Defenses Will Be Crisp In Top-25 Matchup

Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma, 9:00 ET

Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma, 9:00 ET

Look at this, I am back with another college hoops bet. After missing a few weeks, you get some games on back-to-back days. I’m really great to you loyal Outkick readers, aren’t I? I’m sure before you’d want to answer that it would depend on how I do on some of these bets. Certain weeks, I’m great! Others, I’m brutal. Most of the time, I’m profitable, which is what we are looking for. I’m hoping to continue profitability here as the Texas A&M Aggies take on the Oklahoma Sooners in a ranked matchup.

The Aggies are 12-2 and sit as the 10th ranked team in the nation. They come into this game with a 12-2 record and are currently at 1-0 in their conference. They’ve been playing good basketball lately, especially with an eight game winning streak. To start the season, they had a big dip, losing 64-61 to UCF. I suppose you can give them a bit of a pass that they lost to a decent enough team on the road to start the year. At least they weren’t blown out, but it still wasn’t a game they should’ve lost. The next game they lost game later in the year, again a road game – technically it was a neutral court, but it wasn’t a home game – and they fell to Oregon. In that one, the Aggies lost by 10, and have responded well since. They’ve even had a few tests in that span, beating both Creighton and Purdue, both on neutral floors, and both were raked opponents. Their team is lead by Zhuric Phelps and Wade Taylor, with one of them leading the team in scoring in all but one game this season.

Jan 4, 2025; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide guard Chris Youngblood (8) attempts to block a shot by Oklahoma Sooners guard Jeremiah Fears (0) during the second half at Coleman Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Will McLelland-Imagn Images

If the Sooners are going to slow down the Aggies, I think it is pretty obvious who they need to lock in on. Unfortunately, I’m not overly confident that the Sooners can slow down the combo of Texas A&M guards. They just suffered their first loss of the season, a road game against #5 Alabama and they allowed 107 points. Not only was the defense atrocious, they were outscored by almost 30 points. Starting the season with 13 straight wins has to be a good feeling, but we all knew this team wasn’t going to run the table. They have beaten a few good teams though, knocking off Arizona and Michigan, both ranked when they played them. For the Sooners, they have a good combination of guards and a forward that do the bulk of their damage against opponents. The problem is that they are much better offensively than they are on defense. That doesn’t mean that they can’t at least slow down their opponent it just isn’t something that I’m super confident in.

For this one, the Aggies are playing great, but the Sooners should come out and want to show that they can keep up with a formidable opponent. I think the book may be overreatcting to the loss that the Sooners had, but I don’t think this is enough points. I’ll instead back the under as I think both teams are likely to slow the game down a bit.