College Basketball report: week 4

The Texas A&M Aggies embark on a three-game losing streak while the SMU Mustangs bring home the Southwestern Showdown championship

The Texas A&M Aggies embark on a three-game losing streak while the SMU Mustangs bring home the Southwestern Showdown championship
Are Buzz Williams and the Aggies No. 1?

TEXAS LONGHORNS (6-1)

Last week (1-0): W: McNeese State 73-71

This week: Tuesdayvs. UAB, Sunday Texas A&M

The Texas Longhorns improved to 4-0 at the Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center with a 73-71 victory over the McNeese State Cowboys on Saturday. In a surprising turn of events, it took a pair of free throws by Courtney Ramey to seal the deal for Texas, as the sophomore guard recorded 14 points in the win.

Texas' guard, Andrew Jones, also registered 14 points off the bench while shooting 6-for-14 (42.8%) from the field. Following the win, the Longhorns will take on the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Tuesday, before opening up their Lone Star Showdown against Texas A&M on Sunday.

TEXAS A&M AGGIES (3-4)

Last week (0-3): L: Harvard 62-51, L: Temple 65-42, L: Fairfield 67-62

This week: Sunday vs. Texas

The Orlando Invitational did not go as planned for the Texas A&M Aggies over the past week. A&M finished the tournament in last place after dropping all three games, which began with a 62-51 loss to the Harvard Crimson.

After suffering through a 23-point defeat to Temple —where only one player (Josh Nebo, 12) scored in double figures — the Aggies ended the tournament with a 67-62 loss to Fairfield. While riding a three-game losing streak and sitting under .500 on the season, the Aggies will look to bounce back against the Texas Longhorns on Sunday.

HOUSTON COUGARS (3-2)

Last week (1-0): W: Houston Baptist 112-73

This week: Wednesday vs. Texas State, Sunday South Carolina

The Houston Cougars took a 39-point victory over the Houston Baptist Huskies in a game that was over within the first five minutes. Sophomore Nate Hinton recorded a career-high 24 points (6-11 FG, 3-4 3PT) and 15 rebounds in the blowout win. Marcus Sasser also recorded a career-high with 18 points, as the sharpshooting freshman from Red Oak, Texas shot 6-for-9 (66%) from 3-point range.

Following the win, the Cougars will look to make it two straight on Wednesday when they take on the Texas State Bobcats, before traveling to South Carolina to take on the Gamecocks.

RICE OWLS (5-4)

Last week (0-0): No Games Scheduled

This week: Saturday vs. Lamar

The Rice Men's Basketball program had a peaceful Thanksgiving break with no game on the schedule. The Owls will look to end their two-game losing streak on Saturday against the Lamar Cardinals inside the Montagne Center in Beaumont.

BAYLOR BEARS (5-1)

Last week (0-0): No Games Scheduled

This week: Tuesday vs. Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks, Saturday vs. Arizona Wildcats

While riding a four-game win streak, the Baylor Bears will return to the court on Tuesday to take on the Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks, and the Arizona Wildcats on Saturday inside the Ferrell Center in Waco.

TCU HORNED FROGS (5-1)

Last week (1-0): W: Wyoming 64-47

This week: Tuesday vs Illinois State, Friday USC

The TCU Men's Basketball team closed their MGM Resorts Main Event showcase with a 64-47 victory over the Wyoming Cowboys. Although TCU shot 42.4% from the floor, their play on the defensive end played a tremendous factor in the Horned Frogs' victory. They held the Cowboys to 14 points in the first half while shooting 17.8% from the field, 18% from behind the arc. Desmon Bane recorded his second consecutive double-double with 22 points and 11 rebounds in the win.

After going 1-1 during their MGM Resorts Main Event exhibition, the Horned Frogs will return to Fort Worth for a showdown against the Illinois State Redbirds on Tuesday, and USC on Friday.

TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS (5-2)

Last week: (0-2) L: Iowa 72-61, L: Creighton 83-76

This week: Wednesday vs. Depaul

Following a 5-0 start to the season, the Texas Tech Red Raiders are riding a two-game skid after going winless during the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational. The Red Raiders dropped their first contest of the first round in a 72-61 loss to Iowa. Following the loss, the Red Raiders endured a tough defeat to the Creighton Bluejays.

After trailing by 14-points at the half, Texas Tech outscored the Bluejays 42-28 in the second period to force overtime en route to an 83-76 loss. Texas Tech had no answer for Marcus Zegarowski, who scored a game-high 32 points (12-18 FG, 3-8 3PT) in a win for Creighton. Up next, Texas Tech will travel to Chicago to play DePaul (8-0) inside the Wintrust Arena on Wednesday.

SMU MUSTANGS (7-0)

Last week (2-0): W: Hartford 90-58, W: Abilene Christian 70-51

This week: Tuesday vs. Northwestern State, Saturday vs Georgetown

The wins keep coming for the SMU Mustangs who are currently riding a seven-game win streak. The Mustangs breezed to the Southwestern Showdown title with back-to-back blowout victories over Hartford (90-58) and Abilene Christian (70-51). After averaging 18 points and 7.3 assists, Kendric Davis took home tournament MVP honors, while Tyson Jolly and Feron Hunt join Davis on the All-Tournament team.

The Mustangs will return to Dallas as champions for a two-game homestand on Tuesday, to take on Northwestern State, and Georgetown on Saturday.

LSU TIGERS (5-2)

Last week (1-0): W: Missouri St. 73-58

This week: Tuesday vs New Orleans, Sunday vs Northwestern State

The LSU Tigers put on a shooting client on Friday in their 73-58 win over the Missouri St. They shot 53.7% from the field, and most of their damage came on the inside as LSU scored 34 points in the paint. Forward Darius Day helped the Tigers come away victorious with 20 points and 10 rebounds in the win.

The Tigers will continue their four-game homestand on Tuesday against New Orleans and Northwestern State on Sunday.

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Astros lose tight one despite brilliant outing from Hunter Brown

Nobody saw this coming! Composite Getty Image.

It’s a fun series between the Astros and Rangers through the weekend in Arlington, but by no means is it a critical series. It would be nice for the Astros to not lose three out of the four games (or obviously all four) to their upstate rivals. The Astros have lost their last five road series, dropping two out of three games in each of them. As with the Astros, pitching has been the strength of the team for the Rangers thus far. After the humdinger Hunter Brown-Jacob deGrom mound matchup Thursday night, the Rangers give the ball Friday to Nathan Eovaldi with his earned run average at 1.78, then Saturday it’s Tyler Mahle with his even more sparkling 1.47 ERA. Heading into Thursday play, the Mariners having lost five of their last six games meant just a game and a half separate first from fourth place in the American League West. The Astros, Rangers, and Athletics are all right there. Only the Angels are inconsequential.

Star power!

There is an asterisk to attach but Jeremy Pena is making a real charge at becoming a first-time All-Star game selection. Among American League shortstops, the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. is clearly the best. The clear number two in the pecking order coming into this season was the Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson, who is on fire after a slow start that began with him missing seven games on the injured list. Athletics’ rookie Jacob Wilson goes into the weekend batting .350 and amazingly has struck out just nine times in 164 at bats. Rangers’ stud Corey Seager being on the injured list with a balky hamstring for the second time this season helps the Astros this weekend and likely frees up an All-Star spot.

Now to that aforementioned asterisk. Pena has been sensational so far, indisputably the Astros’ best everyday player. We just need to see more staying power of performance before fully slotting Pena in the top tier of shortstops. Pena’s four-hit game Wednesday night hiked his batting average to .315, his OPS to .840. Well, last year Pena put head to pillow the night of May 15 with his batting average at .333, his OPS at .830. The rest of the season Pena hit .240 with a meager .653 OPS. That Pena drew a paltry 18 walks over his last 114 games. 2025 Pena has showed markedly better plate discipline. He’ll never be a high walks-drawn guy but incremental improvement matters, and can bear fruit in other ways.

Fruitless continues to describe an awfully high percentage of Christian Walker’s plate appearances. 2023 Jose Abreu was better (2024 Abreu was not). Plenty of season still remains for a turnaround, but more than a quarter of the season is gone and it’s not as if Walker is trending in the right direction. In three games against the Royals he went zero for 12 with seven strikeouts. With his final whiff, Walker reached the 50 strikeout “milestone” for the season in his 154th at bat. Feeble and lousy are fair characterizations of a .208 batting average and .625 OPS, magnified for someone batting clean-up most nights. Starting play Thursday 13 big leaguers actually had struck out more than Walker so far this season, among them only the Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds carries a lower OPS. Walker has been even worse with runners in scoring position, batting just .171, with a sub-abysmal 20 strikeouts in 41 at bats.

Using Baseball-Reference's Wins Above Replacement statistic, the Astros’ three worst non-pitchers this season are Walker, Yordan Alvarez, and Jose Altuve. Those are the three highest paid players on the team. Altuve’s extended funk has him hitting .202 over his last 27 games with a .538 OPS. Altuve was dropped to second in the batting order basically at his request. It has not sparked him. If Altuve doesn’t pick it up, manager Joe Espada will have to consider dropping Altuve several more spots down the lineup. Alvarez is at 11 games and counting missed with a muscle strain in his right hand. He will not be approaching the career-high 147 games played last season.

Relief pitcher Tayler Scott was a revelation last season. Before joining the Astros at age 31 Scott had a big-league ERA of 9.00 in 46 innings scattered over three seasons. So it was pretty much out of nowhere that the only South African pitcher in MLB history posted a scintillating 1.36 ERA into early August before fading and winding up with a still stellar 2.23 mark. The clock struck midnight on his Cinderella story this year though, and with the Astros needing to open a roster spot this week, Scott was designated for assignment.

Book it!

Longtime Astros’ broadcasting stalwart Bill Brown has authored several books. His latest is Wartime Athletes, which tells the stories of athletes across a number of sports who served in the U.S. military during various wars. If you know anything about Bill Brown, you know each story was meticulously researched and makes for an interesting read. I’m no Oprah when it comes to the power of suggestion for reading material, but Wartime Athletes is worth your time and/or is a worthy gift for someone else.

For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!

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