By ROBERT CESSNA
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Texas A&M men's basketball team almost got out of Kansas City with the program's first victory over a top-ranked team, but there's no doubt they left much better than when they arrived.
That might be worth more in the long run.
Friday night's 79-66 loss to Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals at Sprint Center was even more impressive than A&M's 59-54 loss to KU at Reed Arena just a month ago.
This time the Aggies clearly outplayed the Jayhawks for 30 minutes. That was eye-opening, since A&M was without starting point guard Dash Harris and it was basically a home game for KU.
Those blue-clad fans spent the first half telling the Jayhawks it was unacceptable that A&M's David Loubeau, Khris Middleton and Nathan Walkup had combined for 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting. That was a point more than KU's trio of future NBA players -- Sherron Collins, Cole Aldrich and Xavier Henry -- had scored.
But instead of those unheralded Aggies being the first to knock off No. 1, they were given a lesson on how important every possession will be in the NCAA Tournament.
The Aggies had a 44-37 lead and the basketball when Loubeau dribbled the ball off his foot. That jump-started a fast-break that ended with Donald Sloan fouling Collins.
Sloan was really never the same after that.
Kansas switched to a zone defense that allowed the Jayhawks to put a muzzle on Sloan, who had been nothing short of brilliant until committing his third foul.
Without an inside game to help out Sloan the Aggies were forced to fire up 3-pointers, missing nine straight, which helped KU go from nine down to 15 up.
A&M's inability to score took some starch out of its defense. Kansas hit 10 of 15 shots, including six 3-pointers during a 24-7 run. The Jayhawks, who had a series of several silly turnovers early that started with Aldrich fumbling a sure layup, did a much better job of protecting the basketball in the second half. Collins and his game-high 26 points led the way, but KU got plenty more elsewhere while playing like the nation's best team for the last 10 minutes.
A&M just wasn't good enough to win when Kansas picked up its defensive intensity. And that's in part because the Aggies weren't deep enough to fight through it.
Besides being a great quarterback for the offense, Harris is a tremendous defender. He was sorely missed at both ends. If he comes back healthy next week in the NCAA Tournament, it will take a mighty good team to end A&M's season.
"We're not going to see a team better than Kansas out there," A&M coach Mark Turgeon said.
And A&M had KU beat with 10 minutes left, before the ball started bouncing the Jayhawks' way. Next time, the Aggies will be much better prepared to make sure it bounces back their way.
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