OPINION
It’s high time to tear down Heldenfels Hall; ‘Students want this building gone’ A4
SPORTS Second edition of Lone Star Showdown in enemy territory on Jan. 25 B1
WALKING IN A
Chilifest 2025 lineup
Brazos Valley’s
By Theresa Lozano Life & Arts Editor
Dozens braved a chilly evening at Goodbull IceHouse last Saturday as Chilifest Music Festival’s organizers revealed this year’s lineup to whoops and hollers from the gathered crowd. From newcomers to returning fan favorites, 10 names will take the single stage in Snook on April 4-5, a weekend that has previously attracted over 35,000 festivalgoers.
Set to kick off the festival on Friday are Canaan Bryce, The High-
way 6 Band, Hudson Westbrook and Ole 60 with Treaty Oak Revival headlining. David Lewis, Ian Munsick, Josh Abbott Band and Sterling Elza will perform on Saturday, with Koe Wetzel headlining the second day.
With proceeds going back to the community through donations to local charities, the non-profit organization’s annual festival has become one of the most anticipated events in the Brazos Valley. Tickets can be purchased online or through various teams, organizations and fraternities across campus.
STUDENT BONFIRE BURNS AT 8 P.M.
JANUARY 25
From a dream proposal to snowball fights, here’s how students enjoyed the snow day across Aggieland
By Ian Curtis Managing Editor
As soon as wildlife & fisheries sciences senior Caleb Williamson saw snow in Bryan-College Station’s forecast, he hatched a once-in-alifetime plan: a marriage proposal under the snow-covered Century Tree.
“I had to go to five or six different FedExes to make sure the ring got here in time,” Williamson said. “And then I surprised her just in time with the snow. … It turned out so beautiful.”
Williamson’s fiancee, psychology senior Kensleigh Wehunt, knew he had something in the works. But she wasn’t expecting to get engaged during a snowfall.
“I kind of knew it was coming maybe [Tuesday] because I said, ‘The snow would be so awesome and unique, especially here because it doesn’t snow,’” Wehunt said. “And then we started walking over here, and I was like ‘Oh, people put lights in the Century Tree. I wonder what people are doing?’ And he started to walk that way. I was like ‘Oh, this is for us.’ … I couldn’t imagine anything better.”
While Aggieland experienced just an inch of snow, the impact was enough to cancel classes Tuesday and allow students to engage in a number of activities and shenanigans late Monday night and early into the morning.
The amount of snow on the ground didn’t matter to Aggies like general engineering freshmen Avery Vasquez and Bernadette Chua. Vasquez hails from Laredo, while Chua grew up in the Philippines, meaning both were overjoyed at a rare chance to experience any amount of snow.
“I was just shocked, to be honest,” Vasquez said. “ … It’s definitely beautiful to see, and even better that it’s here in College Station.”
The duo took part in one of multiple impromptu snowball fights that broke out across campus, a battle in the shadow of Kyle Field that involved a cup, tupperware and signage in attempts to gather enough ice to gain the upper hand.
“The best part of the snowball fight was definitely not getting hit in the stomach,” Vasquez said. “But definitely hitting someone in the stomach.”
Clockwise from top: A student walks past Kyle Field Plaza as sleet begins to fall. A student rolls a snowball at Joe T. Haney Field. Snow covers the Bonfire Memorial Statue in Aggie Park.
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Student-led Bonfire looks ahead
Tradition set to burn after rescheduling
By Nicholas Gutteridge Editor-in-Chief
Dion McInnis ‘03 had been hearing rumors for several weeks about it — discussions here, a university official there — all revolving around one hypothetical: a Student Bonfire returned to its original on-campus glory. But the speculation was only that, he thought, and was especially unsurprising for an event directly preceding the most-anticipated football game Texas A&M had seen in a decade.
That was, however, until he took a December 2023 call from an official who asked him point blank: Would he discuss the possibility with the university?
“My reply at the time is the same as with anything,” McInnis said. “When somebody wants to talk to me about Bonfire — happy to talk about Bonfire. I'll talk to you about it until you regret ever asking me to start. But you know, I can only talk about the past and where we've been and what it took to get where we are, and I can talk about the future and where I think we're going. But if we're going to talk about the present … the present belongs to the students.”
A month prior, the Board of Regents had ordered the creation of a special exploratory committee tasked with recommending ways to commemorate the revived Lone Star Showdown against the University of Texas at Austin. Staffed with 20 people from all walks of campus life, the new Rivalry Committee met first on Nov. 16, 2023 to brainstorm ideas.
Through open records requests, The Battalion obtained notes taken during the meeting by Vice President for Student Affairs Joe Ramirez, one of two committee co-chairs, that were sent via email the following day to regent and co-chair John Bellinger. Of the 15 bullet points he listed — several of which ended up in the final proposal — one stood out from the others: “Bring back Bonfire.” By Nov. 21, the two had split the 20-person group into three subcommittees: one for events, another for marketing and communication endeavors and a final team focused exclusively on Bonfire.
Chaired by Regent Sam Torn and staffed by Andy Richardson, Trevor Yelton, Brooks Moore, Al Davis and Pete Keating — all notable campus individuals — the group spent the next six months navigating a scarred university. One of their first acts was calling McInnis, a Class of 2003 alumnus and board member of Bonfire, LLC, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit advising and assisting the students on the ground. As promised, McInnis went directly to the Redpots, the organization's student leaders.
Chosen by the outgoing leadership before a new fire begins construction, the top members of Student Bonfire — dubbed Redpots — have an almost sacred duty. But when they learned of the subcommittee’s intentions, they felt neither dread nor alarm.
“Whatever happens, students will be building a bonfire in 2024,” McInnis said. “And all of the nu-
ances of that — where it would be built and everything else — was not anything that they should or could worry about. All they had to worry about was preparing themselves and preparing their people and preparing the organization to do what it was that they said that they were going to do, which is build a bonfire.”
The duo met the regent leading the subcommittee the following month to discuss the proposal. But despite Regent Torn’s hope that there be no “competing bonfires,” manufacturing & mechanical engineering technology senior Mason Taylor and civil engineering senior Jason Reynolds, the Redpots at the time, thought a Bonfire built with no student involvement — the only method A&M could pursue due to legal and financial constraints — was no Bonfire at all.
“Bonfire is about building up the student body,” Taylor said. “It’s the best leadership lab in the country and probably in the world. It's about the students. It's about the process of building it. It's not about the burn. We burn just to clear the field for the next year.”
The subcommittee sent letters to the families of the 12 victims who died in the 1994 accident asking for their support. According to Bellinger, several agreed with the effort. The four proposals analyzed were a student-constructed bonfire, an artificial bonfire, not recommending one in general and an engineered, contractor-built bonfire. The latter won the subcommittee’s unanimous vote on Feb. 14, 2024.
The following months were slow. But the decision hadn’t been put to a full 20-person vote yet, and it faced opposition from other members not on Bonfire’s subcommittee, including former football coach and athletic department administrator R.C. Slocum and then-Student Body President Andrew Applewhite.
The blow that unraveled the fabric ultimately came from inside.
In April, an anonymous committee member leaked the proposal and a letter meant for a victim’s family to the Texas Tribune, spurring alumni uproar.
It wasn’t long before letters, op-eds and emails appeared in the Rivalry Committee members’ inboxes: a lawyer who worked on the post-collapse lawsuits who said reinstating it would be “a painful reminder of their ultimate sacrifice,” a professor who served on a commission that studied the tragedy offering to speak to the group and a Class of 1999 alumnus who said contracting out Aggie Bonfire while keeping the same name “is deeply, profoundly offensive.”
Just days later, they sent their official recommendations to Welsh. He responded in a memo dated May 31, 2024, accepting every recommendation — including a flyover, parachute jump into Kyle Field and coin toss with Gov. Greg Abbott — but one: reinstating on-campus Bonfire.
"Regardless of what happened, one way or another, students would be building Bonfire and leading it and being responsible for it," McInnis said.
Student
Bonfire burns on Saturday, Jan. 25 after a months-long delay due to a burn ban in Robertson County.
Top to bottom: Onlookers gather around the blaze at
wrangle for the torch at Student Bonfire on
Jan. 21, 2023. Aggies
The rare snowfall provided opportunities for more than just adrenaline-fooled tomfoolery, like the polar plunges into Aggie Park’s pond a few brave souls dared to take.
The park was one of the most popular spots to enjoy the winter weather.
General engineering freshman Travis Reed was one of many students who rushed to the park when the snow started falling.
Like plenty of other Aggies, Reed grew up near Houston — so any amount of snow is a special occasion.
“This is like the second-most snow I’ve seen in my life,” Reed said. “So I think that other people
have seen snow a lot, but it’s not very common. So we’re all really excited to go play around in it.”
But neuroscience freshman Ella Schmidt, Reed’s friend and a Virginia native, grew up in a community a bit more familiar with the winter storm Bryan-College Station has endured the past week.
“It’s been so much fun hearing people talk about class is canceled because of the snow because I mean, it’s barely getting below freezing,” Schmidt said.
“ … I’ve just had a lot of fun listening to everybody talk about how scary the roads will be, just because in Virginia, our infrastructure can handle the roads being a little slushy.”
Friendly rivalry aside, Schmidt was excited to see the excitement
CAMPUS
on all of her friends’ faces.
“Getting to see all these different groups of people coming together, throwing snowballs at each other, hugging and rubbing snow in people’s heads, I think it’s just really fun to see people really experience that joy that I’ve known my whole life,” Schmidt said.
For everyone on campus — be it a story of getting pelted with a snowball in the solar plexus they’ll joke about years from now or a magical, winter wonderland proposal they might tell their grandchildren about someday — it was a night Aggies won’t forget.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” Williamson said. “There’s nothing like seeing Texas A&M in the snow. Especially being with your fiancee. There’s nothing like it.”
Moderate Republicans, Democrats elect Burrows as speaker
By Nicholas Gutteridge Editor-in-Chief
After weeks of Republican infighting and a tumultuous primary season that saw moderates face off against extremists in Texas’ lower chamber, State Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-83) surpassed the 75-vote
threshold necessary to hold the chamber’s gavel 85-55 after Democrats pushed him over the top last week.
“I commit to you today, every member will have a voice,” Burrows said after the successful vote.
“Every district will have a seat at the table.”
The vote marks the first time a new representative is holding the gavel since State Rep. Dade Phelan’s (R-21) moderate tenure during the 88th Legislature, a term that resulted in an intense campaign against him after he sunk several initiatives championed by state Republicans — such as Gov. Greg Abbott’s school-choice legislation.
“By stepping aside, I believe we create the best opportunity for our members to rally around a new candidate who will uphold the principles that make our House one of the most exceptional, deliberative legislative bodies in the country — a place where honor, integrity, and the right of every member to vote their district takes utmost precedent,” Phelan said in a statement once he stepped down.
Unlike Phelan, Burrows has expressed openness to school-choice policies — but not to the extent of his opponent State Rep. David Cook (R-96), a far-right Mansfield, Texas native endorsed by state powerhouses like Attorney General
Ken Paxton and Lt. Gov Dan Patrick, who leads the far-right Senate.
“The voters will hold our new speaker accountable to keep his promise of being the most conservative speaker in Texas history,” Patrick said.
Several of the largest issues faced in the race for the gavel were internal to the Texas House of Representatives, particularly whether Democrats — which haven’t held the House since 2002 — would be allowed to chair committees, a tradition Phelan upheld to maintain an even balance of power in the legislature.
Burrows’ willingness to compromise on Abbott’s school-choice initiative spells trouble for school districts statewide opposed to the initiative, including Bryan ISD and College Station ISD, both of which have publicly opposed schoolchoice initiatives in their public list of legislative priorities.
“Ensure public tax dollars are not diverted to private entities since they are not obligated to accept all
children and are not monitored at the same level as Texas public schools,” reads a bullet point on Bryan ISD’s priorities list.
The two legislative groups most likely to impact Texas A&M and statewide higher education, the Senate Higher Education Subcommittee and the House Public Education Committee, have posted public priorities as well, with the Senate subcommittee particularly focusing on more intricate matters like faculty senates and legislation strengthening Senate Bill 17, the state’s anti-DEI bill.
“Every dollar spent on bloated university bureaucracy should be redeployed to ensure that all Texas students regardless of race, are college ready and heavily recruited for those that want to apply to a college,” State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-4), a main sponsor of SB 17, said last year.
Other higher education-related initiatives include a review of faculty tenure and legislation combating antisemitism on campuses.
Examining Texas A&M’s engineering enrollment trends
Texas A&M’s College of Engineering offers more than 20 degrees. In order to get into one of those, first-year students must follow a general engineering curriculum and apply using the Entry to a Major, or ETAM, process.
For the 2024 spring cycle, 2,416 students, or 74.4%, of eligible student applicants were placed in their first-choice major and 2,859 — 88.0% — of eligible applicants were placed in their first or second choice major.
100% of the 3,249 eligible applicants were offered a major.
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Harry Ho-
gan, Ph.D., said demand for A&M’s graduates continues to be robust across all majors.
“There are fluctuations due to economic and market factors, and this varies for different degree programs over time,” Hogan said.
“We expect graduates from all our majors will continue to find exciting opportunities to help solve the many technical challenges facing our world.”
Hogan said the engineering department’s goal is to help students explore all 22 of B.S. degree programs to discover those that will best help them achieve their longterm career goals.
“Students make informed decisions and apply to multiple majors, recognizing that there is always more than one pathway to success,” Hogan said. “Students are placed in a major based on their application materials and academic record in college. This matching process has helped achieve improvements in retention and graduation rates, and we strive to continue positive trends.”
Electronic systems engineering technology junior Nayab Warach said he believes the first-year engi-
neering program is doing the best they can.
“First-year advisors deal with so many different students that sometimes they give unreliable advice, causing students to mistrust them,” Warach said.
“One such example is the infamous ‘science waiver,’ or what qualifies as your required two science courses for ETAM and if AP credit do or do not count.”
Warach said students are encouraged to “game the system” by both upperclassmen and advisors.
“With auto admission requiring a 3.75 GPA, freshmen engineers are taking courses they already have AP credit in to earn an easy A, finding the easiest core curriculum courses to pad their GPA or limiting their involvement with anything except their studies,” Warach said.
Warach says he has heard different proposals to improve the ETAM process.
“A solution I’ve seen thrown around is to get rid of ETAM auto admission — require all applicants to undergo a holistic review regardless of GPA — and I think it has merit,” Warach said. “Of course, would most students want this?
Probably not. Texas A&M can’t just admit less students, as that goes against our mission as a public university. Hiring more faculty? I think everyone wishes we can do that, but something has to change”
Despite some of the challenges faced by enrollees of the pro gram, Warach feels supported as an engineering student.
“The advisors in my current department, the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution, are extremely helpful,”
Warach said.
“The faculty genuinely cares about us, and this can be true of first-year engineering too, but I think many students are afraid to reach out to faculty and just talk.”
Newly engaged couple wildlife & fisheries sciences senior Caleb Williamson and psychology senior Kensleigh Wehunt kiss after getting engaged under the Century Tree on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.
Photo by Claire Poage via Kensleigh Wehunt
By Hilani Quinones News Reporter
State Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, shakes hands with Rep. Rhetta Bowers after he was elected House speaker on the second vote of the members on the opening day of the 89th legislative session at the Capitol in Austin on Jan. 14, 2025.
Photo courtesy of Bob Daemmrich for the Texas Tribune
Tear down Heldenfels: 'It has to go'
It's an inaccurate representation of the beauty of our campus and it should be demolished
By Joshua Abraham Opinion Writer
As students of the greatest uni versity in the world, we love to tell everyone about how great Tex as A&M is. We have the greatest mascot in the nation, the greatest fans in all of college sports and great academics and professors to help us succeed in our careers.
Many people love to visit our campus and see what the hype is about; I myself have acted as a personal tour guide for my friends and family in College Station.
So what exactly do I show them?
My tour starts at the state-ofthe-art Zachry Engineering Ed ucation Complex, then to the magnificent Liberal Arts and Hu manities building. We make a stop at Evans Library, head to the Me morial Student Center and then work our way to the life-affirming Kyle Field.
Of course, our trip takes us to the Innovative Learning Class room Building to see the famous “round” classrooms, then to the Instructional Laboratory and In novative Learning Building to see the great labs students can take advantage of.
There’s plenty more that I could show, sure. But by this point, my guests would be exhausted from all the walking, so I call it a day. If I had more time I would show them Reed Arena, the Physical Education Activity Program building and Scoates Hall.
But, do you know where I don’t take any of my guests? Heldenfels Hall.
If you haven’t heard of or been in this building, you’ve lived a good life — much better than mine. I don’t think there's a place on campus I hate as much as Heldenfels. As a student in a major that has to take a slew of science courses — yes, contrary to popular belief,
many science classes — I’ve spent countless hours in Heldenfels for lectures or labs, and it genuinely messes with my mental health.
Why are there no windows in any of the classrooms? Why are the hallways so small? Why is the lighting giving “horror movie hospital” vibes? And why are the stairs so steep?
Football teams could make their players run bleachers or walk up one flight of stairs at Heldenfels and it would be the same amount of cardio; I love walking into my three-hour lab out of breath and sweating because of those stairs.
Brutalism must’ve been the trend when this building was built, but not now. We have moved forward as a society and our architecture should too.
opened a new building that feels luxurious. Now, Mays is totally different from the College of Arts and Sciences — different colleges, different budgets. But why do we need another building that looks futuristic when we have a building that is stuck in the 20th century like Heldenfels?
Consistency is key and when we have two extremes of buildings on campus, it not only looks weird but presents a lack of equity among students of different majors. Why should I be subjected to the evil of a building like Heldenfels but business majors can rejoice in the cathedral that’s been built for them? I’m not sure that’s fair. It’s like zoning in Houston, or the lack thereof.
Houston doesn’t follow a tra-
While this may be good in some cases, this allows builders to build wherever they want to without caring about where it’s placed.
A mansion next to the projects?
That’s a possibility. A skyscraper, a Dillard's and a sex shop in one eyeline? That’s indeed a real image. This lack of uniformity is glaring in our campus. When we put gorgeous new structures that look like they’ve been gifted to us by time travelers from the future next to buildings that time travelers from the past would cringe at, it completely negates the beauty our campus has to offer.
Students want this building gone.
“The old architecture of Heldenfels demotivates students from
neering junior Ben Abraham said “It’s very old, fetid and ultimately has lost its place on campus. It has to go.”
Tear it down. Use a wrecking ball and demolish it. Start from scratch and make something the students deserve to study in. It must burn.
We, the students, deserve better than this building. We go to the greatest university in the world, let our buildings reflect that. Architectural beauty matters.
If I was former A&M president H.C. Heldenfels, I would be disgusted that this is the building built in my name.
Joshua Abraham is a kinesiology junior and opinion writer for The Battalion.
Banning TikTok sets terrible precedent
This app is worth more than just brainrot
By Kaleb Blizzard Opinion Writer
Now more than ever, the most consumed media in our society has become a radical infusion of information and entertainment.
Swipe once, you get Skibidi Toilet brain rot; swipe twice, you’ll get a political ad for the presidency; swipe a third time, you’ll see propaganda disguised as a portrayal of the facts, all with a split screen of someone cleaning a rug so your short attention span can be captured long enough to watch the video.
Of course, this isn’t all of modern media. TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels are the primary catalysts of this style of infotainment; each creating a highly-curated feed of short-form videos to keep users watching — regardless of how unsavory the content shown happens to be. However, there’s a key difference between TikTok, YouTube and Instagram that’s become the subject of recent controversy: Tik-
Tok is owned by a Chinese company, whereas both Instagram and YouTube are American owned. Normally this wouldn’t be a huge issue, but the United States government is once again invoking the specter of “national security” in the TikTok bill which came to pass almost a year ago — the same bill which recently went into effect on Jan. 19.The bill’s mandate is simple: ByteDance — the company that owns TikTok — must sell TikTok or it will be prohibited from operating the platform in the United States. President Trump is planning to delay the bill’s deadline to give ByteDance additional time to sell, but it will ultimately come down to the final dilemma of selling or being banned. Although concerns about national security may initially seem strong enough to impose such a ban, the reality is that banning TikTok is one of the most exemplary showings of state overreach in modern times. It accomplishes nothing significant to protect American national security interests while reaching far beyond what the federal government should have in its purview. Let’s start with the obvious.
Most people are aware of the fact that social media platforms collect our data. Anyone who uses a social media app has to agree to the terms and conditions, permissions and specific data collection policies set by a social media company in order to use that company’s app. Even something as simple as uploading a video or image onto a social media site could give that site access to your entire camera roll, among other things. In short, their policies allow them to gather almost all the information they can about you.
So what do these companies do with such an extensive collection of data? They use it to help advertisers run marketing campaigns by giving those advertisers specific demographics they can target for their products.
It is this simple fact that makes the issue of who collects the data irrelevant, and therefore eliminates the reason to ban TikTok specifically. If any third party can use your data to identify specific demographic information about you, there’s no reason to think the data coming from TikTok is any worse than the data coming from Goo gle or Meta if any of that data can be accessed by the same business or state actors. The Chinese, Irani an, or North Korean governments could easily obtain very specific demographic and locational in formation just by using American platforms, and that’s through offi cial means.
If the Chinese Commu nist Party, or CCP, really wanted to pay off a Meta employee or hack Google’s servers, they could probably do that too. So it doesn’t real ly matter if TikTok is Chinese owned or not — the people who want the data can get it, and they can get it through American companies.
This is all underscored by another important yet often undiscussed consideration: Even if TikTok is especially useful to the CCP in collecting
information when compared with other social media companies, almost none of the information it currently collects is useful for the purpose.
Why is this exactly? Because former President Biden already implemented the “No TikTok on Government Devices Act” in 2023, which essentially prohibited TikTok from being used on devices owned by the Federal government. These devices are far more critical to national security than any combination of random phones owned by your average TikTok user.
If the current government really wishes to protect national security, it can do so by forcing defense contractors and anyone else who would have access to national security secrets to simply use government-owned devices. No national ban needed.
It’s not just about the national security risks, either. Despite his vested interest in the continued success of his business, the ByteDance CEO’s statement about the app rings true: TikTok is a plat-
tion of free speech.
Our current social media environment is something close to an oligopoly: very few investors control a large share of the market, and if TikTok is banned those people will gain even more concentrated power.
We need to ask ourselves an important question: Why are we afraid of a company on the other side of the planet having our information when power is being concentrated in the hands of people who are currently collaborating with the U.S. government and have done so in the past? Why should we be afraid of a government that has nothing to do with us instead of one which could be on our doorstep in 20 minutes?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t think trad wives, gym bros and thirst trap creators have critical national security information. If they did, then it would already be over for all of us.
Kaleb Blizzard is a philosophy sophomore and opinion writer for The Battalion.
Graphic by Zoe Rich — THE BATTALION
SQUIRREL THOUGHTS
Aggies, Longhorns meet again with hopes of staying alive in SEC title race
By Diego Saenz Sports Writer
Just three weeks after reigniting one of the fiercest basketball rivalries in the Lone Star State, No. 13 Texas A&M men’s basketball is set to face Texas once again — this time in the heart of Austin. On Saturday, Jan. 25, the Aggies will march into the Moody Center, determined to secure their first back-to-back victories over the Longhorns since 1993 and continue their push to the top of the Southeastern Conference standings. The Maroon and White dominated the Burnt Orange in the pair’s first meeting with an emphatic 80-60 victory despite a cold night from beyond the arc, hitting just 2-for-19 from three. A&M’s defense stole the show, locking down the Longhorns and holding them to just 23 points in the second half. Even as the Aggies faced their own offensive
struggles, their relentless defensive effort ensured Texas never found its rhythm.
“Going 2-for-19 from the 3-point line is hard to overcome,” coach Buzz Williams said. “That means you have to reach your ceiling in a lot of other areas, and against a team as talented as Texas, there just aren’t many other ceilings to hit.”
Since their first meeting, the Aggies have gone 3-2 in conference play, battling against three top-25 programs, while the Longhorns have managed a 2-3 record in the SEC after facing three top10 opponents. Both teams are in dire need of a victory to keep hope of a championship alive in the SEC, a highly competitive conference that features nine ranked programs.
The Aggies will look to star
graduate guard Wade Taylor IV to help them extend their streak. Taylor, who has missed three of the last four games due to a groin injury, has yet to regain the form that made him one of the SEC’s most dangerous scorers. Averaging 15.4 points per game, Taylor has the potential to swing this rivalry matchup if he’s at full strength.
The Aggies have been effective on offense this season due to their dominance in the paint and relentless pursuit of offensive rebounds, which has given their offense plenty of extended possessions. Leading the nation with an impressive 15.6 offensive rebounds per game, A&M has made crashing the boards their calling card. This paint dominance was on full display in their first matchup against the Longhorns, where
48 of their 80 points came from inside the paint.
Although Texas does not boast the best record, it’s worth mentioning the brutal stretch of games it’s endured. In the last three losses, it faced No. 6 Tennessee, No. 2 Auburn and No. 5 Florida. This stretch has tested their resilience, and the ’Horns will be desperate to earn a signature win against another ranked opponent in A&M.
This rivalry is about more than standings — it’s about pride, history and a renewed battle for basketball supremacy in the Lone Star State. Can the Aggies deliver another statement victory to keep their SEC title hopes alive, or will Texas bounce back and defend its home court? Either way, the stakes are high as these two rivals collide once again.
product has carved out a niche as a rotational piece who can -allevi ate the offensive burden from her teammates. After appearing in 32 games for the Purple and Gold a year ago, Kent has chipped in with seven points and three boards per game for the Aggies. Along with the -bucket-achiev ing potential from the Tigers’ guards, it has been power in the paint that makes LSU an -impos sible matchup to get right. LSU crashes the boards with fervor to prevent second-chance points with senior F Aneesah Morrow leading the way. Morrow -averag es a double-double and, at only 6-foot-1, controls the paint with savvy positioning and effort.
A&M’s edge in the matchup comes from the rim protection have the length inside to deter the LSU guards from weaving their way to the cup and could give A&M’s offense a larger margin for error. Due to the Aggies’ size, snuffing out fast break opportunities from the Tigers’ will be paramount to getting LSU out of its rhythm. Johnson’s coast-to-coast prowess can be limited if A&M holds the LSU offense to a half-court game. Despite the hyper-efficient scoring from the Tigers, they -at tempt less than 15 threes per game. If the Aggies can get hot from behind the arc — a big “if” considering they shoot well -be low 30% — they might be able to make up the talent deficit and “Moneyball” their way into a competitive game. When A&M brought Taylor to Aggieland, it was for games like
senior G Aicha Coulibaly and graduate G Sahara Jones have led the way for the Aggies with both roon in LSU transfer sophomore G Janae Kent. The Oak Forest
Junior G Flau’Jae Johnson has blossomed into one of the premier scorers in the nation, averaging 20 points per game. The Savannah, Georgia native has been the -fo cal point of the offense but, like the rest of the team, has been -ex tremely efficient while shooting. A&M’s team identity has been centered around toughness and defense, but its offensive struggles have prevented it from being a real contender in the SEC. -Aver aging less than 70 points per game and more than 20 points less than LSU, the Maroon and White’s -in terior-scoring-based offense has found it difficult to keep up with the high-flying offenses they have played. The backcourt duo of redshirt
After stumbling through the opening bouts of conference play, Texas A&M women’s basketball heads to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to take on No. 5 LSU, where it meets a heavyweight offense that takes after coach Kim Mulkey’s explosive personality. The Tigers have picked up right where they left off after winning a national championship in 2023 and adding an Elite Eight -appear ance in 2024. Despite losing -su perstar forward Angel Reese from last year’s squad, LSU has easily slashed their way through the -jet sam and flotsam of the -Southeast ern Conference thus far. LSU’s games are characterized by Mulkey stalking up and down the sideline in her signature — let’s just say creative — outfits, firing her team up. The fruits of her demanding style have been a
A&M heads to Baton Rouge to face No. 5
LSU and coach Kim Mulkey in road test
By Mathias Cubillan
Associate Sports Editor
Lone Star Showdown heads to Austin
Aicha Coulibaly Women’s basketball, redshirt senior guard
Coulibaly’s 14-point performance in a must-win SEC bout against Georgia was already impressive, but the second-year Aggie caught fire in the fourth quarter, scoring 12 of her points down the stretch. Coulibaly tacked on six rebounds and two assists on her way to clinching a crucial 68-63 victory over the Bulldogs.
Luca Santorum Track and field, sophomore
The sophomore finished in 2:21.93 minutes in the men’s 1000 meter run, good for a first place finish. The time set a school record, previously set by Mike Hummel 25 years ago. The Italian long-distance runner is also a member of the cross country team.
Nicole Khirin
tennis, junior
came into the week with a top-15 ITA ranking in singles, and built upon that ranking with a win in straight sets. In her first match, the 2024 All-SEC first team star finished her doubles match with a 6-0 win. She then followed up with another victory over Prairie View junior Ainara Vegal Rodriguez, 6-0, 6-3.
Baylor Nelson
Men’s swimming and diving, junior Nelson was the star of the show in an otherwise disappointing outing for men’s swimming and diving in a loss to Florida. The sprinter had the day’s best time in 200m freestyle with a season-best time of 1:36.51. The two-time SEC Championships Commissioner’s Trophy winner earned nine valuable points for the Aggies with his blazing speed.
No. 23 West Virginia at Kansas State, Sat. 5 p.m.
By Eric Liu Sports Writer
The Mountaineers are coming off one of their biggest wins of the season after narrowly beating No. 2 Iowa State, 64-57. With that being their second top-3 upset, first-year coach Darian DeVries currently has his West Virginia squad rolling.
It’s been years since the days of “Press Virginia” but the team hasn’t lost their defensive identity. The Mountaineers held the Big 12-leading Cyclones offense to just 57 points, their lowest of the season.
Scoring has been led by senior guard Javon Small and he is averaging 19.8 points per game, good for No. 1 in the conference. When the lights are the brightest, Small plays big, scoring 12 points in the last two minutes of the Iowa State upset.
Kansas State is fresh off of a 84-74 loss against rival Kansas, but played hard after getting out to a 14-0 deficit.
Senior G Coleman Hawkins stuffed the statsheet, leading the team in all 3 major categories with 15 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds. Look for another all-around performance from Hawkins, but the Mountaineers’ defensive presence will be too much for the Wildcats to handle.
Prediction: West Virginia 70, Kansas State 54
No. 7 Houston at No. 12
Kansas, Sat. 5:30 p.m.
By Olivia Sims Sports Writer
The Cougars are headed into this elite Big 12 matchup on a 10-game winning streak led by senior guard LJ Cryer, yet on the other side of the ball, the Jayhawks are coming off of a rivalry win against Kansas State. This will be the 10th all-time meeting for these two historic basketball programs, with Kansas sitting in the driver’s seat with a 6-3 record. The last matchup was all Cougars as they toppled over the Jayhawks with a 76-46 win in March of last season, Kansas’ biggest loss of the year.
Houston has been powerful on the court this season, led by their guard duo of Cryer and junior Emanuel Sharp, both averaging 13.8 points a game as well as senior forward J’Wan Roberts at 10.5. In their most recent win against UCF, Roberts had a 21 point performance to push the Cougars over the edge to win 69-68.
In their rival win over Kansas State, the Jayhawks had two outstanding performers in senior center Hunter Dickinson with 25 points and senior G Zeke Mayo with 24. This matchup will be filled with back-and-forth action, but Houston will ultimately come out of Lawrence as the winner.
Prediction: Houston 83, Kansas 78
No. 3 Duke at Wake Forest, Sat. 3:30 p.m.
By Roman Arteaga Sports Writer
Coming into this matchup with an impressive 16-2 record, the No. 3 ranked Duke Blue Devils will travel west to the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
These two ball clubs have a long history as Duke leads the head-tohead 39-9. However, in their last matchup, it was the Demon Deacons that got the better of the Blue Devils, grabbing a close 83-79 win.
In its last game, Duke dominated Boston College on both sides of the floor, cruising to an 88-63 victory. Freshman phenom forward Cooper Flagg led the charge with 28 points, five rebounds and four assists.
With a current 14-4 record, the Demon Deacons are looking to continue their five-game winning streak.
Senior guard Hunter Sallis came up big in their last matchup, scoring a game-high 24 points while also grabbing seven rebounds and two steals.
Wake Forest is on a roll, and it will be interesting to see if it can keep up with the firepower of its conference leader. All in all, I am going to take the Blue Devils in this one.
Prediction: Duke 82, Wake Forest 68
No. 8 Michigan State at
Rutgers, Sat. 12:30 p.m.
By Mathias Cubillan Associate Sports Editor
Despite entering the season with the loftiest expectations in school history, Rutgers men’s basketball is back on the hamster wheel of mediocrity.
With two of the projected topthree picks in the upcoming NBA draft in freshman guard Dylan Harper and freshman G/forward Ace Bailey on board, Rutgers will be looking to right the ship against No. 8 Michigan State at the iconic Madison Square Garden.
The Spartans have immediately fallen back into coach Tom Izzo’s style of hard-nosed, team-oriented basketball on their way to a hot start in Big Ten action. Led by senior G Jaden Akins, Michigan State is one of the nation’s premier passing teams, specializing in dishing the ball around to their deep roster.
Rutgers might have the brighter stars, but Michigan State’s experience and schematic edge should be enough to fluster the inexperienced Scarlet Knights roster. This green Rutgers team isn’t ready to do the little things right against the Izzo-coached unit, making it practically impossible to come out victorious.
Prediction: Michigan State 87, Rutgers 72
Around the SEC: Jan. 25
By Youngchan Kang Sports Writer
A LOOK AT THE CONFERENCE FOR THIS WEEK’S GAMES
No. 8 Kentucky at Vanderbilt
Memorial Gymnasium - Nashville, Tennessee 1:30 p.m. CST on ESPN
No. 8 Kentucky is having a historic season. Despite losing coach John Calipari to Arkansas and almost a majority of its players to the transfer portal or the NBA draft, first-year coach Mark Pope has become a candidate for coach of the year, bringing the Wildcats to a 14-4 record overall. Vanderbilt went from one of the worst teams in the SEC last year to a 15-3 record this season. The Com-
modores have been pulling off big wins, such as an upset of No. 6 Tennessee in their home court recently.
One of the main reasons for Vanderbilt’s success is junior guard Jason Edwards, who is averaging 17.1 points this season.
Although it’s going to be a close game, the Wildcats have a few key players that can help close out a tough Vandy squad at home.
Prediction: Kentucky 84, Vanderbilt 76
No. 16 Ole Miss at No. 22 Missouri
Mizzou Arena - Columbia, Missouri
5:00 p.m. CST on SEC Network
The Tigers landed in the bottom of the SEC standings after finishing winless in the 2023-24 season. But this season the Tigers have won four of their five matchups against LSU, Vanderbilt, Arkansas and No. 5 Florida.
The Rebels have maintained a 4-1 record in SEC play, which included an upset against No. 4 Alabama on their home court. Senior G Sean Pedulla has been one of the
best transfers that Ole Miss brought in this season from Virginia Tech. The former Hokies is the lead scorer for the Rebels this season, averaging 14.2 points per game on 42.9% FG. Both teams are currently tied for second in the SEC and have a chance to improve their conference standings. As the saying goes — defense wins championships— and the Rebels have shown that they can be a tough defensive team to play against.
No. 6 Tennessee at No. 1 Auburn
Neville Arena - Auburn, Alabama 7:30 p.m. CST on ESPN
No. 6 Tennessee is holding opponents to 58.8 points per game while holding opponents to shooting only 36.4% from the field and 25.5% from behind the arc. Fifth-year G Chaz Lanier has been filling in the shoes of former Volunteer and now-NBA star Dalton Knecht, averaging around 18 points per game on 41.1% FG
On the other hand, the Tigers boast a positive 19.6 point differential this year. Senior forward Johni
Broome is averaging a double-double, and five key players are shooting above 35% from 3-point range. A primetime matchup between two ranked SEC opponents could become the game of the year or a one-sided blowout. Regardless of Auburn having home court advantage,Tennessee has shown that it will compete — no matter what the environment is.
Prediction: Auburn 55, Tennessee 51
LSU at No. 4
Coleman Coliseum - Tuscaloosa, Alabama 7:30 p.m. CST on SEC Network
Despite its record in SEC play and team differential stats, LSU showed that they can compete with the top teams in the conference. Senior G Cam Carter leads the Tigers in scoring at 17.6 points per game off of 44.4% FG and 40.7% from beyondthe-arc.
Among the rising stars at the new offensive powerhouse, graduate duo of G Mark Sears and F Grant Nelson have been a force to be reckoned with. The Crimson Tide have the No. 1 offense in the SEC with 90.2 points per game, but rank last in defense, allowing their opponents to 78.3 points a night. Despite LSU’s competitive spirit to keep the game as close as possible, Alabama’s high offensive power might cruise past the Tigers on its home floor.
Rocio Salgado — THE BATTALION
Chris Swann — THE BATTALION
Adriano Espinosa — THE BATTALION
File photo by CJ Smith — THE BATTALION
Graphic by Sophie Villarreal — THE BATTALION