USA Today / ESPN Pre-Season Poll

USA Today & ESPN released their pre-season basketball poll today and the Aggies are ranked as the #14 team in the country.

Rankings:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/usatpoll.htm?loc=interstitialskip

USA Today Profile / Season Preview:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/big12
/texasam.htm?loc=interstitialskip


Other teams in the Big 12 that are ranked include Kansas (#4) and Texas (#16). Kansas State and Baylor were in the "Other Receiving Votes" category.

The Aggies play their first exhibition game of the season next week on Thursday the 1st of November when they host Emporia State.

It is also worth mentioning that Joe Jones has been selected as a top 50 pre-season candidate for the John Wooden Award, given each year to the nation's top player. Acie Law was a finalist for this award last season (Kevin Durant was the winner).

Other Big 12 players nominated to the list included D.J. Augustin - Texas, Mario Chalmers - Kansas, Aleks Maric - Nebraska, Brandon Rush - Kansas, and Martin Zeno - Texas Tech.

John Wooden Award Pre-season Top 50:
http://www.aggieathletics.com/pressRelease.php?SID=MBB&PRID=13496

Have a good weekend!
-sb

Big 12 Media Day - Turgeon Comments

Hey Guys - Just wanted to pass along a link from the guys over at Aggie Websider (part of the scout.com network). This was the first article I have read so far this year that got me really excited about basketball season.

They have a great recap and a transcript from Coach Turgeon's comments at Wednesday's Big 12 Media Day in Kansas City.

http://tamu.scout.com/2/691739.html

There were a couple of things that stood out to me. First and foremost amongst them was the fact that Donald Sloan may not be the Aggies' starting point guard next season. Turgeon says that Dominique Kirk has taken a big role in helping to set the offense. He also mentions that BJ Holmes, a true freshman from Houston, Alief-Hastings, has been running the point some as well.

I also loved to hear Turgeon talking about helping to further develop Josh Carter's mid-range game. My guess is that most Aggie opponents and the other teams in the Big 12 do not want Josh Carter developing a third move to add to his arsenal.

Finally, I enjoyed the part about DeAndre Jordan being "18 going on 12 sometimes" and the fact that Jordan apparently sends Turgeon text messages all night long. Hilarious.

Anyhow, I would love to hear what you guys thought stood out from Turgeon's comments at Media Day.

Carry on.
-sb

Basketball Practice Starts Tonight!!!

Howdy Guys - Just wanted to drop everyone a quick line to let you know that basketball practice gets underway tonight. I know it seems WAY too early, but hey, maybe it will provide a nice break from FranGate.

The Aggies were picked to finish 3rd in the league behind Kansas and Texas, according to the coaches pre-season poll.

MEN'S BIG 12 PRESEASON POLL
Rank, school Points
1 Kansas (10) 120
2 Texas 105
3 Texas A&M (2) 101
4 Kansas State 91
5 Missouri 66
5 Oklahoma 66
7 Oklahoma State 61
8 Texas Tech 60
9 Baylor 55
10 Nebraska 29
11 Iowa State 22
12 Colorado 16
First-place votes in parentheses

In addition, Joseph Jones was selected to the first team All-Big 12 squad by the coaches and Josh Carter and DeAndre Jordan were selected as honorable mention candidates.

ALL-BIG 12 1st TEAM
Curtis Jerrells - Baylor
Darrell Arthur - Kansas
Joseph Jones - Texas A&M
Brandon Rush - Kansas
Aleks Maric - Nebraska

Player of the Year
D.J. Augustin - Texas

Other honorable mention picks were Baylor's Aaron Bruce, Colorado's Richard Roby, Kansas' Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins, Kansas State's Beasley and Bill Walker, Oklahoma State's Marcus Dove and Texas Tech's Martin Zeno.

- - Here are a few quick articles you may want to take a look at if you have a few minutes:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA101207.BKC.Big12.
Practices.en.3974807.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/colleges/texasam
/stories/101207dnspobig12basketball.15da97fa2.html

http://si.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=SI.com+-+Writers+-+Preseason+primer+%28cont.%29+-+Thursday+October+11%2C+2007+11%3A12AM&expire=-1&urlID=24369100&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsportsillustrated.cnn.com%2F2007%2Fwriters%2Fseth_davis%2F10%2F


The Aggies play their first exhibition game of the season on Thursday, November 1st at 7:00.

Their full schedule can be found here:
http://www.aggieathletics.com/schedule.php?SID=MBB&YOS=2008

We will have much more for you guys as we continue to work our way through October.

I hope everyone had a great summer.

Carry on.
-sb