By Danielle Daniels

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 15 Texas A&M men’s basketball team faces the Ohio State Buckeyes in a 6 p.m. road matchup on Friday at the Schottenstein Center.

TV/RADIO INFORMATION

• The game will be televised by Peacock with Noah Eagles (play-by-play) and Robbie Hummel (color) on the call.
  • You can watch Friday’s game by first subscribing to Peacock. Then, either go to PeacockTV.com/Sports in your web browser or download the Peacock app on your phone, tablet, or streaming device and navigate to the Sports section. Find the LIVE game you want to watch and start streaming.
• Peacock Student Discount Offer: In an effort to provide students with an easy way to watch their school’s game when they are on the road and only available on Peacock, a student discount offer that has been created.
  • Offer: $1.99/month for 12 months
  • Verification: Peacock has partnered with SheerID to be able to verify student emails that are enrolled in classes for the offer
  • LINK: https://aggi.es/462jHMN

• The matchup airs on the Texas A&M Radio Network or locally on 1620 AM/94.5 FM with Andrew Monaco and Dr. John Thornton describing the action.

STORYLINES

• The Aggies lost just a single player that exhausted his collegiate eligibility in 2022-23 (Dexter Dennis). All told, the team’s 2022-23 individual leaders in minutes, points, rebounds, assists, steals, 3-pointers and free throws are back in action for the Aggies.
• Texas A&M added five new players to its roster: graduate transfers Eli Lawrence (Middle Tennessee) and Wildens Leveque (UMass), junior transfer Jace Carter (Illinois-Chicago) and freshmen Bryce Lindsay and Rob Dockery.
• Preseason SEC Player of the Year Wade Taylor IV was one of three NCAA DI players with 500+ points, 125+ assists and 50+ steals while making 85% or better on free throw attempts last season.
• At 6-foot-3, Tyrece Radford was the only SEC player under 6-foot-7 to average more than 13.0 points/5.0 rebounds per game last season.
• Andersson Garcia was the SEC’s top rebounder off the bench with a league-best 69 offensive boards and 142 total rebounds.
• Solomon Washington was a sparkplug off the bench in his first season with the Aggies, ranking No. 7 in the SEC with 33 offensive boards off the bench. Junior transfer G Jace Carter was one of four players nationally and the lone MVC player to average more than 16.0 points while also totaling more than 50 steals and 200 rebounds last season.
• Junior transfer G Jace Carter was one of four players nationally and the lone MVC player to average more than 16.0 points while also totaling more than 50 steals and 200 rebounds last season.
• Senior F Henry Coleman has 10 career double-doubles of points and rebounds, including an 18 points/15 rebounds gem on the road against Arkansas last season.
• Coleman was recently named the Chair of the SEC Basketball Leadership Council for the second straight year.
• Senior F Andersson Garcia was the Aggies’ bench leader in points (105), offensive, defensive and total rebounds, steals (20) and free throws made and attempted (35-of-49)
• Senior G Hayden Hefner had a team-best 17 3-pointers among the Aggies’ bench players last season and poured in a career-high 19 points in the 2023-24 season-opener vs. TAMU-Commerce.
• Grad transfer G Eli Lawrence led MTSU to a 74-70 win over Final Four participant FAU last season with 13 points, including the final three points vs. free throws.
• At UMass last year, grad transfer F/C Wildens Leveque set a tournament record with five blocks vs. Colorado at the Myrtle Beach Invitational.
• While at South Carolina, Leveque helped the Gamecocks to a 4-0 mark against the Aggies.
• Among SEC bench players that played less than 15 minutes per game, junior G Manny Obaseki ranked as the No. 2 scorer with 5.2 points per game.
• Dating back to his redshirt freshman season at Virginia Tech, graduate G Tyrece Radford has started 106 consecutive games. For his collegiate career, Radford has started 123 of 126 possible games.
• Radford led the Hokies with 6.2 rebounds per game as a redshirt freshman guard in 2019-20. He was the just the third freshman to lead the Hokies in rebounds since joining the ACC in 2004-05.
• From his freshman to sophomore season, junior G Wade Taylor IV improved his scoring average from 8.2 to 16.5.

AGGIES VS. BUCKEYES SERIES

• Texas A&M holds a 2-1 series advantage over Ohio State with the only recent matchup coming in the 2007 NIT Tip-Off Championship at Madison Square Garden. Four Aggies scored double-digit points, including current NBA Champion DeAndre Jordan, to lead Texas A&M to a 70-47 triumph over the Buckeyes.
• It will Texas A&M’s third-ever trip to Columbus, but its first since 1957. The teams have split the previous two meetings in Ohio with the Buckeyes winning 54-40 in 1947 and Bob Rogers’ Aggies prevailing 72-69 in 1957.

IN THE RANKINGS

• Texas A&M is ranked No. 15 and No. 19 in the preseason editions of the Associated Press Top 25  and USA Today Coaches Poll, respectively.
• 2023-24 marks the seventh time the Aggies were ranked in the AP preseason poll.
• It was the Aggies’ first preseason ranking since starting the 2018 season at No. 25. Only twice have the Aggies been ranked higher in the preseason poll: No. 13 in 2007 and No. 14 in 1980.
• The Aggies have been ranked in the last five editions of the AP Top 25.

COURTESY TEXAS A&M ATHLETIC COMMUNICATION