i am still excited by bucky ball and what the potential for it can be. i try to keep in mind nate oates first year at bama they went 16-15. so there is a component of getting the right players in place. i am encourage by our improvement on defense. i am looking for solid improvement as the season continues and hope to win enough to be in the conversation for the big dance.


as for this season my biggest concern is pop isaac. i hope we can get him going.

-Opinion hasn't changed .
-No big surprises.
-Concern is we just don't have the muscle /inside the paint presence to consistently handle teams that do. Maybe we can shoot our way out of it a time or two .
-As far as the tourney… right now I feel the team is bubbly and as most here have surmised it will come down to performance in conference play. I think something like a 40% chance to make the Dance right now

I think if we had one more big that showed the kind of ability and want to that Agee shows the prospects would be significantly higher to make the tourney . guard play is pretty good . Very happy with Lane and Hill. Griffen has been good too. Dominguez shooting has been really good but haven't seen any other plus aspects from his game. Holloway ain't skeered but he is a turnover machine. Isaacs… up and down but trending up

The other thought is this year reminds me of Iowa State under Hoiberg when we played them. Built around what he could find and incredibly weird and fun to watch them play and they were tough,

halfastros81 said:

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I don't want to bag on Mgbako too much because it's hard to say how much of what we have seen is related to his injury and recovery but for his size/length he doesn't bring the inside presence I had expected . The problem may not be him … it may be my expectations were out of whack.

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He's our most expensive player so the expectations were there by our staff as well. Plus he was a fringe draft pick.

Concern:

Quote:

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- I have real concerns about both Mgbako and Isaacs, and if they don't find it, it probably lowers our ceiling considerably. To this point Mgbako is basically a taller Dominguez and Isaacs is a worse Holloway. There's still some runway for those two to find it, but it's starting to run out. Mgbako is a bigger deal than Isaacs because Lane has been better than I expected and we have other players with parts of Isaacs skill set but we really need Mgbako to be a multi-level scorer.

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It's all still a mixed bag of thoughts so far for me.

1. Nothing has changed at all in this regard. His system mirrors what NBA teams love to do, and we've seen both the ups and downs of what it provides. When it's clicking and we generate the numbers we want, it's fun and entertaining basketball to witness. And then there's a handful of games where nothing flows and it's sort of a black hole. I love it because it's a system where you can beat teams that are vastly better than you on any given night. Ball movement is very good.

2. As far as a game, I'll say my biggest surprise was blowing out an FSU team that hung in there with Florida. Florida's front court is having too many issues right now, but they will still be a good team IMO. I thought we would beat FSU, but by 36? Didn't see that coming at all. As far as a specific player, I'm gonna go with Vinson. He has some freak athleticism with his size and the potential is there. As you mentioned, we just need him to play more SEC physical type of basketball. Guys like Agee, Ruben, and Lane have been as advertised so far, but Vinson has stuck out to me as someone who can be more than what we thought at first.

3. The biggest concern for me continues to be lacking another inside big to pair up with Agee. Agee has been really good, but teams will be able to defend us easily if he's the only bit that's a threat down low. I'm disappointed so far in Fede 2x. We saw what he's capable of when he played in the NCAA tourney last year. He has all the size and athleticism one can want, but plays surprisingly soft. I'm not too concerned about having off nights offensively as laws of averages say it's absolutely going to happen. Just more concerned about personnel down low more than analytics.

4. I think 10-8 and getting to that 20th win gets us in the field as of today. Could totally be wrong as it's a lost cause trying to predict end of the year NET rankings in December. If we do get in, I think we can win a game or two. IMO, there's too many personnel issues to overcome for this team to make it past a Sweet 16 at its best. As for most teams, it depends on what draw we get if we do get in. If we get the short end of the stick and play some defensive juggernaut like BYU in the first round, it will be a short tourney. But if we even make the tourney, that means we have been playing that well enough to get there and my perspective on this team would change.

Finishing 10-3 in the non conference is good with me. Better than finishing 8-5 with a couple WTF Quad 4 losses that doom us on selection Sunday. We still need quality wins, but those opportunities will come in the SEC. We just needed to focus on beating teams that we should. Only loss that concerned me was UCF. SMU is a sound team, and Okie Lite is solid as well.

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We can shoot...watch warm up ...but we dont have the ability to get off shots against players who can defend and stay tuned into defensive positioning and fundamental assignments especially if they are more athletic or comparable to our players

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This is what I'm talking about, it's because we can't score at the basket consistently. Right now if you're a high level team with high level athletes, we're pretty easy to guard because you can just switch everything on the perimeter and stay in front of the shooters.

We have one player, Hill, who can attack the seams when defenses do that AND score when they get to the basket (that second part is the key, Lane and Holloway can also break defenders down decently but they can't finish around the basket.) This is where Isaacs would be helpful if he were playing at a high level.

We also have one big, Agee, who can consistently roll to the basket or slip screens or whatever and finish around the rim and even he's limited against bigger defenders because he's on the shorter side. This is where Mgbako would be helpful (or Vinson or Federiko.)

Until we get better at those two things, which means some significant improvement of some combination of Isaacs, Vinson, Federiko and Mgbako, we're going to be pretty easy to guard, especially by teams with taller guards like SMU had.

Forgot to mention Griffen, he looked better last night. He's one that can attack the seams of the defense a little bit if there's gaps. He's not going to cross anyone up but he can be a good slasher like a Middleton or Josh Carter.

I am completely unimpressed with the guys who came in and were supposed to be the guys who were going to lead the team. Hoping, like everyone else, that Mgbako gets it going soon. Not expecting much in SEC play. Against better teams, we have struggled mightily. Our rebounding has been really poor.

I am surprised Vinson isn't getting more time against the better teams. The coaches don't think he's ready? Against lower competition, he looks really solid.

Getting Agee cleared to play has helped the most. Without him, I think we'd be pretty bad.

I'd be pleasantly surprised if we made the tournament. Starting with no one, I think Bucky and staff have done much better than expected.

- Has your opinion of Bucky and/or his system changed since before the season?
No

- Has anything surprised you so far?
No

- What's your biggest concern for the rest of the year?
Getting bullied inside in the SEC

- Do we make a run at the NCAA Tournament?
No. I thought we would before the season, but today I am thinking SEC play could be really bad. Like I am worried we might go like 5-13. Maybe just witnessing that collapse vs SMU is playing too much of a factor and I'm letting that impact my thinking too much.

Yeah that SMU result has clouded my projections somewhat.

On one hand, they pushed us around for most of the first half, not good! Almost everyone in the SEC is better than SMU. On the other, we fought back with sort of a "Plan B" strategy that I didn't think we were really capable of. Very good! If we can battle back against SMU with that strategy then we can probably make it work in some SEC games when our shots aren't falling. But then we blew the close game at the end and in overtime. Not good! The difference between like 5-13 and 11-7 is probably going to be how we play in some close games late.

So I'm not really sure what I think heading into league play other than I do think we're probably going to get bombed a few times. Especially by teams like Florida and Tennessee that can play physical defense.

The SEC men's basketball league this season will be very bunched up as there is no 1 or 2 dominant teams like last year. Could very easily see the SEC regular season leader having 4 or more losses. Got to protect and win your home games as best as possible as road wins will be tough to get.

I need to add context to my comments. This honestly has been the least Aggie basketball I have watched in last 25 years to this point in the season. So my comments are not based off seeing a lot of Aggie basketball with my eyes this year. Hoping to get back into my regular viewing come SEC play.

It is interesting that, at least to this point, the SEC is a WAY worse defensive league than it was last year.

Last year seven teams ended the year in the top 30 in defensive efficiency, there's currently only three teams in the top 30 this year. Though three more are in the 30's.

I like our chances if we get into shootouts. A few of the bubbly SEC teams straight up suck on defense so far like Missouri, Auburn, Texas and Oklahoma. Though I imagine Texas will keep getting better.

bobinator said:

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I tried to tell everyone but Florida State sucks. Their game against Florida is an outlier game. They lost to UMASS over the weekend.

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Our Torvik gamescore for that FSU game has dropped from perfect 100 to 75 which is the roughly the same score or slightly worse than we currently have for our wins against Northwestern St, Texas Southern, Manhattan, and Jacksonville

MarcAg said:

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- Do we make a run at the NCAA Tournament?
No. I thought we would before the season, but today I am thinking SEC play could be really bad. Like I am worried we might go like 5-13. Maybe just witnessing that collapse vs SMU is playing too much of a factor and I'm letting that impact my thinking too much.

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Na, that collapse was bad. It's fair to lose any faith you had left.

My confidence that Bucky is the guy goes up every week it seems like. If he keeps pulling in ESPN top 100 HS recruits and landing studs in the portal to build the kind of team he wants to play with, we will be very good and probably go further than any A&M basketball team has before.

People keep saying we just shot poorly vs SMU. the reason we didn't hit any shots in the first half vs SMU is because those 3s were almost all closely contested. We were not missing open 3s.

It's alot harder to make 3s with a defender nearby and a hand up.

Not sure what we were running differently to better free up guys, but we got much better looks in the 2nd half.

Maybe we just ran our stuff quicker, crisper.

Some of them were contested but definitely not all of them, and contested or not you'd expect to make better than 1/16 in the first half. SMU guarded us well, they especially had a good plan to deny Dominguez the ball, but that can be true AND it can be true that we shot horribly in the first half.

The Marksman said:

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My confidence that Bucky is the guy goes up every week it seems like. If he keeps pulling in ESPN top 100 HS recruits and landing studs in the portal to build the kind of team he wants to play with, we will be very good and probably go further than any A&M basketball team has before.

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Agree. I wouldn't even be surprised if we do a lot better in SEC play this year than most expect. In my view, it's fun to watch A&M roundball again.

PJYoung said:

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I think this team is around where I expected them to be. I think we will have a very tough time in the physical SEC. 6-12 in conference play still seems about right to me. Maybe 8-10 at best. I could also see us losing a bunch to start conference and completely falling apart.

But I like this mid-season development.

Per sources, Top 50 guard and Texas A&M signee Neiko Mundey is enrolling early and will arrive at Texas A&M during the holiday break 🏀 @NeikoMundey

Mundey will redshirt and will suit up for his freshman season in 2026-27. He’ll get a head start on learning Bucky’s system 👍 pic.twitter.com/OWgXGeFvGq

— Luke Evangelist (@lukeevangelist_) December 15, 2025

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This is huge for his development and for next season

1. I really do like Bucky and like the system, that hasn't changed, but think we need a better PG to run the offense and more length everywhere on the court.

2. When they are on offensively and moving the ball, you don't even realize how much we get up by, or how fast we go on a huge run. I knew we'd be fast but it still shocks me sometimes.

- What's your biggest concern for the rest of the year? Size, speed, and talent of SEC teams and how fast we adjust

- Do we make a run at the NCAA Tournament? Maybe but unlikely this year.My prediction was 7-11 in conference and still think it's anywhere between that and 11-7. Don't think we will have enough big wins but overall hoping the team keeps improving

Love Bucky and what he has put together from nothing? The portal was virtually over when he arrived. This team for what he inherited is super and it is getting better. Remember this team never played together till now
I think his style if the can hit shots away wears teams out. Run them in the ground. Can we do that away effectively?
I hope he can make the tournament. As he has said we are a team tournament competition hates. No time to simulate their intensity they could steamroll a bunch of teams
Wishing them great success as we move to the SEC. Like Kyle Field if our fans and students come out in numbers make Reed unbearable