Kansas City, Mo. ? The court is not the only place where the Texas A&M Aggies are pulling off one of the great one-season turnarounds since the inception of the Big 12 Conference.

Look at those seats in Reed Arena. People are sitting in them.

Three times this year Billy Gillispie’s team has drawn record-breaking numbers at a place once known for relatively small, indifferent crowds.

A total of 13,136 crammed Saturday into Reed, and the Aggies gave them plenty to cheer. A&M outscored Bob Knight’s Texas Tech team by 23 points in the second half and romped to an 85-63 victory that raised their overall record to 18-7 and squared their conference mark at 7-7.

What a difference one year has made. Just about 12 months ago the Aggies lost 76-70 to Colorado in their final home game en route to an 0-16 conference record. On that day, only 5,479 bothered to show for what turned out to be Melvin Watkins’ last home game as the Aggies’ coach.

“I didn’t imagine that we could have established a home-court advantage like we have,” Gillispie said. “Everyone said that you could, but talk is not what I’m into. I thought we’d be able to do it, but I thought it would take a couple of years.”

The Aggies have two regular-season games left, at No. 4 Oklahoma State and at Baylor. Give them one win and one loss and then one more victory in the Big 12 tournament the following week and who knows? Gillispie’s rebuilding project could be far enough ahead of schedule for the Aggies to play in the postseason.

Compare the crowd and the energy Saturday at Texas A&M to the scene at Colorado.

Only 3,335 showed up at the Coors Events Center to see the Buffaloes waste a 30-point effort by freshman Richard Roby. Jeremiah Massey had 28 points and 19 rebounds, and Kansas State held on at the end for an 84-82 victory.

Colorado came up a bucket short of overtime when Marcus Hall’s driving layup rolled off the rim. Massey was happy Hall took the shot.

“Richard Roby was wide open on the wing for a three,” Massey said. “And I’m pretty sure he would have hit it.”

Colorado (13-13, 4-10) has lost its last four Big 12 games and fallen below Kansas State (15-10, 5-9) into 11th place.

Oklahoma’s arena was another happy place Saturday. The No. 22 Sooners celebrated senior night by shooting a team-record 66.1 percent and romping past last-place Baylor, 103-60. Jaison Williams had 15 points and 10 assists, and Johnnie Gilbert had 13 points in their final game at Lloyd Noble Center.

“I don’t know if you can script a better senior night,” OU coach Kelvin Sampson said.

Taj Gray scored 16 points, David Godbold added 14 and Terrell Everett 11 for Oklahoma (21-6, 10-4). It was the 11th straight loss for the Bears (9-16, 1-13), who only had five scholarship players available.

It was also an interesting day for Texas. In the first half, the Longhorns missed 26 of 32 shots. Then they started the second half with a 13-0 run en route to a 63-51 victory over Missouri.

“I told them I didn’t think it was possible we could shoot the ball any worse,” Texas coach Rick Barnes said. “You have to believe you’re not going to shoot 18 percent again.”

With two Big 12 games remaining, Texas (19-8, 8-6) is guaranteed to finish with at least a .500 league record. But this could be a tough week — Monday at home against No. 22 OU and Saturday at No. 4 Oklahoma State. The Longhorns are seeking their seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament bid.