Tyrece Radford and Wade Taylor IV are in the SEC top six in free throw makes with 74 and 69, respectively. Ironically, neither Radford or Taylor shot a free throw in last Saturday’s rout of South Carolina. Both are hitting over 80.0% of their FTAs -- 81.2% for Taylor and 80.4% for Radford.

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