Norman, Okla. ? Winner of three of the first six regular-season Big 12 Conference championships, the Kansas University men’s basketball team wants another title this season.

The Jayhawks (20-5 overall, 10-1 Big 12), who enter a 3 p.m. contest today at Oklahoma (18-4, 9-2) in sole possession of first place, know road wins result in conference success.

Under coach Roy Williams, whose teams also won five of the final six Big Eight Conference crowns, KU is 40-13 in Big 12 road games.

That’s eight games better than runner-up Oklahoma, 33-21 on the road the past six-plus seasons. Texas is the only other Big 12 school with a winning road record in league play — 30-24 after Saturday’s loss at Oklahoma State.

“I enjoy going to somebody else’s place and having a chance to win,” Williams said. “I told our team one of the greatest pleasures is doing something somebody says you are unable to do. I do enjoy going to somebody’s place and trying to beat them.”

The other league teams have lost more than they’ve won on the road: Oklahoma State (26-28), Missouri (16-37), Iowa State (16-38), Texas Tech (14-40), Nebraska (12-42), Colorado (12-42), Baylor (7-47), Texas A&M (6-47), and Kansas State (4-50).

Today, Kansas will try to halt Oklahoma’s 35-game home-court winning streak, the longest home streak in the country. KU was the last team to win in Lloyd Noble Center, 69-61, Jan. 13, 2001.

“Playing them down at their place is evidently really, really difficult, because they’ve won a lot of games in a row there,” Williams said. “I don’t think I have to mention it. I think our players know about it. You know, we had a pretty good winning streak here (Allen Fieldhouse) this year, but we played a bad second half against Arizona, and then all of a sudden, that thing’s over with.”

KU had a 26-game home win streak snapped by Arizona on Jan. 25.

“I think we’ll talk about Oklahoma’s team. We’ve won down there,” said Williams, 6-5 at Noble. “That building has never beaten us, but those players are what we’re going to talk about. They have a wonderful building. They have a wonderful following and all that, but what wins those games is the guys between the lines.”

Of OU’s streak, sophomore Keith Langford said: “That would be great if we can go down there and break that streak. All streaks have to come to an end, as we unfortunately know. If we play Kansas basketball and play like we’re capable of, I think that streak will stop at 35.”

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Slow-paced game?: Kansas averages 84.8 points a game, Oklahoma 72.7. KU allows 66.7 points, OU 59.6.

“They are known for slowing the game down,” said KU forward Wayne Simien, who is expected to play in his third straight game today after missing 11 straight because of a dislocated right shoulder.

“Last year in the Big 12 tournament it seemed the game was in slow motion,” he said of OU’s 64-55 victory at Kemper Arena. “OU is really not touted for its offense. They are definitely the toughest team we’ll have faced, along with Texas.”

OU’s two leading scorers are Hollis Price (19.3 ppg) and Ebi Ere (14.7). KU counters with Nick Collison (18.9), Kirk Hinrich (17.8), Simien (15.6) and Langford (15.5).

“It’s not just the defense that makes games low-scoring. I’ve said that forever. It’s teams that are patient on the offensive end,” Williams said. “You have both of those at Oklahoma because they try to get really good shots. They will pass the ball awhile until they get really good shots, and then they’re going to guard your rear end off. Most of our games, I would think, against a team that likes to get great shots like that and likes to play really good hard-nosed defense will be low-scoring.

“We’ve just got to do a better job of our half-court offensive execution, and then, you know, we’re not bad defensively ourselves. We’ve got to do a better job than we did the last 12 minutes of the game against Colorado (94-87 KU win on Wednesday) because that was pretty sickening. If we play defense like we did those last 12 minutes, it will be a real high-scoring game, but it will just be on their side.”

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Advantage, Kansas?: It has been mentioned KU could have an edge in the league race because the Jayhawks play North Division teams two times. The South teams appear stronger this year.

“We can’t help that we we’re going to Kansas and we’re in the top half,” Langford said. “Geographic location or whatever, that’s not our problem. If they want to use that as an excuse, that’s a cop out.”

Of the controversy, Williams said: “We’re one league. I think that there’s no doubt in my mind that Texas, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma are fantastic basketball teams. But Iowa State went through the league two years in a row and only lost, I think, one game a year for two years and then we (Kansas) went through it undefeated last year. So it keeps changing every year. I don’t listen to that (theory). You have to play everybody.”