Basketball is rough, tough, and real stuff.
It is a contact sport where players sometimes take hits that, unfortunately, don’t go their way. At other times, non-contact injuries just happen. It can come at any time and take a toll on a team down the stretch of a season.
Right now, Saint Mary’s and Texas A&M are very fortunate not to be dealing with more injuries than some programs are having. There are times when programs lose their best shooters and cannot recover.
For the Aggies, there have been no major concerns throughout the season besides losing one of their star forwards, and for the Gaels, it is also one of their forwards, so it will be an interesting battle between the forwards on both rosters.
A&M and Saint Mary’s Players Out
Oct 15, 2025; Birmingham, Alabama, USA; Texas A&M player Mackenzie Mgbako talks to reporters at SEC Media Day in the Grand Bohemian Hotel. | Gary Cosby Jr. / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
One of the most notable injuries that A&M has right now is losing the Indiana transfer Mackenzie Mgbako, who was one of head coach Bucky McMillan’s biggest additions to the program in his first year with the program after his tenure at Samford.
The injury to the 6-foot-9 junior occurred on his foot, where he was initially hurt in the offseason, then stepped on the court for seven games before fracturing it and being out for the rest of the year.
Going into the season, he was projected to be one of the top players and NBA prospects. In his few games, Mgbako averaged 10.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.3 assists. From the field, he was a sharpshooter, where he was 39 percent from the field and was 34.3 percent from beyond the arc.
Before joining the Aggies, he was elite with the Hoosiers, averaging 25 minutes in the 2023-24 season and 25.1 minutes per game the following season. In the first season there, he posted 12.2 points per game, and the next season he did the exact same thing, so consistency and accuracy are great ways to describe his game.
As for Saint Mary’s, two player will be out. Forward Kevin Gad, who has appeared in seven games this season while averaging 1.4 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 0.7 assists, will be sidelined once again along with guard Cade Bennett. The Livermore, Calif. native only registered 10 total points and didn’t play more than 13 minutes in any of the games he could give it a go.
His injury was marked as a shoulder injury and is out indefinitely, so that wasn’t encouraging for the Gaels’ program, which has made a solid run this season and is hoping to go deep in the tournament.
Barring any issues before tipoff, that is what the injury report should look like before the game begins at 6:35 p.m. on truTV.