WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2021 STUDENT MEDIA
GOING DANCING
Courtesy of Craig Bisacre — 12th Man Athletics
The No. 4 Texas A&M women’s basketball team enters the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed in the Mercado Region.
A&M enters tournament as No. 2 seed for fifth time in program history, faces 15-seed Troy in first round By Hannah Underwood @hannahbunderwoo
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fter dropping out of the SEC Tournament with a loss to then-No. 16 Georgia, Texas A&M women’s basketball will enter the NCAA Tournament as the No. 2 seed of the Mercado Region, the league announced during the Selection Show on Monday.
The Aggies are set to face No. 15 Troy, who won the Sun Belt Conference Championship on March 8 with a 73-65 win over Louisiana-Lafayette. The two teams will meet for the first time in program history at 5 p.m. on March 22 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin. The Trojans are on an 11-game win streak with a 22-5 overall record. Despite A&M’s loss to Georgia in the semifinals of the conference tournament, the Aggies were expected to be the No. 1 seed heading into the NCAA Tournament after finishing the regular season with a No. 4 ranking in the AP Top 25 poll. Though they missed out on a top spot, senior center Ciera Johnson said the Aggies aren’t too disappointed following Monday’s Selection Show.
“We’re not upset with this,” Johnson said. “I mean yeah, we wanted to be No. 1, but hey, we came up short against Georgia. When you don’t handle business, that’s what happens. You have to reap the consequences of that.” A&M coach Gary Blair said the results of Monday’s Selection Show don’t matter; instead, he’s ready to show off his team on the national stage, regardless of seeding. “I don’t mind,” Blair said. “I love to go out and show people what this team can do and what this coaching staff and I can do to put together a game plan. That’s what I’m really proud of.” Senior guard Kayla Wells said A&M had moved on from its loss and is now taking the lessons learned in stride. “That was a wake-up call that we needed,”
Wells said. “I’d rather it happen in the SEC Tournament than in March Madness where we’d be going home for good.” The Aggies are heading into the NCAA Tournament with a more serious mentality, knowing a single loss will end their season, Johnson said. “We weren’t locked in [against Georgia],” Johnson said. “They wanted it more than we did, and it showed … Now, if somebody wants it more, we’re going home and we’re done for the year.” While missing out on the No. 1 seed gives the Aggies something to prove next week, Johnson said the rankings don’t matter at the end of the day. “We can use it as extra motivation, but GOING DANCING ON PG. 4
Will Nye — THE BATTALION
Friday, March 19 will mark the only day of Texas A&M’s 2021 Spring Break.
Aggies alter Spring Break plans Students share how they will take advantage of three-day weekend By Shelby McVey @shelbyxbreann Spring Break at Texas A&M is looking a bit different for the second year in a row. It has been one year since students left for Spring Break in 2020 and didn’t return as COVID-19 swept through the country and Brazos County alike. This year, in an attempt to subdue the spread of COVID-19 in the campus community, A&M has limited Spring Break to just one day, Friday, March 19. With this change, students’ plans for this much-anticipated break have differed from those in the past. For sociology senior Mel Ramos, Friday will be just like any other day. “The only thing different is I won’t have class this [Friday],” Ramos said. “But other than those 50 minutes, it’ll be exactly the same as any other week.” Operating on her normal day-to-day schedule, Ramos said it would be silly to use the word “break” to even describe this day
off. “A break would involve being able to relax and not worry about work or school,” Ramos said. “But I still have things due on Friday and this weekend, so I’ll still be doing assignments and studying [on top of] working.” Biomedical sciences sophomore Maci Felts has planned her Spring Break around this given day and said she is using virtual classes to her advantage. “Me and then some of my friends decided to try to plan around the one day we have off, so we left [for South Padre] Saturday and are heading back on Wednesday,” Felts said. “Meanwhile, we are still keeping up with our homework and classes while we are here, and when we don’t have any class, we go to the beach or go get dinner and hangout.” On top of dealing with this unusual break the university has given, health junior Haley Jones said her semester plans were altered at the hands of the historic winter storm Texas experienced the week of Feb. 14, leaving thousands without power and in warming centers across the state. SPRING BREAK ON PG. 4
Kaylee Cogbill — THE BATTALION
Texas A&M will require students living on campus, students attending face-to-face classes and student employees be tested for COVID-19 this month.
COVID-19 testing required for several subsets of A&M students Mandatory COVID-19 testing implemented following break By Julia Potts @juliaapotts Beginning next Tuesday, students falling under any one of three subset groups will be required to participate in Texas A&M’s new mandatory COVID-19 testing program. According to a March 15 university press release, the relevant groups and the dates in which they must be tested are as follows: “All students residing in university housing on the [Bryan-College Station] campus to test for COVID-19 March 23 - 24; “All student employees working on the B-CS campus and nearby university Health Science Center buildings to test for COVID-19 March 25 - 29; “All students in courses which are only offered face-to-face at the campus to test for
COVID-19 March 29 - April 2.” This program was started to help identify asymptomatic COVID-19 cases and isolate carriers before the disease can spread across campus. Students must make their appointments through the online testing portal and complete a survey on the day of their test. Those not required to test include those with symptoms who have already been reported to the university and those who have tested positive for COVID-19 on or after Jan. 1. Anyone who applies to the groups above that does not schedule and appear for a COVID-19 test could be reported to the university conduct office. Dean of the School of Public Health Shawn Gibbs said in a comment to The Battalion that these required tests aim to identify any cases that appear after the university’s shortened Spring Break and St. Patrick’s Day. TESTING ON PG. 4