No. 5 Vols Hope To Exact Revenge On Aggies In Knoxville On Saturday

The Texas A&M Aggies men's basketball team heads to Knoxville to take on the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday in a rematch of the "Timeout-Gate" game from Feb. 10 when the Aggies rolled the No. 6 Vols 85-69 inside Reed Arena.

The Texas A&M Aggies men's basketball team heads to Knoxville to take on the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday in a rematch of the "Timeout-Gate" game from Feb. 10 when the Aggies rolled the No. 6 Vols 85-69 inside Reed Arena.

It was the last game the Aggies won.

© Maria Lysaker-USA TODAY Sports

Since then, A&M has lost three consecutive games to Vanderbilt, No. 15 Alabama and Arkansas, while the Vols have won three straight over Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Mizzou.

During that game on Feb. 10, Aggies coach Buzz Williams called an unusual timeout. After A&M went up by 15 points with six minutes left in the contest, Williams wanted a timeout. The officials didn't see him from the coach's box, so he ran onto the court to get their attention and made it almost to half-court before they saw him.

The ESPN broadcast immediately called Williams out and criticized the officials for not issuing a technical foul on the Aggies coach. Instead, A&M only received a bench warning. Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes agreed with the broadcast, and on Tuesday reported that the SEC did too,

“I can assure you it’s been addressed, long before I even talked about it,” Barnes said, according to Volquest. “I have so much respect for our conference and Mike Eades, who’s in charge of officiating. I can assure you he took care of it, probably before we walked off the court. They reached out first. And like I said, I appreciate, again, before I even got to the plane I’d gotten a text saying that it was not handled the right way.”

The Aggies got the 85-69 win, but the officials got the call wrong. Up by 15, it's impossible to know if the game would've gone differently if the call had been made properly.

But the way things have gone on the scoreboard for each team since then, it's safe to say Tennessee enters Saturday night's match-up with all the momentum and confidence that it will extend its win streak to four while knocking the Aggies down another peg - losing four in a row.

Aggies Men's Hoops vs. No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers: How to Watch, Betting Odds

Texas A&M and Tennessee will meet again on Saturday night at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee at 7 p.m. on ESPN. ESPN's "Matchup Predictor" gives the Volunteers an 89 percent chance at victory while the Aggies have only 11 percent.

But that's why they play the game. On Feb. 10, the odds were very similar for an Aggies win. And it was a blowout in favor of the good guys.