Texas A&M basketball: promising season concludes with key questions for Aggies' future
COLLEGE STATION — Heading into the 2024-25 season, the word surrounding Texas A&M basketball was "ready."
With a roster brimming with seasoned veterans, including eight seniors, the Aggies believed this year had the potential to culminate in a Final Four appearance in San Antonio.
“We’re a team that’s capable of playing in the Final Four… I feel like if we handle our business … I truly believe we can be a Final Four team this year,” forward Solomon Washington told the American Statesman on media day in October.
Instead, A&M fell in the NCAA Tournament's second round to Michigan and will see much of that production move on. With so much experience on the court for the final game, the Aggies now have more questions than answers heading into the offseason. Wade Taylor IV leaves with his jersey in the Reed Arena rafters as the program's all-time leading scorer. Zhuric Phelps made a massive impact in his lone A&M season, starting every regular-season game except for the opener. Phelps then seamlessly shifted roles when called upon to come off the bench in the NCAA Tournament.
Hayden Hefner, who officially played the most games in program history on Saturday (142 games), has left behind a record that may never be broken in today’s era where kids are often one-and-dones or leave for “better” opportunities.
Forward Henry Coleman III was a stoic leader. Throughout the week, he was often the voice of the program to media members and fans alike. His departure leaves a void. Andersson Garcia, CJ Wilcher, Jace Carter and Manny Obaseki all made lasting impacts on the program, whether for one season or several, by being key cogs in Buzz Williams’s 10-man rotation.
With so much turnover of a talented roster that admittedly came up short, A&M now looks forward with eyes toward the future with uncertainty about how it will all unfold.
Williams has never spent more than six years at any one school, and having reached that mark this year in College Station, one could wonder what is going through the mind of the passionate coach who connects with his team as well as any in the country, knowing he has to essentially start from scratch. The Greenville native frequently discusses the ever-evolving climate of college athletics, begging the question: Does he really want to compete for recruits in the current era of pay-for-play?
"(Revenue sharing) will continue to create a wider gap between mid-majors and power teams. You'll find even more separation,” Williams said ahead of the Michigan matchup. “I'm not sure what the leaders in this will decide. I'm not sure what it will be five years from now."
What makes Williams special is his ability to build relationships, connect with players and, in return, get the most out of them — a near-impossible task to accomplish in just one season. Despite the obvious hurdle, A&M will need to be aggressive in its pursuit of ready-made talent acquisitions, with only forwards Pharrel Payne and Washington expected to be back from this year’s contributors.
Payne is fresh off scoring 51 points in the two NCAA Tournament games, twice setting career highs over the weekend. Washington was the team’s best on-ball defender and has room to grow offensively. Payne is a product of Williams’ willingness to add talent in the portal while Washington is evidence of the Aggies' ability to recruit high school talent to be early contributors.
Having both is a great start, but holes remain across the roster. The SEC is as deep as it’s ever been, and with no signs of slowing, the Aggies will need to find a way to reload to keep pace or find themselves on the outside looking in of the hierarchy of the conference powers.
Sophomore Jaelyn Lee and freshmen Andre Mills, George Turkson Jr., and Janusz Ratowski are pieces the program is excited about, but only Lee played while the others redshirted.
Another factor potentially at play is "priority." With football being king in College Station, does Williams, or anyone for that matter, have the support to do the things necessary to be competitive?
Trev Alberts, in his first year as athletic director, was brought in to lead the program. With former football coach Jimbo Fisher’s $75 million buyout still in the books, Alberts will be tasked with balancing the finances associated with that large number. Where basketball fits in that is a legitimate question.
Fans are loyal, but their allegiances continue to be tested with late-season failures at A&M becoming the expectations of the scorned.
A&M’s season ended early by many expectations, the players and coaches among them. The Aggies spent every week of the season ranked, but went one-and-done in the SEC Tournament and failed to get out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
With so much to sort out, and after watching the most talented team in years fall short of expectations, the wounds of this season are still fresh. Still, time stops for no one and if A&M hopes to get another crack at it next season, it's time to find difficult answers to so,me hard-to-ask questions.
Reach Texas A&M Beat Reporter Tony Catalina via email at ACatalina@gannett.com.Follow the American-Statesman on Facebook and X for more. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Get access to all of our best content with this tremendous offer.
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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas A&M basketball: Key questions linger for the Aggies
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