CESSNA: A&M keeps knocking

It was a good Sunday for the Texas A&M women's basketball team, but it could have been even better.

The Aggies beat Texas for the 10th straight time, 68-65, and on the way back from Austin the team kept track of the Baylor-Oklahoma game. Oklahoma's Danielle Robinson missed a shot at the buzzer, allowing third-ranked Baylor to escape with an 82-81 victory and virtually assuring the Lady Bears of an outright Big 12 title.

Had the Sooners won, the Aggies would have climbed into a first-place tie, needing to beat Kansas State and Nebraska to be assured of a co-championship. A championship ring would be nice since the program hasn't won the regular-season crown since 2007, which was before any of the current players stepped foot on campus. But it would have been somewhat hollow because the Aggies had their chance to beat Baylor and didn't. Not once, but twice.

Head coach Gary Blair said they'd gladly have taken the rings -- and still would if the unbelievable happens and Baylor loses to Missouri or Colorado while the Aggies win out. And even if that happens, you'll never convince Baylor that A&M is its equal.

In 2007 the Aggies shared the title with Oklahoma, but A&M swept the series. The Sooners got rings, but the Aggies knew who was the better team because they'd proven it.

A&M likely won't be getting regular-season championship rings, which isn't a big deal if the Aggies have the postseason that's expected. A&M has put itself in position to at least reach the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight for only the second time in school history, but that also was the case the last two seasons when the Aggies came up short of their expectations as a No. 2 seed.

"We know the work that's in front of us to win a national championship," Blair said after his team almost squandered a 16-point lead against Texas. "And how we played tonight, you're not going to win a second-round game in the NCAA Tournament."

It was concerning that A&M didn't put Texas away, since Aggies just love whipping Longhorns no matter what the sport -- or occupation. Besides, UT is not that talented. The Longhorns might not even make the NCAA Tournament. UT is 1-10 against ranked teams, and that one victory was against Texas Tech, which at the time was 25th in the coaches' poll and unranked by the Associated Press.

A&M is light years ahead of Texas, which has lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons. But if A&M can't put away its rival, how will it do against a Marist or Wisconsin-Green Bay?

If you are a top-five team, you take no prisoners. That's the way Texas used to be when it played A&M. The Longhorns won 27 straight in the series from Feb. 13, 1978, through Jan. 20, 1992, which included a national championship. And we're not talking squeakers. Texas won 20 of those games by at least 20 points. Texas was good, A&M wasn't.

That's changed. Maybe Texas is no longer A&M's rival in women's basketball. The Longhorns haven't finished in the top four in the Big 12 since 2005. That means this year's seniors were high school sophomores. That's a lifetime ago with this generation.

The teams that get the players' attention are Oklahoma and Baylor, especially Baylor. A&M has turned the tables on Oklahoma recently, but hasn't been as fortunate against Baylor. The Lady Bears have proven they are better than the Aggies. Baylor is 10-1 vs. ranked teams this season, including 3-1 vs. Top 10 teams. A&M is 3-3 against ranked teams, 0-3 against Top 10 teams. That's not good enough.

It's more than just this season. Baylor has beaten A&M seven straight times. They all were great games, but the Aggies just can't get over the hump.

"Folks I'm not giving up trying," Blair said after the 67-58 Valentine's Day loss at Waco in which the Aggies led most of the day. "I'm going to keep banging on that door until we get it done."

Blair should avoid references to legendary coach Bum Phillips and the great Houston Oiler football teams, because they never did beat the Pittsburgh Steelers when it counted.

That, though, is where Blair and A&M are. They've positioned themselves in the next breath after Connecticut, Stanford, Tennessee and Baylor, but until they get to the Final Four, they aren't country club members.

Blair and his Aggies probably will get two more chances this season to prove they are just as good or better than the Lady Bears -- first at the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, then by making the Final Four.

Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey said after the last A&M battle that her program is all about winning championships. The fiery competitor has several national championships as a player, assistant coach and head coach to prove it.

The folksy but just as driven Blair has won state championships at South Oak Cliff High School and was an assistant at Louisiana Tech when it won three national championships with Mulkey playing.

Right now, it doesn't get much better than Texas A&M and Baylor.

Sunday was just a little better for Mulkey and the Lady Bears than for Blair and the Lady Aggies, but there are still a lot of Sundays left in this season and the ones to come.

This is far from over. It might be just beginning.

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A&M senior post Danielle Adams was voted the Big 12 player of the week for the fifth time this season, the most in the league. She averaged 28 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks as A&M beat Texas Tech and Texas.