College Station, Texas ? Kansas University junior Keith Langford, who never has lost a Big 12 Conference regular-season basketball game in his home state of Texas, is taking nothing for granted heading into today’s league contest at Texas A&M.

“The teams in our league are all getting better,” said Langford, a Fort Worth, Texas, native who was part of victories at Texas Tech and Baylor last season and at A&M and Texas the year before.

“Kansas State, Colorado, Nebraska, the Texas schools … all of them, it’s a sign of how tough this league has become. You have to be ready every night.”

Yes, even against Texas A&M, a tradition-rich football school that takes records of 7-5 overall and 0-1 in league play into today’s hoops battle against KU (10-2, 2-0).

Tipoff is 3:05 p.m. at Reed Arena with a live telecast on ESPN (Sunflower Broadband Channel 48).

“I’ve had people tell me, ‘A&M will give you all you want and more. They will beat you if you are not ready,'” KU coach Bill Self said.

“It’s because of their talent level. They’ve got good players. They’ve got one guy as talented as anybody in our league — a superstar type player — in Antoine Wright.”

Wright, a 6-foot-7 guard/forward from San Bernardino, Calif., who averages 15 points and 4.1 rebounds a game, has made 61 of 156 shots (39.1 percent) including 23 of 75 three-pointers (30.7 percent).

The Aggies have two other double-digit scorers in 6-7 senior Jesse King, who averages 13 points and 5.8 rebounds, and senior center Andy Slocum, who contributes 10.2 points and 8.8 boards.

Self pointed out that the Aggies played well in an 82-77 loss to Missouri last weekend in Columbia, Mo.

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Texas A&M also has lost to Houston, Tennessee, Oakland (Mich.) and tiny Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with wins against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Alabama A&M, Prairie View A&M, Texas-San Antonio, Grambling, Louisiana-Monroe and Long Island.

“I told our players, when you study it, everybody in our league has somebody that’s good enough to kick your butt if you don’t bring it,'” Self said.

“A&M has guys good enough to kick our 4-man, 3-man or 2-man. You’ve got to bring it every day. Hopefully, we will, and we’ll be eager and ready to go with the same mindset as we had at Colorado.”

KU beat Colorado, 77-62, in its league opener Jan. 5 in Boulder, Colo., then clipped Kansas State, 73-67, Wednesday. KU didn’t receive much positive press for style points in the victory over KSU. The Wildcats cut a 14-point second-half deficit to four late.

“Everybody can say what they want,” Langford said. “Kansas is 2-0 in the conference.”

Which is exactly where the two-time defending-champion Jayhawks want to be.

“We have a chance to start 3-0 with two road wins,” Self said, stressing the word chance.

“Anybody in the league would sell out for that before the season started. Our guys have to understand this is the biggest game of the season, going to A&M. It will not be easy. Life on the road is not easy.”

A&M, by the way, is the only Texas school without a home win over KU since the inception of the Big 12.

“Hopefully,” junior forward Wayne Simien said, “we’ll take it down to College Station, be ready and get a good road win. They’re all tough in the Big 12, especially on the road.”