COLLEGE STATION – The Texas A&M men’s basketball team will play Texas A&M-Commerce in an exhibition game on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Reed Arena.

“We want to play like we’ve been practicing,” A&M Coach Mark Turgeon said. “We’ll see some things in the exhibition that we haven’t practiced against and it may take awhile to adjust. We’ve really worked hard defensively and hopefully we can set the tone for how we want to play defense all year.”

A&M has not played TAMU-Commerce, formerly known as East Texas State, since an 85-42 victory at G. Rollie White Coliseum in 1979-80. A&M’s coach at the time was Shelby Metcalf, who was an All-American at East Texas State in the mid-1950s.

A&M leads the series, 3-1. The Aggies posted wins in 1915-16 (62-5) and 1970-71 (67-61). The Lions’ lone win came in 1947-48 (52-43). All the previous games were played in College Station.

Commerce, a member of the Lone Star Conference in NCAA Division II, finished 17-11 last season and is picked to finish second in the conference’s North Division. Senior Justin Wilkerson, a former player at East Central and Texas Tech, is the preseason pick for conference player of the year.

The Aggies return 13 lettermen and three starters from last year’s 24-10 team that advanced to the second-round of the NCAA Tournament. The three returning starters — Bryan Davis, Donald Sloan and Derrick Roland — are all seniors from Dallas. They need 23 wins to become the winningest senior class in school history.

A&M was picked to finish fifth in the Big 12 in a preseason poll of the league’s coaches.

The Aggies will play 16 regular-season games at Reed Arena, including eight Big 12 games and eight non-conference contests. A&M opens the regular season on Nov. 13 against Angelo State at Reed Arena.