Texas A&M overcomes bizarre 1-0 pre-game deficit to beat Florida

A delay of game penalty resulted in an administrative technical foul and a 1-0 deficit before the game for Texas A&M on Wednesday in one of the most peculiar scenes in recent college basketball history.

The Aggies went on to beat Florida in Gainesville, 66-63, but only after the team’s jerseys were left at the hotel by managers of student teams did Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams hang them in his room to prevent them from being blown away. they will wrinkle

“I forgot the jerseys in my hotel room,” Williams said, admitting he took the blame for the student team administrators. ‘That’s probably the right way to say it because I used to be a manager. If that had happened, my head coach would have stood up for me. You don’t want the shirts to get wrinkled so they hang them in my room and I forgot to put them on the bus.

It’s my fault and it won’t happen again.

A delay of game penalty resulted in an administrative technical foul and a 1-0 pregame deficit for Texas A&M in one of the most peculiar scenes in recent college basketball history.

Shortly after leaving the field following final warmups, the Aggies realized that the managers had left their game jerseys at the team hotel. They did double the time to catch them, but the referees penalized them with a game delay penalty, officially considered an administrative technical foul, because the start had to be postponed for a few minutes.

Florida guard Will Richard converted the free throw for a 1-0 lead before the opening shot. The Gators (7-7) barely led again and lost 66-63 at home to fall to 0-2 in Southeastern Conference play for the second straight season. The Aggies (9-5, 1-0 SEC) won for the first time in six trips to Gainesville and gave Buzz Williams a victory in his 500th game as head coach.

This one, however, will be remembered for that pre-game point.

The Aggies used the pregame hole, albeit as small as possible, for extra motivation. They quickly stripped Florida and led by as many 11 points in the first 20 minutes. They also rallied down the stretch after the Gators tied the game at 63 thanks to Colin Castleton’s steal and layup.

The Aggies beat Florida in Gainesville, 66-63, but only after the student team’s managers forgot the team’s jerseys at the hotel did Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams (photos) have them hanging in his room to prevent wrinkling.

“I think the jerseys were a big part of it,” said A&M’s Julius Marble, who finished with 17 points and six rebounds.

Marble said the team was willing to play in practice jerseys.

It was an option. They were maroon,” Marble said. “We’re like, ‘Look, we’ll wear the practice jerseys.’ We are losers. We will shred it. We do not care.

But how exactly did the ones that matter get left behind?

“Just moving too fast, I think, just trying to get here, so game ready,” said guard Tyrece Radford, who also scored 17 points. ‘Just moving too fast honestly. From the outside looking in, it probably seemed like it was a huge distraction, but (coach) does everything he can to keep us locked in and trying to turn the negative into a positive.”

Texas A&M Aggies’ Manny Obaseki dribbles the ball against Florida Gators’ Trey Bonham during the first half of a game at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center on Wednesday.

It was a negative for the Gators, who were certainly confused when they came out of the locker room and saw no one in the visiting dugout.

“I’m 37 years old, I’ve played basketball my whole life and that’s never happened to me in one aspect or at any point in my career,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. ‘It wasn’t ideal. I thought we were good to go and we sat there maybe 15 or 20 minutes, waiting for these guys to show up. It is what it is. We didn’t handle the situation well enough.

Technical fouls called before college basketball games are rare but they have happened.

Kansas State caught a technique before their 2014 NCAA Tournament game against Kentucky because a walk-on caved in during pregame warmups. North Florida received a similar penalty during a regular season game the following year. In June 2015, the NCAA abolished its rule prohibiting pregame dunks within 20 minutes of opening advice. It’s unclear how many, if any, pre-game techs have been released since then.

Golden couldn’t remember hearing of any.

“It’s something that could happen at my son’s CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) game, but usually not at the SEC level,” he joked.