Texas A&M’s “Sydneys” talk about facing Georgia and playing in familiar territory. Coach Blair praises his backcourt

DALLAS – While women’s basketball fans are excited about the prospect of No. 1 seed Baylor meeting up with No. 2 seed Texas A&M in the Dallas Region of the NCAA Tournament, the Aggies are focused on their next contest: No. 6 seed Georgia. Saturday, the starting backcourt of Texas A&M, senior Sydney Colson and junior Sydney Carter talked about playing in the Sweet 16 in familiar territory and what is needed to defeat Georgia.

Essentially, both of “the Sydneys” can play the point guard position and Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair talked about his starting guard tandem and what they mean to the Aggies program.

“[T]he two Sydneys, I don’t know if I’ll ever have another pair like them again,” said Blair. “I’m just very fortunate that they’re not the same year, so I will always have the transition of replacing one, then the other.

“Somebody asked me the other day, ‘which one can you not afford to lose’? And I can’t afford to lose either one because you win with point guard play, but you win with Sydney Carter – never takes a play off in practice or in games ever. She’s there every possession. And that’s something that you cannot usually find in women’s ball or men’s ball, a kid that never takes a play off. And that’s what Carter does for us.”

He also had accolades for Colson.

“Colson is your creator, instant offense,” said Blair. “She’s very, very good in the transition game. The transition game works as long as your defense works. You do not want to go down there and play ‘hope they miss’ defense; you want to go down there and play ‘make them miss’ defense, MTM.”