By RICHARD CROOME
Eagle Columnist

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Texas A&M men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon was signaling for his point guard Donald Sloan to dribble out the final seconds of the Aggies' 71-57 victory over Baylor late Wednesday night in Waco.

Sloan never saw the signal. Instead of killing the clock, he punctuated the much-needed Aggie victory with an assist and dunk all in one swoop.

In this case, they both had the right idea.

There was too much emotion stored up in Sloan's 6-foot-3 frame for him to pass on a chance of making the final statement in a rivalry that's heating up. After Baylor's five-overtime victory at Reed Arena and A&M's triumph at the Ferrell Center this season, the Battle of the Brazos has some bite to it on the hardwood.

Turgeon was taking a coach's politically correct view of things when he gave Sloan the signal to run out the clock. Walking toward the other coach's bench with a W in hand as the clock hit zero would have been gratifying enough for him.

"I didn't like it, didn't like it because the arena was already hostile," Turgeon said of Sloan's last-second dunk. "I mean, they are throwing bottles everywhere, which is ridiculous. [Sloan] didn't see me. I wish he wouldn't have shot it and let the clock go out."

That doesn't mean Turgeon didn't understand why Sloan did it.

Three weeks of answering questions and questioning themselves wasn't how the Aggies had envisioned the final half of the Big 12 season. Frustration and losses took the place of good times and wins.

With Baylor fans chanting "N-I-T!" before the game, the Aggies took the floor with an attitude that used to be a staple of their repertoire. That same us-against-the-world approach had carried the Aggies beyond the NIT to two NCAA Tournament berths over the past two seasons.

That style means allowing no easy baskets in the paint, setting solid screens and playing an in-your-face defense on the perimeter. It's never been dirty, just forceful and with a purpose.

A&M began showing that swagger more and more as the game's intensity grew close to crossing the line. But it didn't, and if not for the activities in the stands, the game would have been described as physical.

Remember that word: physical.

Not long ago, A&M's 6-foot-9, 255-pound Joseph Jones was voted the Big 12's strongest player by a popular magazine. No one wants to see what happened to Tweety Carter, but the screen Jones set that dropped the Baylor guard at midcourt displayed nothing more or less than the law of physics -- or what happens to a smaller man when he runs into a much bigger man.

The Aggies pounded their own chests as much as they did their opponents. If they were caught up in the moment or playing to the crowd, it was a welcome site for Aggie fans.

But it's a posture they must now back up. Bowing up on the middle of someone else's court is fine if it's who you are and not part of one-night stand.

• Richard Croome's e-mail address is richard.croome@theeagle.com.

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