February 24, 2026; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope leads his team against the South Carolina Gamecocks during the first half at Colonial Life Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-Imagn Images Kentucky and Texas A&M will enter restart padding mode Tuesday when the teams play their second Southeastern Conference regular season game in College Station, Texas.
The Wildcats (19-10, 10-6 SEC) won’t have to do much to prove their NCAA Tournament worth. They are tied for fourth in the SEC with Tennessee and Missouri, while Texas A&M (19-10, 9-7) is tied with Vanderbilt and Texas for seventh.
Kentucky, which opened this week ranked No. 27 in the national NET, still has a chance to earn a double-bye in the SEC Tournament. The winner of Tuesday’s game will also go head-to-head against the loser, which could be useful in the league tournament seeding process.
The Wildcats travel to Brazos Valley on a two-game winning streak. The most recent record was a 91-77 home win on Saturday at the time. 25 Vanderbilt.
Collin Chandler scored a career-high 23 points, including six 3-pointers, as the Wildcats avenged an earlier 25-point loss to the Commodores. Otega Owe also had 23 points, Denzel Aberdeen had 15 and Malachi Moreno had 11.
The Wildcats shot 58.8 percent from the floor and 11 of 22 from long range.
“It’s fun to shoot, it makes life easier,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “What are we, the second-best 3-point shooting team in the conference right now? We make shots. That’s the way this team is built, that’s what we do, that’s what we do. We trust we’re going to make shots, and our guys did.”
Texas A&M missed an opportunity to improve its rankings with a 76-70 loss at home to rival Texas on Saturday. Rashaun Agee led A&M with 22 points, Marcus Hill added 17 points and Pop Issacs had 14, but the Aggies went more than five minutes without a field goal during the final stretch and shot 38.3% for the game.
“We played better in that game than we won,” Texas A&M coach Bucky McMillan said. “There’s a great fight going on. Great tenacity. The never-give-up attitude is great, but we’ve got to get to the next game. We know what time it is. We’ve got to shoot on Tuesday.”
The Aggies began SEC play with a 7-1 record, but have struggled since then. They have dropped six games, including the last two of their last eight, dropping from 35th to 43rd in the NET rankings.
–Field level media
