Guards take center stage for No. 17 Texas A&M and No. 11 Purdue

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For fans who like good guard play, Saturday afternoon's game between No. 17 Texas A&M and No. 11 Purdue in Indianapolis will be one to watch.

That's because the Aggies' Wade Taylor IV and the Boilermakers' Braden Smith are two of the top guards in the country. How they play probably will serve as a barometer of who will win this top-20 matchup.

Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams, whose 8-2 team is riding a four-game winning streak, raved about Taylor's work after a 72-67 win Sunday over Texas Tech in Fort Worth.

And not just because he scored a team-high 19 points and is leading the team in scoring (16.1 points per game) as well as assists (4.5).

"I'll never take credit for how good of a player Wade is," Williams said. "I thought 'Four' was consistent. The way he's led since Thanksgiving has been as good as I've seen in a long time."

While Taylor is the team's leader, he's far from the only key contributor. SMU transfer Zhuric Phelps is averaging 13 points per game, and Henry Coleman is chipping in 10.5 points, hitting 63.5 percent of his field-goal attempts.

The 2024-25 Aggies are a lot like last season's version. They struggle to make shots -- 41.2 percent from the field, 30 percent on 3-pointers -- but make up for it with defense and rebounding. They are 10th in Division I with 43.1 rebounds per game and held Texas Tech 17 points under its per-game average while forcing 18 turnovers.

"We feel like our defense is one of the best in the country," Aggies senior guard Jace Carter said.

That defense will get a stern test from Smith and Purdue (8-2), which is coming off an 83-78 Big Ten Conference home win Sunday over Maryland. Smith led the way with 24 points and 10 assists, his 14th career double-double and the first 20-10 point/assist double-double since Troy Lewis did it against Indiana in 1988.

For the year, Smith is averaging 13.2 points and 8.8 assists -- both career highs -- while sinking 42 percent of his 3-pointers.

"It's our everyday offense," Smith said when asked to explain his success. "If I come off a ball screen and I have the shot, I take it. If they overcommit to me, I give it to Trey."

That would be Trey Kaufman-Renn, who's gone from being a role player in a frontcourt dominated by Zach Edey to the team's leading scorer. Kaufman-Renn is tallying team-high numbers of 18.9 points and 6.7 rebounds per game while connecting on 59 percent of his shots from the floor.

The Boilermakers are averaging 78.3 points per game and hitting 49.8 percent of their shots. Their 40.8 percent accuracy rate from the 3-point line ranks sixth in Division I.

More importantly, they cut their turnovers down from 24 against Penn State in an 81-70 loss on Dec. 5 to eight on Sunday.

"We just have to have a better concentration and a better toughness about us," Purdue coach Matt Painter said.

The Boilermakers own a 3-1 lead over the Aggies in the all-time series, scoring an NCAA Tournament win when the teams last met in 2010.

--Field Level Media