Both undefeated to begin the season, the Washington Huskies and Gonzaga Bulldogs are two teams with vastly different styles of play, making this a must-watch game for any college basketball fan.
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In the first meeting on the hardwood between these two in-state rivals since 2012, No. 25 Texas A&M (5-0 in 2015-16) defeated Texas, 84-73 in the first round of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas.
Texas played with the kind of pace on offense and press attack on defense that was a hallmark of first-year coach Shaka Smart’s teams at Virginia Commonwealth.
Duke 80, Yale 61: The Bulldogs (3-2), preseason favorites in the Ivy League, led for all but 90 seconds of the first half but shot just 30 percent after the break. “Coach said they would make some runs, and I thought we stuck together as a team and (were) very unselfish”. Domantas Sabonis, who is now averaging a 20 and 10 double-double, has been absolutely brilliant, and we have yet to see a breakout game for Kyle Wiltjer, who is one of the best players in all of college basketball.
“Like coach was saying in the huddle… when a game gets like that we don’t have to run a play every time”, Wiltjer said. “Sometimes we weren’t running the plays that we were practice. Sometimes you just have to punch a gap”. Texas A&M got 28 points from its reserves. The Aggies’ last 26 shots in such matchups have ended in disappointment by an average of 12.4 points.
“That was disruptive for us”, he said.
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Texas threatened throughout the second half, pulling within two and three points on a handful of occasions. “They told us they are going to call it like that”, Few said. “A lot of our guys haven’t played college basketball….The fact that we keep fighting even when we’re down is a great sign for us going forward”. Gonzaga is forcing 13.7 turnovers per game and has allowed no more than 64 points this season. Washington (3-1) will take on the Texas-Texas A&M loser at 4 p.m. Thursday. Three Texas A&M starters-Danuel House (19 points), Anthony Collins (15 points) and Tyler Davis (14 points) – led the scoring for the victorious Aggies, while Admon Gilder added 12 points off the pine for the winners.
