SEC Summer Basketball Notebook: A&M should bounce back as SEC contender

Look over Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy's record, year by year, in the history books.

Whether was at Centenary, Southeastern Lousiana, Murray State or, as he now is, at Texas A&M, there's a distinct trend. He's a builder.

It has rarely been pretty early in a Kennedy tenure somewhere, but things tend to get better and by now at a predictable rate. Fairly quickly, and a lot better. That's why last year's dip to a 16-15 record in College Station was outside the norm.

Texas A&M had emerged, temporarily, as Kentucky's biggest SEC rival because of the competitiveness and the quality of the games between the two teams over a couple of seasons. Then last year happened.

Kennedy and Aggie basketball fans have to be hoping that the 2017-18 season will be a time to bounce back to greater respectability and, they surely hope, the NCAA Tournament.

There are clear reasons to believe A&M could be substantially improved and more in line with Kennedy's 2015 and 2016 teams, as opposed to last year's bunch that took a step backwards.

Why?

Start with the return of Robert Williams. On the SEC's teleconference this week, several coaches from other conference schools were asked about the return of the Aggie forward Robert Williams.

Williams' decision to return to Aggieland stunned some college basketball observers because he had been mentioned as a legitimate potential lottery pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. Absent the threat of a lockout, players like Williams simply don't return to school very often these days.

But the 6-foot-9, 237-pound Louisiana native returns for a sophomore season, one year after averaging 11.9 points and 8.2 rebounds for A&M. More impressive, and more importantly, Williams was the SEC's Defensive Player of the Year. He probably won't lead the SEC in scoring as a sophomore, but he could very well be a (the?) leading candidate for SEC Player of the Year because of how well-rounded his game is, and how he is, in some respects, the ultimate two-way building block in the post.

For most high-major Division I programs, returning Williams would be coup enough. But A&M returns more than just him.

There's also Tyler Davis, a returning junior, in the post. One day it might feel like Davis has played at A&M for a decade. The 6-foot-10, 270-pound big man was a second team All-SEC choice last year, one season after earning All-Freshman honors in the league.

The ability to pair Davis with Williams in the post means the Aggies have one of the nation's top frontcourts. Not just one of the SEC's best. But that's not all. There's 6-foot-10 big man Tonny Trocha-Morelos, who played extensively and can stretch out a bit. He's a stat-sheet stuffer.

But that's not all, either. 6-foot-9 junior forward DJ Hogg was one of the team's best point and board producers for just more than half of last season before he was injured. He returns healthy, giving Texas A&M outstanding depth up front.

Those players led A&M in rebounds last season.

6-foot-4 guard Admon Gilder, and he returns as well. The junior started nearly every game last season, racked up plenty of assists and steals, and scored nearly 14 points per game.

Assistant coach Amir Abdur-Rahim didn't have to talk about the returning players much this week on the league's teleconference. He was asked, first, about the new guys who could mesh with the returning talent.

"Well, having JJ Caldwell last year second semester, when he was able to practice and start to get acclimated ... obviously he's really talented and starts to bring a lot of value to our team," Abdur-Rahim said. "JJ, you feel good about where he is with his play and his work ethic."

In short, he sounds like a viable rotation player. He was a consensus four-star recruit from last year's recruiting class, and one of the better point guards in the country coming out of high school.

One reason A&M struggled so much last season relative to previous Kennedy teams was simple: Point guard play. In short, anyone who watches a decent amount of SEC basketball knew that A&M had a big void at the position, and if you have serious point guard problems then you've got a pretty low ceiling.

Abdur-Rahim said Gilder came on as a scorer last season in spite of having to play some point, which isn't natural for him.

"He's been a guy going on three years now who has been really, really consistent for us," Abdur-Rahim said. "A lot of people can remember him as a true freshman playing in a lot of big games. Close games, he was in at the end. The game that got us to the Sweet 16 and obviously last year because of our lack of depth at the point guard position, we kind of had to move him on the ball more than we probably wanted to.

"This summer it's been really big having JJ Caldwell, (T.J.) Starks and (former Marquette guard) Duane Wilson," Abdur-Rahim added. "When (Gilder's) able to focus on guarding other teams' best perimeter guy and focus on scoring he's really good ... You would have been hard-pressed to find a guard in the league the last month and a half statistically that was better than Admon."