BYU basketball: Cougars to face Texas A&M — again — in NCAA 1st round

PROVO — If the BYU Cougars are going to get their first NCAA Tournament win in 16 years, they're going to have to beat a team that knocked them out in the first round last year.

The Cougars, with a No. 8 seed, will face Texas A&M, a No. 9 seed, on Thursday at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia in a West sub-regional game. Game time has not been announced. Should the Cougars advance to Saturday's second round they'd get the winner of the game between No. 1 Connecticut and Chattanooga,

The Cougars and Aggies met last season in Anaheim, and Texas A&M prevailed 67-62. This season BYU (25-7) finished tied with Utah and New Mexico for the regular season Mountain West Conference title, but lost in the semifinals of the league tournament to San Diego State on Friday.

Texas A&M (23-9) finished tied for four the Big 12 and lost in the first round of the conference tournament to Texas Tech, a team that finished 3-13 in league play. However, the Aggies have wins this season over Texas, Missouri, Arizona, LSU and Oklahoma State, and they lost twice to Oklahoma by six.

This is the fourth-straight tournament appearance by Texas A&M, and the third straight for BYU. This is the Cougars' 24th NCAA appearance, where they have an 11-26 record.

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