By RICHARD CROOME
Eagle Columnist

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LUBBOCK -- Joseph Jones stomped out after the postgame press conference.

He wasn't pouting. He wasn't putting on a show. He was just mad.

Mad that he and his teammates had just put on their worst display of basketball arguably since the decorated senior had put on the maroon and white uniform.

Mad that once again he was going to be leaving Lubbock disappointed.

Mad that he had to answer -- and to his credit he owned up to what had just occurred -- questions following another loss to Texas Tech.

The only other time I'd seen Jones that mad was last season against Baylor, when Josh Lomers proved basketball is not a noncontact sport. Even then, the brawny Jones wasn't mad long because the Aggies won, and that's what it's all about for him.

Beyond the 68-53 loss, the third straight by a Top 10 Aggie team to an unranked Texas Tech, Jones had every reason to be mad.

On the surface, his 11 points and nine rebounds were not bad numbers. But he was a part of the 20 turnovers with three and his four personal fouls brought back memories of the last couple of seasons, when spent too much time in foul trouble.

Jones would never point a finger, but he could have. Donald Sloan had seven turnovers. Bryan Davis committed four fouls, at least two that had A&M coach Mark Turgeon asking the proverbial why? Turgeon said he couldn't think of one Aggie that performed well, a strong statement about a team that has as many as 10 solid Big 12 basketball players.

Another telling point was that Tech coach Bobby Knight said he was pleased with the way his big men kept A&M's from controlling the boards. The numbers would say otherwise -- 40-28 rebounding edge in favor of A&M -- but the perception was there. The Red Raiders, with the help of some foul trouble, kept the Aggie post players from taking control. Jones, 7-foot freshman DeAndre Jordan, Davis and Chinemelu Elonu were never able to gain any momentum for A&M. It showed when the Aggies' first dunk came with about 6 minutes left as Tech officials were already planning a postgame celebration in honor of Knight's 900th victory.

Another telling point was that Tech coach Bobby Knight said he was pleased with the way his big men kept A&M's from controlling the boards. The numbers would say otherwise -- 40-28 rebounding edge in favor of A&M -- but the perception was there. The Red Raiders, with the help of some foul trouble, kept the Aggie post players from taking control. Jones, 7-foot freshman DeAndre Jordan, Davis and Chinemelu Elonu were never able to gain any momentum for A&M. It showed when the Aggies' first dunk came with about 6 minutes left as Tech officials were already planning a postgame celebration in honor of Knight's 900th victory.

One Aggie blocked shot showed what was going on at the other end. A&M averages five blocks a game. Tech's 7-foot Esmir Rivzic, best known for having to miss the second half of last season thanks to a Longar Longar elbow to the eye, had four blocks, one more than he had the entire nonconference campaign.

A&M had only eight assists. Against Colorado just four days earlier, the Aggies had eight assists after their ninth basket, which came 10 minutes into the game.

Of course, if A&M had hit some shots, there may have been a few more assists. Instead, the 5-to-4 assist-to-turnover ratio the team came in with was 2-to-5 to the bad Wednesday.

Turgeon said A&M's shots looked "crooked." Even though that's scientifically impossible, it was a dead-on analogy. You could tell many of A&M's shots weren't going in when they left the players' hand.

In short, I didn't think the Aggies' worst performance could be that bad.

Maybe it was the Knight factor, or Tech factor, or that the windchill was 11 degrees when the bus pulled up to the arena.

Maybe it was being on the road. Despite their 15-2 mark and No. 10 ranking, the Aggies have been outscored 115-80 in the last 60 minutes away from Reed Arena.

If it's the road factor, A&M is in for a long Big 12 season and definitely a shorter NCAA Tournament run than most would have expected after watching the Aggies post double-digit victories in all but one of their 15 wins. Tech is an NCAA bubble team at best, and as much credit as Knight wanted to give the Red Raider fans, the Aggies are likely to see bigger and louder crowds at a handful of arenas, beginning Saturday at Kansas State, where it's already sold out.

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