Texas A&M enters the 2018-19 college basketball season having made the Sweet 16 in two of the past three years.
One of the biggest reasons why the Aggies have been able to accomplish that type of success is due to their play in the paint.
After all, when you field an NBA first-round draft pick in Robert Williams and a dominant college center in Tyler Davis, you’re more often than not going to rely on them to take you far in March.
However, with Williams and Davis both joining the professional ranks this offseason, Billy Kennedy knew that it was time to change how the Aggies played.
That change? Going from a team that slows it down to pound it inside to a team that pushes the pace to allow more freedom for its playmaking guards.
“It’s been totally different,” Kennedy said at SEC Media Day on Wednesday. “We’re trying to play differently, we’re trying to play a little bit faster with probably four perimeter guys and one big. Our guys have bought in and liked the style of play, but I’m gonna have to get used to guys kicking out of bounds more than I like right now.”
Transition is never easy, and Kennedy and his staff will likely experience that first-hand this season.
Not only do the Aggies lose Davis and Williams, but third-leading scorer DJ Hogg has also exited, as has grad transfer guard Duane Wilson and reliable 6-10 forward Tonny Trocha-Morelos.
But Kennedy is confident that the two key contributors that do return are more than capable of picking up the slack.
Admon Gilder is back for his senior season after averaging 12.3 points and shooting 39.5 percent from 3-point range last year. He’s the most experienced player on the Texas A&M having been part of those two Sweet 16 squads, and that’ll go a long way towards keeping the team competitive in a brutal SEC.
Also back is sophomore guard TJ Starks, who emerged as one of the Aggies’ top playmakers in his first year on campus.
Starks averaged 9.9 points per game and scored in double figures in 13 of the Texas A&M’s final 17 games.
His continued development as the team’s primary ball handler will be crucial to the Aggies’ success in the new system.
“We’re trying to get TJ to having a better feel for playing the point guard position,” Kennedy said. “He’s more of a scoring guard, and we want him to be aggressive offensively but we want him to also be able to run our offense.”
As for the players that’ll be tasked with replacing Davis and Williams, it’ll be a pair of newcomers in redshirt junior Josh Nebo and Tennessee State grad transfer Christian Mekowulu.
Nebo captured defensive player of the year honors in the Northeast Conference during his time at St. Francis, while Mekowulu is coming off a solid season in Nashville in averaging 12.7 points and 7.9 rebounds to go along with 1.5 blocks per game.
It would be unfair to ask Nebo and Mekowulu to replace Texas A&M’s dynamic duo from the past few seasons, but both will contribute in different ways on each side of the court.
“Our bigs are probably better defensive players than our bigs were in the past,” Kennedy said. “But we’re probably not gonna be as efficient on offense and pounding it inside. Christian has been a pleasant surprise for us. He understands how to play, he’s good around the basket, and he’s capable of stepping out and making the three.”
The Aggies also return other rotation players like sophomores Savion Flagg and Jay Jay Chandler, and they’ll attempt to develop further in the faster-paced playing style.
To succeed in that style, Kennedy’s team will have to become more efficient shooting the ball. Texas A&M shot just 32.9 percent from beyond the arc last season and struggled from the charity stripe in finishing 322nd nationally at 66.1 percent.
With a more guard-oriented offense to set to be on display in College Station, numbers should improve in both areas.
But even if it takes a little while for everything to come together, Kennedy understands the move to a more modern offensive attack was a necessary one.
“The teams we struggled against last year played four perimeter guys,” he said. “They spread the floor, got the post guy out of the paint, got paint touches and kicked it out for threes. That’s something we’re trying to do now. Can you be disciplined in your shot selection? Can you value the ball when you need to and play that tempo?”
“That’s something we’re trying to figure out right now. It’s a work in progress.”
For more SEC basketball coverage, follow me on Twitter @theblakelovell.