Reed Arena is the loudest place in Aggieland right now, and Kyle Field has a chance to take that title back on Saturday. That is the whole week.
The bright side of the split screen
Bucky McMillan's basketball team wrecked Louisiana-Monroe 108-67 on Monday night at Reed, improved to 3-0, and still has not trailed for a single second this season. PJ Haggerty matched his season high with 22 points on 9-for-13 shooting. Jordan Pope had 19. Tyshawn Archie went for 12 and a career-high-tying five steals, plus a dunk people will still be sending around on Thursday. The Aggies forced 21 turnovers, stacked 15 steals, and hit 100 points for the second straight game. The 41-point margin tied the largest of the McMillan era. That is a team telling you who it is.
The only scare was Cade Phillips going down in the second half with a right-knee injury after a flagrant foul. He is questionable for Thursday. McMillan said the early prognosis "is not bad" and that Phillips would be imaged. Until that result is in, nobody should invent a diagnosis. McMillan called him a glue guy who rebounds and defends at an elite level. You do not shrug that off before Oklahoma State walks into Reed on Thursday night at 7 p.m. to open Operation Blackout.
Joni Taylor's women's team is 3-0 too after a 90-63 win over LSU New Orleans on Saturday. Emerald Parker dropped a career-high 22. Kailyn Gilbert stuffed the sheet with 19 points, eight assists, and six rebounds. Kaniya Boyd had a career-high five steals. They forced 28 turnovers. Two basketball programs, same building, same start: take the ball and run.
Volleyball just finished a brutal road swing the hard way. The Aggies dropped a four-set match at then-No. 21 Vanderbilt on Friday and got swept at Missouri on Sunday. That dumped them four spots to No. 21 in this week's AVCA poll, sitting 14-11 overall and 7-6 in the SEC. They come home Friday at 6:30 p.m. against LSU, also in black, with Ole Miss on Sunday.
450 yards, nine points, and a lead they gave back
Saturday in Columbia, Texas A&M football had a chance to win a game in the fourth quarter and did not. The Aggies led No. 21 South Carolina 9-7 going into the fourth, then left Williams-Brice with a 17-9 loss and a 4-5, 1-5 SEC record. David Olano accounted for every Aggie point, hitting from 40, 46, and 44. Rueben Owens II ran for a season-high 137 yards. Marcel Reed threw for a season-high 251. The defense held the Gamecocks to 109 rushing yards and 4-of-12 on third down. Mike Elko said the offense still put up 450 yards. And they scored zero touchdowns.
Read that again. Four hundred and fifty yards. Nine points. All field goals. LaNorris Sellers, hurt ankle and all, ended it with a 41-yard touchdown run with 1:19 left. Elko did not dress it up. "Really bad in the red zone. Really bad composure in the second half in the red zone with penalties. Gave a lot of stuff away." Owens said the same thing without the coach-speak: finish in the red zone, or none of it matters.
Monday, Elko said he is sticking with first-year play-caller Holmon Wiggins as the staff he believes gives this team the best chance to win right now, pointing at those 450 yards and the failure to finish. Asked about long-term confidence in Wiggins, he shut it down: "That's not for now. That's a stupid question." Elko said the last two games have been self-inflicted wounds, penalties, and bad operation when the road crowd got loud. He also noted that by the fourth quarter Saturday, Mario Craver, Ashton Bethel-Roman, and Terry Bussey were all out. That is context. It is not an excuse. You still have to punch it in.
Blackout week does not care about your excuses
No. 9 Tennessee comes to Kyle Field on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT on ESPN. It is the third Operation Blackout under Elko, and the first two were wins: No. 8 LSU, 38-23, in 2024, and Mississippi State, 31-9, in 2025. Elko called it a chance to get up off the mat in front of a top-10 team. A win would be his 40th as head coach and A&M's first ranked win since beating No. 19 Missouri on November 8, 2025. Marcel Reed is one passing touchdown shy of 50 for his career. Olano is 16-for-17 on the year, the best kicker in the SEC. Official game notes say the defense is the best red-zone unit in the country, allowing points on just 61.9 percent of trips. The offense has to meet that standard, or this building will be dressed in black for the wrong reason.
Wear black Thursday at Reed. Wear black Friday at volleyball. Wear black Saturday at Kyle. Then finish the drive. That is the assignment. Words do not move the chains. Touchdowns do.
Photo: Kyle Field at night, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)
