The effort by the Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday should make Aggie fans appreciate what last season's team accomplished by winning at Allen Fieldhouse.

There's a reason Kansas is the Big 12 Conference's best program. Actually, there's about 15 reasons. The Jayhawks are so deep their reserves would start for most programs, including Texas A&M's.

Sherron Collins, one of Kansas' five Parade All-Americans, came off the bench to fuel the Jayhawks' 72-55 victory. He had 13 points and seven assists in 32 minutes.

The sophomore guard also had three of Kansas' 11 steals as the Jayhawks' dominated the perimeter with their quickness, using the defense to fuel easy baskets.

The Jayhawks scored 44 points in the paint, but that was misleading. Forward Darrell Arthur was dominating inside with 16 points, but Kansas controlled the lane by being smarter and quicker outside on offense, breaking down A&M's defense in the 15- to 18-foot range.

And Kansas' quickness on defense forced 15 A&M turnovers, which helped the Jayhawks to an 18-4 edge in fastbreak points.

The Jayhawks beat the Aggies downcourt too many times, too easily. Kansas had six layups in each half, attacking the basket with regularity.

A&M, meanwhile, had only three layups total.

Anytime the Aggies went inside, the Jayhawks surrounded the basketball. Points rarely came easy for the Aggies, much to the chagrin of an enthusiastic crowd with visions of seeing a repeat of last season's 69-66 Aggie victory.

A&M managed to pull within six points three times in the second half when Arthur sat out with three personal fouls.

Each time the crowd got to its feet, sounding ready for a Spring Break party on South Padre Island, Kansas kicked sand in its face. The Jayhawks had an answer for everything. Collins would come up with a steal, or the Jayhawks' active inside players would force a missed shot. Or Mario Chalmers would fly by a defender for a driving layup as A&M failed to provide help defense.

It was Kansas' most impressive road victory of the season.

"I think you develop your identity on the road," Kansas head coach Bill Self said.

A&M can relate, because last year's victory at Kansas remains huge for the program. That team played great defense, led in part by All-American Acie Law IV.

But it's been tough to maintain what the 2006-07 A&M team accomplished. This season's squad wasn't able to defend Reed Arena, only breaking even in eight league games.

A&M played hard Saturday, but it often didn't play smart. The Aggies missed 32 of 47 shots, many of them open looks, which made hanging with Kansas impossible.

A&M head coach Mark Turgeon said it would have been a different game had the Aggies hit a few more shots. He's right. But other than Beau Muhlbach, who hit his only shot, no A&M player made at least 50 percent of his attempts.

That's not good enough when you're playing a Top 10 team. You need at least one hoss to step up and others to jump on his coat tails.

Then again, maybe the best this team can be is a Top 20 squad, which wouldn't be that bad.

Time will tell, but time is also running out.

Self praised his senior class for its fourth straight Big 12 championship, but he knows that's not good enough when you are the league's best program.

"We're going to be judged by what we do in the postseason," he said.

So is A&M.

• Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theagle.com.