Shorthanded No. 16 Texas A&M hosts UCSB (Nov 17, 2017)
Texas A&M, coming off a rousing victory over then-No. 11 West Virginia on opening night, begins its home schedule still without a couple of its key players.
Sophomore post player Robert Williams will serve the final game of a three-game suspension, which included an exhibition, when the No. 16 Aggies host UC Santa Barbara on Friday night. Williams is a projected NBA lottery pick who averaged 11.9 points and 8.2 rebounds per game last season.
And touted redshirt freshman point guard J.J. Caldwell is expected to miss a bit more time because of academics, which is why he sat out last season.
Texas A&M had more than enough to pick up the slack in the 88-65 win over the Mountaineers in a game played on the Ramstein Air Base in southwestern Germany. The Aggies moved up nine spots in the AP poll following the victory.
Williams will return for Monday's game against Oklahoma State in Brooklyn, N.Y.
"He's a big part, but we have a lot of depth on this team," coach Billy Kennedy said this week.
The Aggies still have plenty of frontcourt firepower with 6-foot-10, 266-pound Tyler Davis (23 points, 13 rebounds against West Virginia) and wing D.J. Hogg. He had 19 points, six assists, and hit 4 of 6 3-point attempts against the Mountaineers while also playing power forward.
In that sense, Williams' absence is a blessing.
"Playing D.J. at the 4 allowed us to stretch the floor and we got some threes in transition," Kennedy said. "That gives our team some versatility being able to play him at different positions."
Point guard Admon Gilder was another standout, with 23 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and tough defense on West Virginia star Jevon Carter.
UCSB (1-1) opened with an 85-66 win over a North Dakota State team that then took No. 10 Southern California to the wire, and followed with a 70-62 loss at Pitt on Wednesday. The Gauchos led for most of the second half before giving up a 14-5 run to end the game.
"I'm proud of our guys because I thought we played hard and competed for 40 minutes," first-year head coach Joe Pasternack, formerly an Arizona assistant coach, told the school's website. "When you let an opportunity like this slip away, it's hard. But we'll learn from it and get back after it."
Pasternack lamented that shots just didn't go in -- his team shot 23.5 percent in the second half -- but if guard Max Heidegger (23.0 points per game through two contests) and forward Leland King II (22.5 ppg) are hitting from beyond the arc, the Gauchos should be competitive.
"The big question Friday night is will we respect Santa Barbara," Kennedy said. "That's yet to be determined, but I do know that we've got maturity and we've got depth. If somebody's not playing well, we can play somebody else. That's a good feeling from my standpoint."
Kennedy will be hoping to use that depth, not only Friday night but on Monday and Tuesday night in the Legends Classic. A&M will play Pitt or Penn State on Tuesday in Brooklyn. That's three games in five days.
"Hopefully our depth will allow us to play a lot of guys," Kennedy said. "But it starts with Santa Barbara. We haven't proven that we can establish ourselves day in and day out. So this is a good test for us on Friday."
