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Posted: Saturday October 26, 2002 11:53 PM Updated: Wednesday October 30, 2002 4:52 PM Texas A&M Aggies
The following preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the most thorough preview available of the upcoming season, order the 2002-03 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518. Team Preview | Blue Ribbon Analysis
Melvin Watkins entered his fourth season as Texas A&M’s coach with an abundance of optimism. Four starters returned from the 2000-01 team, and the Aggies had enough depth to possibly make a move into the upper tier of the Big 12. Six games into the season, the Aggies were 5-1 and hopes were still high, but their season started to unravel amid a rash of injuries and turmoil within the team. By the end of the season, the 13 scholarship players on the roster at the season’s start had missed a combined 69 games because of injuries, personal problems and disciplinary reasons. Starting point guard Michael Gardener, a sophomore, and freshman swing player Daryl Mason were dismissed from the team before the start of the Big 12 schedule, and injuries continued to plague the Aggies throughout the rest of the year. For the fourth straight season, Watkins’ team was felled by ill fortune, which has been a major setback in his rebuilding project. "We’re behind in terms of what we’ve gone through with injuries and suspensions," Watkins said. "Those are things you don’t anticipate. But as we look forward, we think this will be the best team Texas A&M has had in a while. If all goes as planned, when it’s all said and done, this could be a team that can say it has come light years from where we were a year ago."
That kind of success may start at point guard, where the problems of last season began with the dismissal of Gardener. Watkins had signed Gardener from Garden City (Kan.) Community College in 2001. When he was dismissed, Gardener was averaging 6.9 points and 2.5 rebounds, but had committed 56 turnovers with only 37 assists. He started 11 of the 14 games in which he played. As a result of Gardener’s absence, 5-foot-11 guard Bradley Jackson was forced to average 33 minutes in Big 12 games. Jackson (4.9 ppg, 2.1 rpg), who played at College of Southern Idaho for two years, returns for his senior season after starting 20 games last season, including all 16 in Big 12 play. Watkins won’t simply hand the starting job over to Jackson again. The Aggies’ coach recruited a junior college All-American, 6-foot-1 Leandro Garcia-Morales, to bolster the depth at point guard. Garcia-Morales, who played at Miami-Dade County (Fla.) Community College, was the only JUCO player in the nation last year to rank in the top 10 nationally in scoring, steals and assists. He was seventh in scoring (22.9), fifth in assists (9.0) and 10th in steals (3.6). In 2000, Garcia-Morales was an NCAA Division II All-American at Lynn University, and he has played on the Uruguay National Team. Watkins hopes this year’s team will have more consistency at point guard. "That was a big problem last year and has been a problem the last several years," Watkins said. "We thought we had it addressed last year. Unfortunately, because of the suspensions, we got caught in a situation where we were short at the point position again." Bernard King, a 6-foot-5 senior guard, at times will give the Aggies a different look at the point. Wherever Watkins chooses to use him, King will find a spot on the floor most of the time. In 2001-02, King (17.2 ppg, 4.7 rpg) led the team in scoring and 3-pointers (51-of-167). He needs 248 points to become the career scoring leader at Texas A&M and could become the first Aggie to lead the team in scoring for four straight years. He has earned All-Big 12 honors three straight years. Last season, King was on the all-conference third team, and he was on the honorable mention team as a freshman and sophomore. "We may shift Bernard over to the point a little more since we have some other weapons we can lean on at the two and three spots," Watkins said. "Hopefully we’ve addressed our concerns and this will be our best year yet in terms of getting production out of that [point guard] position." Watkins has a couple of new weapons for the backcourt -- 6-foot-2 junior guard Kevin Turner and 6-foot-4 freshman guard Marcus Watkins, the coach’s son. Turner, a transfer from Fullerton (Calif.) Junior College, led his conference in scoring (23.9 ppg) and 3-point percentage (.539) last season. He was 41-of-76 from 3-point range. He had eight 30-point games and went 9-of-10 from 3-point range in one game. His father, Bill Turner, played six seasons in the NBA, from 1967-73, with the Golden State Warriors, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Los Angeles Lakers. The younger Watkins was rated as the No. 64 rising prep senior in the nation last year by CNNSI.com. He averaged 31.1 points and 8.3 rebounds as a senior last season at A&M Consolidated High School in College Station. Just to make sure he was judging his son’s talent with an unbiased eye, Melvin Watkins asked several of his friends in coaching to give him an assessment. He came away convinced he was doing the right thing, even though it’s never easy for a son to play for his father. "He wanted to play for A&M," Melvin Watkins told the Dallas Morning News. "He’s confident, and I’m confident, that he can play at this level. So we figured there was no reason why he shouldn’t come play for old pops." Dylan Leal, a 6-foot-4 junior, will add depth to the backcourt. Leal (1.4 ppg, 0.4 rpg), a non-scholarship player, played in 18 games last season. Jesse King, a 6-foot-7 swing player, is probably the team’s best athlete, but he missed eight games because of injuries (concussion and knee inflammation) and personal reasons, including the death of his grandfather. King (7.5 ppg, 3.6 rpg) started 17 of the 23 games in which he played and averaged 21.5 minutes. In the offseason, King had surgery to repair a chronic knee problem. Nick Anderson, a 6-foot-6 junior, can play either forward position, and at 230 pounds has plenty of muscle. Anderson (10.1 ppg, 5.1 rpg) started 24 games last season and played in all 31, averaging 24.3 minutes. He shot 38.4 percent (28-of-73) from three-point range. Yet another signee, 6-foot-7 freshman Antoine Wright, will contend for time in the backcourt. Wright averaged 26.5 points and 11 rebounds last season at Lawrence (Mass.) Academy. A native of San Bernardino, Calif., Wright was rated as one of the top prep shooting guards in the nation by several outlets. "Antoine is a slender athlete with an impressive array of scoring tools," said PrepStars. "He can shoot 3s, create his own mid-range jumper or, using his quickness and leaping ability, explode all the way to the rim. His body control and coordination are top-notch, so he makes tough finishes look easy. He's a big-time player." Thanks to the newcomers and returnees, the Aggies appear to have more depth and more options -- especially in the backcourt -- than in any of Watkins’ previous three seasons. "By far this is our deepest team," Watkins said. "I think every coach in the Big 12 wants not only a strong starting five but to be able to go to the bench and not have that much of a drop-off." If the frontcourt can avoid the injury bug, it should hold its own against most of the Big 12. Andy Slocum, a 7-foot junior center, appeared to be on his way to a solid season when he broke his hand against Texas Tech in early January and missed the next eight games. Slocum had scored 22 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in his previous game at Oklahoma. Slocum (6.8 ppg, 6.4 rpg) could become one of the Big 12’s better low posts if he continues to progress this season. He averaged 7.3 points and 8.5 rebounds in eight Big 12 games. When Slocum was hurt, he was replaced by 6-foot-8 Keith Bean, who then suffered a shoulder injury against Kansas. Bean didn’t miss any games, but was largely ineffective for the next two weeks. Bean (6.7 ppg, 5.7 rpg), senior, started 21 games, including 14 of the 16 Big 12 games. He shot 62.1 percent from the field and was second on the team in blocks with 29. Also returning at low post is 6-foot-10 junior Nolan Butterfras, who added 20 pounds in the offseason and weighs 265. Butterfras (0.6 ppg, 1.0 rpg) played in 19 games with one start last season. Tomas Ress, a 7-foot junior forward, hasn’t played to his potential, in large part because of a severe illness that almost led to his death in 2000. When Ress developed a staph infection, he lost almost 35 pounds. Last season, Ress (1.3 ppg, 1.8 rpg) played in 29 games and started six. Brian Brookhart (1.0 ppg, 1.1 rpg), a non-scholarship player, is a 6-foot-10 forward who will be a backup in the frontcourt. Brookhart played in 29 games last season, averaging 6.8 minutes. Don’t look for his minutes to increase much. Watkins’ only frontcourt recruit, 6-foot-8 freshman Luis Clemente, will also battle for some minutes in the post. Clemente averaged 14.3 points and 8.2 rebounds last season at Maine Central Institute. A native of Puerto Rico, Clemente is a raw talent with great potential, but is probably a year or so away from making an impact. Watkins has the makings of a team that can make a big move after finishing last in the Big 12 a year ago. Watkins returns five starters and 10 lettermen from the 2001-02 team, and his recruiting class was rated among the top 25 in the nation by several services. King, a 6-foot-5 guard, has been one of the league’s better backcourt players in his first three seasons and could be even better with improved players around him. Four new players in the backcourt will give the Aggies depth. Slocum, a 7-foot junior center, could emerge as a dominant player in the post. Watkins hopes this will be the year his team can avoid key injuries -- and more discipline problems. A year ago, those troubles kept the Aggies from playing to their expectations. "I was disappointed in terms of what we got out of that team," Watkins said. "We just had too many distractions and too many things going on within the team that kept us from being as good as we could have been. All those things are behind us and we now can be the type of basketball team I thought we could have when I first came here."
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