After season of change, Aggies coming together at right time

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- On its first trip down the court Thursday night, Texas A&M ran the ball through a series of passes, then popped the ball out to Josh Carter on the wing for an open look at a 3-pointer. The Aggies have been up and down much of the season, adjusting to a new coach, a new set of leaders and a new set of roles.

For Carter, it hasn't been easy. After being the national co-leader in 3-point shooting percentage last season at 50 percent, and entering this season as the Big 12's most accurate all-time 3-point shooter, Carter has fallen off dramatically.

Josh Carter and the Aggies can feel confident when they face UCLA on Saturday. (AP)

He had made only 36.8 percent of his 3s this season and he entered the NCAA tournament having made only four of his past 20 attempts. In a loss to Kansas in the Big 12 tournament, he made only one of eight.

So, as Carter caught that first pass and prepared to shoot, it was an early barometer of the Aggies' prospects in the tournament. At their best, they're an athletic, physical team that can score inside and out -- the same type of profile that would describe Washington, USC and Texas, the three teams that have beaten top-seeded UCLA this season. When they're not, they've been bludgeoned by 27 (Texas and Oklahoma) and by 21 (Kansas State).

Thus, when Carter's 3-pointer swished through the net, and then was followed by two more in the first four minutes, it proved to be a harbinger of good things to come for ninth-seeded Texas A&M in a 67-62 victory against BYU in a first-round West Region game. The victory marked the third consecutive season Texas A&M has advanced to the second round -- something it hadn't previously done since 1980.

The Aggies had plenty of help from the wave of postmen they sent at BYU center Trent Plaisted, limiting him to 13 points, and a clutch 3-pointer from Dominique Kirk, but the reason they were smiling at the end of the night was the way Carter shot the ball. He was 6-for-10 on 3-pointers and finished with a season-high 26 points.

"It feels good to have a good performance," said Carter, a 6-foot-7 junior from Dallas. "But, I mean, we didn't come here to just win one game. We just want to keep it rolling, and whoever we get, we're going to play hard. We just want to keep doing it -- keep winning."

It has been a season of transition for all of the Aggies. The two people most responsible for the resurgence of Texas A&M basketball are gone -- All-American guard Acie Law IV, now with the Atlanta Hawks, and coach Billy Gillespie, now at Kentucky. Though Gillespie and the Aggies were in the same building the past two days, they steered clear of each other. Gillespie said NCAA rules prevented him from talking to his former players, and they watched from their hotel rooms earlier in the day as Kentucky fell to Marquette.

"It's a big change," Kirk said of the transition. "Acie's a talented guard -- you can't replace somebody like that -- and Coach G did a great job here. The biggest adjustment has been everybody just getting along with our coach. When you go from three years in one system and all of a sudden change to another system, it's pretty hard. But we learned from it and we all bought into it."

Kirk, who was recruited by Mark Turgeon at Wichita State as a point guard, has returned to that position. The Aggies have been given more freedom on offense. Their big men gained permission to roam from the block and the guards got the OK to create on their own.

They've backed off the pressure defense that Gillespie demanded but still held opponents to 39.3 percent from the field.

"We still play real good defense," Kirk said.

But nobody has had a tougher transition than Carter. With the offense running through Law, Carter was essentially a catch-and-release 3-point shooter. Now, he has had to move more to get his shots.

"Josh doesn't get a lot of open looks, and when he did get them he rushed them a little bit," Turgeon said. "As the season wore on, we got Josh more looks, but most of Josh's 3s last year were stand-still. Now he's got to come off screens to get them. They're not there. You can't penetrate and pitch to him because they're not going to help off, so it's a whole different game for him this season."

With Texas A&M clinging to a 59-57 lead, those jumpers weren't available, so Carter curled around a screen, took a pass from Kirk and drove into the lane, where he hit a floater with 1:41 left. It helped ensure that BYU never got the ball back with a chance to draw even.

"Believe it or not, he's a much better player than he was last year," Turgeon said, citing that play as one he wouldn't have made a year ago. "The kid's come a long ways throughout the season. He's got a long way to go."

So will Texas A&M on Saturday evening against top-seeded UCLA, which punished Mississippi Valley State 70-29. Still, many of these Aggies remember pushing UCLA on this very same court 15 months ago when they lost to the then No. 1-ranked Bruins 65-62 in the Wooden Classic.

It might be a long shot, but the way Carter looked Thursday night, it might not be a bad one.