Wednesday night's turnout said it all: This season is over

A year from now, had the Aggies upset the fourth-ranked Kansas Jayhawks it would have been interesting to see how many people would have said they were at Wednesday's game.

Because even as Texas A&M rallied from a 21-point deficit to pull within four, some fans opted to leave. Maybe if the Aggies could have forced overtime, they'd have come back.

But probably not.

It's obvious many have given up on this basketball season, which is too bad for a program that's made six straight NCAA tournament appearances. Yet an announced crowd of 6,868 says different. Heck, A&M drew 8,122 when Kansas came here in 2004 when the Aggies went 0-16 in Big 12 play.

The most disappointing aspect of Wednesday's crowd was the students for a nationally televised game. A&M officials said 1,039 students were there -- 40 more than for Saturday's crowd against Missouri. It just seemed about half. Maybe they came and got their 12th Man reward cards scanned and went to the library to study.

Several of the Aggie players motioned to the crowd to make noise during a 19-5 run as A&M cut KU's lead to 60-56 with 1 minute, 46 seconds left. It had to be somewhat discouraging to see all those empty seats.

"We are on the court playing, and that's all we can control," said senior guard Dash Harris who returned after missing seven games with an ankle injury. "Of course, we'd like to have this place packed."

Harris said it's up to the players "to pick ourselves up."

But isn't the 12th Man supposed to do that, being there when needed most? A&M prides itself on being different than all the rest, but Wednesday's turnout looked much like what you'd expect at any other school whose team is 13-13 with a 4-10 league record.

And all those no-shows have a point. After all, A&M lost 66-58 and played about as ugly a first half as you'll ever see. The crowd might have had a part in it; several of the KU players and support personnel scanned Reed Arena before tipoff and their body language seemed to be saying, "Really?"

KU played down to the crowd with a slew of bad plays. It didn't seem to bother the players, but it certainly bothered Jayhawk head coach Bill Self.

"I'll leave here happy that we won," he said. "But I'm not leaving here happy with the way we played."

KU junior post Thomas Robinson got called for a technical foul that fouled him out during a melee that resulted in a jump ball with 40 seconds left.

"[That's] as bad a play as I've seen," Self said.

All that ugliness, and it nearly ended with A&M pulling off a miracle victory.

"The only thing I can say is that we didn't throw in the towel," A&M head coach Billy Kennedy said.

Kennedy can look to some positives.

A&M junior forward Khris Middleton, who has missed 12 games this season with injuries, had a solid game with 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting and five rebounds. He moved well against the taller, talented Jayhawks. Harris played 18 minutes in his return, scoring eight points with four assists and one turnover.

Other than that, there wasn't much to remember about what could be KU's last trip to College Station, not that many cared.