The Texas A&M basketball teams will be looking for season-type changing victories at tough Big 12 venues on Wednesday.

The A&M men (14-5, 3-2) will be at Oklahoma State (15-4, 3-2) in a matchup of unranked teams jockeying for position in the middle of the league, while the Aggie women (15-2, 3-1) will be at Baylor (14-4, 1-3) with a chance to distance themselves from the preseason favorite.

It's hard to say which Aggie team has the toughest assignment.

The OSU men are coming off a 73-69 victory at Kansas State, which had just knocked off top-ranked Texas. That's the only home league loss among the top seven teams, as the road team has won only seven of 28 games.

A&M is 0-2 in the Big 12 away from Reed Arena, with a blowout loss at KSU and a heartbreaking defeat at Texas.

"We've gotta win some road games," A&M head coach Mark Turgeon said. "Oklahoma State's going to be tough one for us, but I think we'll be ready for it. We've won road games [before], but I think if want to be part of NCAA Tournament, we've gotta be a good road team and we've gotta figure out a way to win some road games."

The Aggies would like to avoid last season's road map. They lost their first five league road games, but finished strong by winning the final three. That was part of a six-game winning streak to end the regular season that helped send the Aggies back to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight time.

A&M's next road trip after OSU will be at Missouri on Feb. 3. The next two away games are much more winnable games -- Feb. 13 at Texas Tech and Feb. 20 at Iowa State.

Good news is the A&M men won at OSU two seasons ago, while the A&M women won in Waco three seasons ago, and took the Lady Bears down the wire the last two times in McLennan County.

Baylor was tough on the Aggie women last season no matter where they played. A&M was 27-8 last season, with more than a third of those losses to the Lady Bears.

"We lost three tough ballgames to 'em last year and I think we have a little bit of a score to settle with them, I think we can play better," A&M head coach Gary Blair said.

Baylor is led by 6-foot-8 freshman sensation Brittney Griner, who is averaging 18.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and 5.9 blocks per game.

"We're playing Baylor, we're not playing Brittney Griner," Blair said.

The Lady Bears are struggling because junior guard Melissa Jones has missed the last four games with a leg injury. Oklahoma State, Missouri and Nebraska were able to take advantage of Baylor's perimeter struggles to grab victories.

"There's no way Baylor would be 1-3 if Melissa Jones had played all four of those games," Blair said. "That's how valuable she is. It would be like me taking Tanisha Smith out of my first four games, and I wouldn't like those results."

Baylor is 1-3 in league play for the first time since 2001-02.

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Texas A&M and Oklahoma State are the only Big 12 schools with both of its basketball teams unbeaten at home.

The Aggie men are 11-0 and the A&M women 8-0. The Cowgirls are 11-0 at Iba Gallagher Arena, while the Cowboys are 10-0.

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The triple-double by A&M's Danielle Adams (27 points, 12 rebounds, 10 blocks) on Saturday helped earn her Big 12 player of the week honors.

Adams is the 10th woman in Big 12 history to have a triple-double, and she joins Griner and Iowa State guard Alison Lacey in pulling it off this season.

Adams is the second A&M player to win the Big 12 award this season, joining senior guard Smith.

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The Missouri women's basketball team took its anger out on Baylor on Saturday for a 70-62 victory, the team's first league victory.

Missouri was 0-4 in league play after a 62-61 home loss to Oklahoma last week that also created sparks off the court.

Missouri head coach Cindy Stein took exception two years ago to comments by OU head coach Sherri Coale, who said that Mizzou Arena was "a little quiet, a little sterile" after the Sooners won before 1,228 fans.

Coale than again said during last week's coaches' teleconference that it would be a challenge for her team going to Missouri because it's "a different atmosphere than what we're accustomed to."

Remember, Coale made those comments coming off a scintillating 74-65 home victory over A&M before 8,159 that also was on national television.

Oklahoma's victory over Missouri last week was before 1,347 fans, whom the Columbia Daily Tribune called lively.

I'm sure they were, but the bottom line is Missouri is last in the Big 12 in attendance, averaging 1,327 -- the only team under 2,000.

Maybe the victory over Baylor will attract more fans. I'd also suggest a "Let's Root Against Sherri Coale Night" the next time the Sooners come to town.

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The A&M women will have a fan luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in the women's basketball practice gym.

Cost is $10 (cash or checks only). Free parking will be available in Lot 100-G.

For more information or to RSVP, please call 845-0565 or e-mail ddoles@athletics.tamu.edu.

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The BYU men, which lost opening-round games in the NCAA Tournament to A&M the last two seasons, is 20-1 and ranked 12th this week by the Associated Press. That's the Cougars' highest ranking since being 11th in February 1988. BYU is ranked 10th by the coaches.

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Former A&M men's coach Billy Gillispie was shown by ESPN watching Monday night's game between Missouri and Kansas in Lawrence, Kan. Gillispie is good friends with KU coach Bill Self and was an assistant under Self at Tulsa and Illinois.

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