After being letdown on Saturday night against the pokes, I was half-dreading last night's game. Baylor hates A&M and is trying to entrench themselves as a top-tier Big XII team.

The game got off to an unusual start as both teams went scoreless for nearly the first 4 minutes.

Both teams played with fantastic aggression, agression we have not seen out of this year's Aggie team. I love the fire that Bryan Davis brings to the table. He has to get more consistent. Hopefully, BD-0 was just in a slump during the non-conference schedule and is ready bring it for the rest of the year.

Derrick Roland growls like a bear.

I was impressed by the Aggies on both ends of the court.

Defense
We made Baylor look like a deer in the headlights. They had no idea how to score on us early in the game. Tenacity really set the tone, evidenced by Baylor's two shot-clock violations in the first few minutes.

Individually, I was very impressed with the play of Dash Harris last night. His on the ball defense was a thing of beauty. The freshman is really coming along, he did not make the instant splash like many thought he would, but slowly he is turning into quite a player. 

Freshman Dash Harris brings the ball up the court.

Senior Josh Carter on the defensive intensity:
"I think it was due to scouting. We knew what plays were coming and I guess they knew what we would run. There may have been some nerves too. It was a big game for both teams and I think we had to get it going."

This is an encouraging sign because it shows the Coach Turgeon and his staff have this team prepared every week. I felt at times last year we were outcoached by our opponents.

Offense
For the first time, I actually saw some motion in our offense. Several positives stood out to me offensively:

• Very good job of mixing up their shots (we did not always settle for long jumpers)
• Sloan, Dash movement toward the basket
• Josh Carter waking up
• Junior Elonu showing everyone that he and Nigeria are vastly superior to Mamadou 'can't control what the ball do.' Diene and Senegal.
• Elonu- the Big XII has only 1-2 big men that are better than he is when he is on.
• Our ball movement was outstanding

Overall, it was a great effort by a team that really needed that kind of win. We did not blow them out, but Baylor never got within 5 points after the last 90 seconds of the first half.

I have two questions for Baylor coach Scott Drew:

1. Why does LaceDarius Dunn not start?
   I understand the theory "it is not who starts, but who finishes," but that guy is really good and should be starting.
2. Why does Kevin Rogers not get the ball more?
   I will actually give him a pass from last night, because BD-0 locked him down all night, but they have got to get more inside-out play if they want to contend in the Big XII.

Baylor has some good ball players (NBA caliber), but they have yet to show that they are anything other than a team that tries to outscore you. This could be a product of their lack of quality size, but they do not play defense very well at all. I think Baylor will make the tourney, but may struggle at times in the Big XII.

Off-topic: Also, did anyone else last night forget if we were playing Baylor or the Jamaican National team? Their uniforms are not the worst i've ever seen, but c'mon. I think they should scrimmage the Houston Rockets. They could televise the event around the world as the Chinese National team v. the Jamaican National team.

Collegiate athletics provide so many ups and downs I think it is very important to enjoy the good times, because we all suffer in the bad times. Let's all enjoy this big win.

I cannot wait to see the Ags match-up against the University of Oklahoma Blake Griffins on Saturday.

Gig 'em!