"We've done this three times in a row. That doesn't happen often," point guard Wade Taylor said. "But we're thankful to be here."

But, as the press conference continued, the normally relaxed and affable trio of Taylor, Pharrel Payne and Henry Coleman III showed something different -- an edge.

Losers of five of their last seven, the fourth-seeded Aggies are the popular choice to be a first round knockout victim at the hands of 13th-seeded Yale. USA Today called them "An upset waiting to happen," and Seth Davis of CBS Sports picked Yale to take the Aggies out Thursday. They were far from the only ones to pick against A&M, something that appeared to get under their skin.

"Everybody has us to lose this game. basically," Coleman said. "We've been an underdog all year. Our whole career we've been underdogs. Told Wade he was too small. Told a lot of guys on the team they weren't fast enough, couldn't shoot the ball well enough."

One thing Yale does very well is shoot the basketball, with the team making 49% of their shots and nearly 39% of their 3-pointers.

"They can really shoot it," Taylor admitted.

Opponents shooting at a high clip from 3-point territory has been A&M's biggest problem all season, but Coleman said they would be prepared for the Bulldogs' offense Thursday.

"Throughout the SEC we played a number of teams who shoot the three ball at a high level -- Missouri, Alabama, Auburn. So that's just something that we've been tested on before," he said.

When asked for a scouting report of Yale, Taylor stuck to generalities but showed a clear respect for the Bulldogs.

"They play in a pretty good league. They have a really good team. They play well together," he said. "Like Henry said, they're really experienced. That's what really impressed me, they play together and are really experienced."

Even with a double-overtime loss to Texas shortening their stay in the SEC Tournament, the Aggies did finish the regular season 11-7 in what was possibly the toughest league in college basketball history. Eight of those wins came against teams that are now in the NCAA Tournament, something Payne said has prepared them well for the stresses of March Madness.

"I'd say it prepared us tremendously," he said. "Most of the teams that are in the tournament are from the SEC, so the harder games, night in, night out, is going to get us ready for tournament play."

Having noted the experience Yale's team brings to the court, Coleman noted that the Aggies are also one of the most experienced teams in the tournament.

"Experience helps you in any field that you're in, whether that's journalism, whether that's working a nine-to-five, whether that's sports. Experience helps in all of them, and I think experience will hopefully help us," he said. "We've been in games where we've been up a lot, and so I think it's just a mindset of being right where our feet are and not trying to take any of this for granted. We know we have a really good team coming up. The whole team knows that. The staff knows that. We'll just have to take it day by day."