“I was rather pleased with our effort and our concentration,” Watkins, the Aggies’ third-year coach said after the team’s fifth straight loss.

“When you just don’t have enough, you just don’t have enough, and I sure can’t take that out on our kids.”

Watkins said A&M didn’t have Kansas’ quantity or quality.

“When you’ve got McDonald’s All-Americans, Burger King All-Americans and all kinds of All-Americans, it’s difficult,” he said. “You look down the bench and they put in just another very, very good player and we don’t have that luxury right now.”

Earl Richardson/Journal-World Photo

In spite of the talent difference, the Aggies (6-11 overall, 0-5 Big 12) were down by two, 26-24, with just under nine minutes remaining in the first half, but the Jayhawks finished the half with a 24-9 run.

“At first we had the intensity,” A&M guard Bernard King said, “but then sooner or later they just kept pounding it and pounding it inside and we gave out a little bit.”

Many of KU’s points during the run came down low. KU big men Nick Collison and Drew Gooden paced all scorers with 19 points each and the Jayhawks outscored the Aggies, 48-26, in the paint.

“To their credit, that’s what they’re going to do,” Watkins said. “They’re big and they’re very good at getting it there. We don’t have the size and bodies to match up with them there, and that was definitely an advantage for Kansas.”

The Aggies had 41 rebounds including 20 on the offensive end to Kansas’ 49 boards.

“That’s something that we’d kind of gotten away from,” Watkins said of his team’s offensive rebounding. “It was good to see our guys come back out today and get back on it.”

King, the top returning scorer in the Big 12, scored 18 points to lead A&M. He made just five of 18 shots.

King was 1-for-7 in the first half and 4-for-11 in the second. As a team, the Aggies shot 38 percent in the first half and 29 percent in the second.

While the team had shooting problems, Watkins was looking for something his young team seven of the nine players who played were freshmen or sophomores could build on.

“We want is to find some way to find something positive out of this,” he said, “and what I told them was that I’m not disappointed with our effort and that’s what we want with this team. We’ve got to continue to give the effort each and every time out and we are getting better. Our record may not show it, but I see it in our play.”

King could also find a positive.

“It was a good experience,” he said. “Even though we lost, we never gave up and that’s the good thing about it. We played hard and we played through it. We know our day’s going to come one day. They’re a better team than us and we know that but our day’s coming.”