KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It would be difficult to find a bigger gap between the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds in any tournament than the one that separates the women of Texas A&M and Texas.
The fourth-seeded Aggies own the Longhorns, and it was evident again Friday at Municipal Auditorium in a quarterfinal game of the Big 12 Tournament.
A&M's 77-64 victory made it eight in a row and 10 of 11 for the Aggies against Texas, and truth be told, A&M has taken the drama out of the series.
During that stretch, only two games have been decided by single digits -- one by nine points and another by seven. Two have been by more than 20 and the last six by double digits.
A&M's winning percentage is only .034 better than Texas', but the Longhorns look lost -- a couple of levels below the Aggies -- when the two teams square off.
It's all about matchups and styles. In this case, it's guard play that makes the difference.
A&M caused 26 turnovers Friday, making it an even 70 for the three games this season. Texas' inability to take care of the ball was so prominent in Kansas City that the Aggies led 34-30 at halftime despite shooting only 14 of 41 from the field and being outrebounded 24-22 in the opening 20 minutes.
"We had 15 turnovers in the first half, we weren't blown out, so I felt like we were in good position," Texas coach Gail Goestenkors said. "I didn't think we'd turn it over like that in the second half. I thought we would adjust."
Positive thinking on Goestenkors' part, but why would anything change? It was the same A&M guards going up against the same Texas guards, as it's been all year and for a couple of seasons now.
The only thing that changed in the second half was A&M started hitting shots, 15 of 32, and that is plenty when your opponent has 11 empty possessions.
It's been that way since Goestenkors arrived at Texas from Duke three years ago.
Texas guards can't handle the ball against A&M's tight, overplaying defense, and their passes to their McDonald's All-America post players are either batted away like a lock-down cornerback playing against an indecisive quarterback or picked off of by a weak-side defender.
"I think part of it is mental," Goestenkors said of whether the struggles against A&M have gotten into her players' heads. "But part of it is physical. We are not a good passing team, haven't been all year, and we are not a good ball-handling team."
Those words are like throwing meat in front of A&M assistant coach Vic Schaefer's defense.
A&M feeds off teams that don't or can't take care of the basketball, which describes the Longhorns to a T.
"I think it can be really frustrating when you go back and try to play a team and watch film and practice and prepare for the things they're going to throw at you and it's still tough to execute your offense," A&M guard Sydney Colson said.
Colson played 15 minutes and had two of the Aggies' 14 steals. She added six assists, one more than any Longhorn.
That's good guard play.
Both coaches were as politically correct as they could be without bashing anyone in particular, but it would be difficult to describe why this rivalry has become so lopsided without comparing the two teams' backcourts and the style in which they play.
It got worse for the Longhorns when they attempted to put pressure on the Aggies.
Full-court presses led to uncontested layups and pull-up jumpers for the Aggies, and when the Longhorns kept forcing the same entry passes the game got out of hand.
Blair was asked about the dominance over Texas earlier in the week. His response? Tell his athletics director.
On Friday, nobody had to do that. Bill Byrne witnessed it all from a few rows behind the Aggies' bench.
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