Texas A&M men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon hinted Wednesday at a change for the next game after the Aggies' slow starts in recent games.

However, Turgeon would not elaborate too much about the possible changes with the Aggies going on the road to play Texas on Saturday.

"We're going to try something different Saturday," Turgeon said at his weekly press conference. "I tell you guys everything, but I can't tell you this time."

Turgeon later hinted about going with A&M's five best defenders to start, but inconsistencies in that area make it hard to be certain who would start if he chooses that tactic. If the Aggies stay with two bigs, that approach would mean starting Bryan Davis and Chinemelu Elonu, since freshman David Loubeau is the only other big man and he's still learning on the defensive side.

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Look a lot like us: When Turgeon was asked if Texas reminded him of anybody he's seen this year, his answer was Texas A&M.

However, he gave an edge to Texas in many of the things that both teams do similarly.

"I think they are further along defensively," Turgeon said. "I think they have a few more gifted scorers than we do. UT plays a little bit faster than we've been playing

"They are going to hang their hat on defense every night."

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No break here: The early part of the Big 12 schedule hasn't been kind to A&M and Turgeon. The Aggies had to play their first five games against teams picked to finish in the top half of the standings. Three of those games were over a six-day period, a brutal stretch which meant the Aggies had five days to get ready for arch-rival Texas. Five days to prepare normally would be an advantage, but Texas had a bye in the middle of the week, so the Longhorns will have a week to prepare.

"That was disappointing. I was kind of hoping Texas played Wednesday and then I saw they had the whole week off," Turgeon said. "We're in the South, got to play everybody twice and you've got to play them some time. We just happened to play Kansas, the first team in the north, at their place, which didn't make it any easier."

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Not going to let weekend spoil it: A&M entered last Saturday's Oklahoma game with a 15-2 overall mark and a 1-1 Big 12 record. The Aggies were coming off their first win over a ranked team and headed into arguably their biggest weekend of the regular season. "Going into the Oklahoma game I couldn't have been more proud of this team," Turgeon said. "We had a bad 48 hours, lost to a No. 5 team at home then we go to KU, which is still Kansas, they have good players. I think we were all disappointed we lost the Oklahoma game, it's a home game with just the greatest crowd from start to finish. That could of put us maybe in the Top 25, coming off Baylor and then [No.6 OU], we'd be 16-2."

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Looking at both sides: The 73-53 loss at Kansas didn't look good for the Aggies from any angle, but Turgeon is not discouraged. "We haven't laid many eggs this year. We've competed every game," Turgeon said. "We haven't always played well, but we've played hard.

"I got text messages and e-mails from friends back there [saying] 'that didn't remind me of the way you played' and that really eats at you, but it's just been one time so I don't want to over-react."

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Freshmen improving: Loubeau showed more confidence in his offensive game on Monday against Kansas. Loubeau had four offensive rebounds and got to the line four times. He had seven points in his best Big 12 game offensively of the season.

Turgeon and Loubeau had a talk on Sunday that was basically about how fortunate Loubeau was to be the first guy coming off the bench on a team that was close to cracking the Top 25. Turgeon is still concerned about Loubeau's defense, but said he's vastly improved since stepping on campus.

Dash Harris doesn't have too many defensive worries and is running the team better every game he gets in. Turgeon likes the pace he brings to the game, but is still trying to convince Harris he doesn't have to shoot in order to help the Aggies or to stay on the floor. Two or three shots a game is all Turgeon wants from Harris.

"We run better when Dash is on the floor," Turgeon said. "Sometimes we execute better when he's on the floor."

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