Aggie men need win at ISU to stay above .500

The last time the Texas A&M men's basketball team was below .500 this late in the season, Billy Gillispie was at UTEP, Mark Turgeon at Wichita State, Billy Kennedy at Southeastern Louisiana and Melvin Watkins was sitting on the Aggie bench.

It was 2004, when A&M went 0-for in Big 12 play and 7-21 overall.

The Aggies are on the doorstep of being a .500 team, needing an upset of Iowa State at sold-out Hilton Coliseum to stay eligible for the NIT.

Barring a Big 12 tournament title next month, a seventh straight NCAA Tournament is out the window for the Aggies.

Missing out on an NIT berth isn't far behind if the losses continue.

There is no longer a bylaw concerning records to qualify for the NIT, but since the NCAA took over the tournament in 2006, no team with a record below .500 has qualified.

That means the Aggies need to win three of their seven Big 12 regular-season games and at least their first conference tournament game.

It doesn't sound all that daunting, winning four of the next eight games, but the Aggies will likely be favored in only two of those games -- maybe a third depending on whom A&M plays in Kansas City and who is on the floor for the Aggies.

The Cyclones are first up for A&M and are a perfect example of what lies ahead for the Aggies.

ISU beat A&M 74-50 at Reed Arena a month ago and is favored by 61/2 points at Hilton, which Kennedy said is one of the toughest places he's visited to get a win.

It's more than the 14,000 or so screaming fans that the Aggies will have to overcome.

"Royce White could be recognized as maybe being player of the year in the league, as well as [Kansas forward] Thomas Robinson," Kennedy said. "He's a special player. They've got that enthusiasm back in that program."

The 6-foot-7 White had a triple-double against the Aggies in the game. It was the first triple-double in a Big 12 game in six years.

White, who had 10 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists, was one of five Cyclones to score in double figures. He is the only player on a BCS conference team in the top 100 in assists (4.7) and rebounds (9.4).

"They're so hard to guard, you can't just take one guy away," Kennedy said. "We tried to really stay connected to their shooters and really change how we like to play defensively, and we won't do that this time. We'll play normal rules and play inside out and try and protect the paint. So that's one thing that we learned from it."

The Aggies have had injury woes, but Khris Middleton and Dash Harris both started in the loss to ISU. The two are expected to play again on Saturday. Harris has missed four games and Middleton the last five.

NOTES -- A&M has won three straight at Hilton Coliseum. ... ISU has four players with at least 35 3-pointers and leads the Big 12 and is 9th nationally with 8.8 3-pointers a game.