Texas A&M ousted from SEC tournament with ugly loss it had avoided all season
Texas A&M hasn't been to the NCAA tournament since 2011 and that streak won't end this year.
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The Aggies were the No. 5 seed entering the SEC tournament and needed at least one win to start the tournament and give itself a better chance at an at-large bid, especially after finishing the regular season with consecutive losses to Florida and Alabama. But instead of handling its business in a second-round game Thursday against an Auburn team it beat by 25 points two weeks ago, the Aggies fell apart in a 66-59 loss to the 13th-seeded Tigers.
Texas A&M is 20-11 overall and went 11-7 in the SEC. Teams with worse records have been to the NCAA tournament, but the problem with the Aggies' body of work is it lacks punch. The single selling point in favor of the Aggies prior to losing to the Tigers is that they didn't have a bad loss.
Poof. That's no longer the case.
Texas A&M doesn't have a strong strength of schedule number (86) or RPI (55) and it just finished placed its fate in the hands of the selection committee after losing four out of five games. The only wins that might catch the eye of members of the selection committee are a pair of wins over LSU in conference play. That's it.
Just two weeks ago it looked as if the Aggies were certain to make the NCAA field. All they needed to do was avoid a disasterous finish to the season. But that is just what they allowed to happen and they'll have to settle for the NIT again this year.
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[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at kyle.ringo@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
