The Kansas Jayhawks grinded out a 64-51 victory over Texas A&M on Wednesday night. KU basketball had a couple of things going for them to make this a pumped up crowd. First, it was Senior Night so Tyrel Reed, Brady Morningstar and Mario Little probably got a few extra cheers. Second, KU was on the verge of clinching a share of the Big 12 championship.
"I thought we were going to get a K-State or Missouri crowd and we did," Texas A&M head coach Mark Turgeon said. "The start of the game is electric. They couldn't hit a shot and neither could we. The tempo was in our favor. I just told the guys to embrace the crowd. If it's going to intimidate you we're going to get our tails kicked. If you embrace it and love being out there playing in that environment then we're going to compete, which I thought we did."
Actually, Texas A&M handled the crowd really well and kept things close in the first half, as head coach Mark Turgeon says.
"There is no really easy way to guard KU. We just tried to change it up. I thought our post guys did a really good job not letting them in for layups. Then they missed some shots that they normally make. Sometimes you want Senior Night to go so well that they don't play as well as they're capable of playing. I thought we were very physical and the refs really let us play, which helped us."
Give A&M credit for making KU play the way they wanted to play. That slowed the game down and, as much as possible, kept the crowd out of it.