GAME NOTES: The Montana Grizzlies seek their first-ever win in the NIT on Tuesday night when they clash with the Texas A&M Aggies in the first round of the event at Reed Arena.

Montana, which has a mark of 0-4 in this event all-time, finished in a tie for first place in the Big Sky Conference standings with Eastern Washington at 14-4, good enough to win the regular-season title and earn an automatic bid to the NIT should a spot in the NCAA Tournament not be in the cards.

As fate would have it, the Grizzlies managed to get by Weber State and Northern Arizona during the league tournament at home, but then came up short in the title game versus those same Eastern Washington Eagles by a score of 69-65, even after leading by double figures with just over six minutes to play in regulation.

As for the Aggies, representatives of the SEC these days, they posted a mark of 11-7 in conference and were one of a few programs that many thought should have earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, but here they are in the NIT for the seventh time in program history.

Losers of three straight and four of the last five, the latest setback being a 66-59 defeat at the hands of Alabama in the SEC Tournament, Texas A&M has a record of 6-6 in this tourney and was most recently in the field back in 2005 when it made it to the third round before losing to Saint Joseph's (58-51).

The winner of this first-ever meeting between the two schools will go to the second round of the tourney and face off against the survivor of the Central Michigan/Louisiana Tech contest on a date to be determined.

Starting every game and playing close to 36 minutes per outing, there is no doubt success for the Grizzlies hinges on the play of Jordan Gregory, one of the top performers in the Big Sky. He is averaging 16.9 ppg, having made good on 82 of his 217 (.378) 3-point attempts and is also responsible for hitting 79.5 percent of his chances at the free-throw line. While Gregory is second on the unit with 102 assists, trailing only Mario Dunn (9.0 ppg) who has 122 dishes, Martin Breunig handles the action in the paint with his 16.8 ppg, which means he and Gregory account for close to half the team's 71.3 ppg. Breunig is also first on the unit with 7.4 rpg, but that effort gives the program a rebounding advantage of only 0.3 rpg.

Although two of them are transfers (Danuel House and Jalen Jones), the Aggies feature three players who have scored at least 1,000 points in their careers, the other being Kourtney Roberson. House, a starter in all but three of the 26 games in which he has appeared in 2014-15, leads the way for A&M with 14.8 ppg, hit 40.0 percent accuracy behind the 3-point line almost matching his 41.7 percent effort from the floor overall.

Jones checks in with 13.3 ppg, thanks in part to his 72.8 percent accuracy at the free-throw line where his 110 conversions are more than all but one of his teammates (House, 112) has attempts on the campaign. Jones is also first on the unit with 6.6 rpg, just ahead of Roberson (8.9 ppg) who has cleared 6.4 rpg in order to push the team to an advantage of 4.5 rpg over the competition. Alex Caruso (9.5 ppg) has shown that he not only can put points on the board but also create scoring opportunities for others with 173 assists.

Montana may be a powerhouse in the Big Sky Conference, but this is real world basketball and considering the Aggies were on the cusp on the NCAA Tournament, based on their own merits for the entire season, it is tough to pick against the hosts in this instance.