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Texas A&M will be playing a very big game on Saturday night without a very big part of its team, as All-American guard Wade Taylor IV will miss his second consecutive game with an undisclosed injury.
Taylor was ruled out about 24 hours before the 10th-ranked Aggies tip off against 5th-ranked Alabama in a primetime, nationally televised showdown in College Station. The 2 teams, who are part of the SEC’s current stranglehold on college basketball, will square off at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN, but once again Taylor won’t be there for Texas A&M as it tries to stay unbeaten in conference play.
Both teams enter the SEC’s latest showdown with identical 13-2 overall records, and both are 2-0 in the SEC.
Texas A&M was able to survive without Taylor on Wednesday night, when it went to Norman and took down No. 17 Oklahoma, 80-78, behind Zhuric Phelps’ career-high 34 points. The Aggies were down 18 points in the second half but staged a furious rally to stun the Sooners without Taylor. Now on Saturday night, they’ll be tasked with beating another ranked team without their leader in scoring (15.7) and assists (4.8).
ESPN’s matchup predictor gives Texas A&M a pretty good chance to do just that. The Aggies have a 52.7% chance to knock off Alabama, according to ESPN’s analytics, with their home crowd behind them in the spotlight game.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
