Billy Gillispie never wavered about how to make his Texas A&M teams better. He pushed, prodded and pounded. When someone pushed back, he punished.

Just ask Acie Law IV, who found himself running stairs last season, while his teammates practiced without him. The same Acie Law who just had his No. 1 jersey raised to the rafters.

Maybe it’s not in Mark Turgeon to take the same approach.

After all, we never would have heard Gillispie utter the words Turgeon did after a record-setting, 64-37 loss at Oklahoma on Saturday:

“This team has just worn me out trying to figure them out,” he said.

Gillispie would have simply started another boot camp.

Turgeon reads books by Dean Smith and John Wooden to find answers. He’s tried being positive – showing his players film clips of nothing but highlights. That resulted in a 65-59 loss at home to Nebraska, a loss Turgeon called at the time his team’s “worst game of the year.”

He’s been rough with them, replacing starters in favor of backups who performed well in practice. That seemed to help leading up to a 44-point victory over Texas Tech on Wednesday.

Then came a trip to Norman and an NCAA-record scoring drought of 16:12 in which the Aggies went 0-of-20 from the 12:51 mark of the first half to the 16:39 mark of the second. A&M shot 25.5 percent while recording a Big 12 record-low 10 first-half points and finished with 18 turnovers and only one assist.

Now, the Aggies have lost four of five and are back on the NCAA Tournament bubble at 21-8 and 7-7 in Big 12 play with games at Baylor and home against Kansas this week.

Gillispie has battled injury after injury at Kentucky this season, and his Wildcat players were slow to adapt to his unrelenting style. That was evidenced by a 7-9 start. But Gillispie’s team has won nine of its last 11 and is 10-4 in the Southeastern Conference.

After A&M’s no-show in Norman, Turgeon sounded passive aggressive in how to get through to his players – talented players, including one of the best frontcourts in the Big 12.

“I’m at a loss,” Turgeon said. “I can’t believe the way we played. One mistake after another. Not playing with much intelligence. We’ve got guys with a deer-in-the-headlights look, and it’s too late in the season for that. If I had an answer, I wouldn’t let it happen.”

In Turgeon’s defense, he has some upperclassmen who learned how to win under Gillispie in seniors Joe Jones and Dominique Kirk and junior Josh Carter of. At some point, player leadership has to kick in.

The Aggies have shown they can put it all together in victories against Washington, Ohio State, Texas and Texas Tech this season.

But against an Oklahoma team playing with both of its big men – Longar Longar and Blake Griffin – struggling with leg and knee injuries, the Aggies made rookie mistakes.

A&M can look at this week one of two ways: The Aggies can stress out about a road trip to Baylor (and a rematch of the college season’s most incredible and untelevised five-OT game) and panic about a chance to take on the sixth-ranked Jayhawks at home Saturday.

Or the Aggies can say, “Bring it on.”