Texas knocks off Texas A&M at Dickies Arena. Will the rivalry continue going forward?
Texas A&M senior forward Josh Nebo is happy he experienced the Texas rivalry at least once in his college career. And he hopes future Aggies enjoy the same thing he did on Sunday afternoon at Dickies Arena.
Even though A&M lost 60-50 to Texas in what was dubbed “The Lone Star Showdown,” Nebo and his teammates embraced being part of one of the great college rivalries in the country.
“I definitely feel like we missed out. It’s something as players you want to play against Texas,” said Nebo, who led the Aggies with 16 points.
“The fans want to see that. I feel it’s definitely good for both schools, good for the state. Just a good college basketball game.”
An announced crowd of 9,136 attended the first basketball game between the schools since meeting in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas in November 2015. A&M won that game 84-73.
Sunday belonged to the Longhorns, who improved to 138-86 in the all-time series rivalry. It wasn’t the prettiest of games, but the Longhorns improved to 8-1 thanks in large part to Jase Febres, who scored 17 points, and Andrew Jones, who scored 12.
The question going forward is whether this matchup becomes a staple in future seasons.
Coaches and players on both sides felt it should take place on an annual basis. Nothing has been finalized for future years, but the hope is it happens again.
The fans certainly embraced it and enjoyed ribbing each other throughout the game.
A&M fans trolled Texas at one point by chanting “Admission scandal!” referring to the Longhorns being involved in the nation’s college admissions scandal under former men’s tennis coach Michael Center.
The Longhorns returned the favor with a “Little Brother!” chant near the end of the game.
“I would definitely love to play them every year,” said A&M freshman forward Emanuel Miller, who had eight points and a game-high 14 rebounds.
“I think just the overall intensity of the game, the way we battled, I think that’s what the fans would like to see. That’s what we love to do.”
Fort Worth would obviously love to be the host site if possible. Or the schools could explore doing a home-and-home series or possibly moving the game to different cities around the state such as Houston and San Antonio.
“It’s a game that I think is good for the fans and it’s good for the players,” Texas coach Shaka Smart said. “Hopefully it’s something we can continue.”
A&M coach Buzz Williams also described renewing the rivalry as “good,” although pointed to scheduling as being a potential issue to making it happen on a yearly basis.
“Scheduling is a little more complicated than what you guys would tweet,” Williams said, “or what the average fan that reads the Fort Worth Star-Telegram thinks relative to the MTEs [multi-team events], relative to we play in the Big 12/SEC Challenge, which is during conference play So there’s a lot of different factors involved.”
Williams added that the SEC has strict regulations when it comes to nonconference scheduling, requiring schools to average a NET score of 150 for its respective nonconference schedules. NET stands for “NCAA Evaluation Tool,” which is a system the NCAA adopted last season as a way to rank all the college basketball programs.
“That NET score number comes from the moment in time you sign the contract, so there’s a lot of math in it,” Williams said. “It’s for sure the most in-depth nonconference scheduling that I’ve ever been a part of.”
But there may be a way that Dickies Arena can lure Williams and the Aggies back on a consistent basis. Williams joked that he would’ve liked to receive tickets to George Strait’s concert last month and was baffled why the venue didn’t provide him any.
“They didn’t give me tickets,” Williams said, smirking. “We’re not signing a contract to play at Dickies if I don’t get tickets to see George.”
Other than that, each program raved about the arena.
Nebo called it one of the best arenas he’s played in. Smart also had positive things to say about Fort Worth’s new $540 million venue.
After all, A&M and Texas played in just the second basketball game here. The next college basketball event coming to town is the American Athletic Conference men’s basketball tournament in March.
“They did a great job creating this venue,” Smart said. “We’re appreciative of the opportunity to play up here. I thought it was great to have the fans from both schools come out and support our teams.”
