The Texas A&M women's basketball team has accomplished much, but the time to reflect on it is later.
All that matters for A&M is the next game. The Aggies need to forget they just had the program's most significant victory, because they could earn a much bigger one Sunday in Oklahoma City when they take on Duke in the Sweet 16.
"We don't just want to get up there and play hard and everybody pat us on the back," A&M head coach Gary Blair said. "We're in this thing to win now. When this hair gets gray, I get greedy, and I'm ready to win."
The veteran coach knows it's getting tougher and tougher to reach the Sweet 16 with the game's parity. This is his first trip past the second round since taking Arkansas to the Final Four a decade ago.
He's built an A&M program that has the potential to make Sweet 16 appearances with the regularity of Connecticut or Tennessee, but the 62-year-old also knows you can't look ahead.
Blair and associate head coach Vic Schaefer coached Monday night's game against Hartford as if they were at the Final Four, and the players responded. The score never mattered as the effort never wavered.
A&M had a 34-19 halftime lead, but less than 2 minutes into the second half, Blair benched three starters. His message was simple: There's no room for sluggish play this late in the season.
The Aggies responded.
"It was a very business-like game for us," Blair said.
Junior forward Danielle Gant epitomized A&M's blue-collar approach. She was 9-of-11 shooting en route to a game-high 21 points. She had three steals and an assist with only one turnover over her 29 full-throttle minutes.
"I love Danielle Gant because of how hard she plays," Blair said. "She makes the rest of us play just as hard because she does the same thing in practice every day. It never stops."
The rest of the Aggies have matched Gant's intensity over the last two months. The effort has helped A&M win 15 of 16 games, including 11 straight.
It will mean much more if the Aggies can make it a 12-game winning streak.
"I'm not saying in the past years we haven't expected to win," said senior guard Morenike Atunrase. "[But] we have grown. We're smarter as a team. We play together. We expect to win big games."
None would be bigger than beating Duke.
An encouraging sight during the games at Baton Rouge was watching Katy Pounds and LaToya Gulley standing, cheering and coaching their teammates. Pounds and Gulley had to give up playing this season because of injuries, but they've played key roles as part of A&M's five-member, record-setting senior class.
Louisiana State fans watching the A&M-Hartford game showed a lot of class by standing and cheering any time a player or coach from Marist walked through the stands. LSU pulled away for a 68-49 victory over a spunky Marist team that certainly deserved the applause.
• Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.
TEXAS A&M WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
NO. 2 A&M VS. NO. 3 DUKE
NCAA REGIONAL SEMIFINALS
WHEN/WHERE: Sunday at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, time TBA
TV/RADIO: ESPN2, Ch. 28/KZNE, 1150 AM
RECORDS: A&M (28-7), Duke (25-9)