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Saturday’s game between Kansas and Missouri will go a long way toward deciding this year's Big 12 regular-season champion. Both teams have identical 12-2 conference records, but Missouri gets the nod in this week’s Conference Power Rankings because of its victory over the Jayhawks on Feb. 4 in Columbia.

1. Missouri: Frank Haith’s squad eked out another hard-fought road victory Saturday when it defeated Texas A&M 71-62 in College Station. The win was the seventh straight for the Tigers, who will try to avenge a Jan. 7 loss to Kansas State on Tuesday.

2. Kansas: The Jayhawks had an easy time with last-place Texas Tech in Saturday’s 33-point win. Forward Thomas Robinson continues to make a case for national player of the year honors. The junior is averaging 17.7 points and 11.8 rebounds.

3. Kansas State: Angel Rodriguez scored 15 points to lead the Wildcats to their best win of the season against Baylor on Saturday. The 57-56 victory upped Kansas State’s Big 12 record to 7-7 and will greatly enhance its resume on Selection Sunday. Two more tough tests await this week. The Wildcats visit Missouri on Tuesday and host Iowa State on Sunday.

4. Baylor: The Bears are in a downward spiral with losses in three of their past four games. Scott Drew’s team failed to score in the final two minutes of Saturday’s home defeat against Kansas State and looked completely disorganized and lost on its final two possessions. Getting healthy at Texas on Monday won’t be easy.

5. Iowa State: Scott Christopherson scored 25 points and Chris Allen added 16 in Saturday’s 80-69 victory over Oklahoma. At 9-5, the Cyclones are now tied with Baylor for third place in the Big 12 standings. Standout Royce White has had three single-digit scoring outputs in his past five games.

6. Texas: Saturday’s 90-78 loss to Oklahoma State in Stillwater snapped the Longhorns’ four-game winning streak. Texas was outscored from the free throw line 43-14. At 7-7 in league play, Rick Barnes’ team desperately needs a home win against Baylor on Monday to enhance its NCAA tournament hopes. Texas lost to the Bears 76-71 on Jan. 28 in Waco.

7. Oklahoma State: The Cowboys are the Big 12’s most improved team; especially when they play at home. Oklahoma State has now defeated Missouri, Texas, Iowa State, Texas Tech and Oklahoma in Stillwater. They still have home games remaining against Texas A&M and Kansas. Keiton Page had 40 points in Saturday’s win over Texas, when he was 20-for-20 from the foul stripe.

8. Texas A&M: The Aggies have lost five of their past six games, and with Kansas coming to town Wednesday, things may get worse before they get better. Point guard Dash Harris hasn’t played since Jan. 23 because of a foot injury. Elston Turner averages a team-high 14 points.

9. Texas Tech: The Red Raiders didn’t do much to capitalize on their Feb. 11 victory over Oklahoma. They turned in a dismal offensive performance in a 47-38 setback against Texas A&M on Tuesday before getting stomped by 33 points at Kansas on Saturday.

10. Oklahoma: The Sooners have lost six games in a row and eight of past last nine. Wednesday’s home game against Oklahoma State looks like a possible victory, as the Cowboys have been terrible on the road. Still, it’s been quite a collapse for a team that opened the season with wins in nine of its first 10 games.

Here are this week’s Big 12 power rankings:

1. Missouri: The Tigers have played the two toughest teams in the league (Kansas and Baylor) and defeated them both. Guard Marcus Denmon had made just five of his previous 31 attempts from 3-point range before going 6-for-9 from beyond the arc in Saturday’s win against Kansas.

2. Kansas: The Jayhawks blew an eight-point lead with just more than 2 minutes remaining in Saturday’s loss at Missouri, but with Baylor up next on Wednesday, there’s no time to mope about the loss. Kansas is 16-2 all-time against the Bears, who it defeated by 18 points last month at Allen Fieldhouse.

3. Baylor: The Bears’ Big 12 title hopes depend largely on what happens this week. Baylor hosts Kansas on Wednesday and travels to Missouri Saturday. Baylor’s only two losses are against those two teams. The Bears' offense looked sloppy and disorganized in last week’s victories over Texas A&M (63-60) and Oklahoma State (64-60).

4. Iowa State: The Cyclones won at Oklahoma Saturday despite getting just three points from leading scorer Royce White. Fred Hoiberg's squad has won five of its past six games overall and could continue that streak this week against Texas A&M and Oklahoma State.

5. Kansas State: The Wildcats got back on the winning track by defeating Texas A&M Saturday at home. And the good times should continue when Kansas State hosts Texas Tech on Tuesday. Leading scorer Rodney McGruder has made just four of his previous 20 3-point attempts.

6. Texas: Rick Barnes’ squad hasn’t caught many breaks in conference play. Texas’ six league losses have come by an average of five points. The Longhorns had lost five of their previous six games before defeating Texas Tech on Saturday. Monday’s road game against a beat up Texas A&M squad is winnable.

7. Texas A&M: The Aggies almost defeated Baylor without Khris Middleton and Dash Harris on Wednesday, and they led Kansas State at halftime before falling 64-53 Saturday in Manhattan. Considering all of the injuries, Texas A&M deserves credit for competing as well as it has.

8. Oklahoma: The Sooners have dropped four of their previous five games heading into Monday’s contest against Missouri. All of a sudden the team that got off to a 9-1 start is 3-7 in league play. Steven Pledger and Andrew Fitzgerald are averaging a combined 31.1 points.

9. Oklahoma State: Three weeks after losing to them by 41 points, Oklahoma State nearly upset the Baylor Bears before falling 64-60 Saturday in Stillwater. Freshman Brian Williams had 23 points in the loss. On Tuesday, Oklahoma State hosts the same Iowa State squad that it lost to on a buzzer-beater Jan. 18 in Ames.

10. Texas Tech: Last week’s home game against Oklahoma State appeared to be the Red Raiders’ best chance of picking up a Big 12 win. Instead, Billy Gillispie’s team was throttled 80-63. Jordan Tolbert leads Texas Tech in scoring with 11.9 points per contest. But he’s averaging just 6.3 points in his past three games.

Fran Fraschilla has a preview of the Old Spice Classic over on the College Basketball Experts Blog (Insider link).

Texas A&M joins Boston College, Wisconsin, Manhattan, Georgia, Georgia, Notre Dame, Temple and California at the three-day tournament, which tips off Thanksgiving Day in Orlando, Fla.

Fraschilla says the tournament is rich in point guard play and has this to say about A&M's tandem of Dash Harris and B.J. Holmes:

With the rock-steady duo of Donald Sloan and Derrick Roland departed after four of the best years in Aggies basketball history, it's up to Harris and Holmes to keep the show going for coach Mark Turgeon. While neither is a household name nationally, each knows how to win -- and that's really all that matters.

Texas A&M point guard Dash Harris is going to try to play Friday when the No. 5 Aggies open the NCAA tounament against No. 12 Utah State in Spokane, Wash.

Harris missed both Big 12 tournament games with a bone bruise on the outside of his right wrist. A&M coach Mark Turgeon said Harris saw a hand specialist on Saturday and returned to practice on Monday. Harris' wrist won't be pain-free, but the 6-foot-1 sophomore from Los Angeles will just have to deal with that.

His return helps the Aggies in two key areas: defensive pressure and offensive balance. Harris typically guards the opponent's top scoring guard, and with the ball in his hands he sets up A&M's halfcourt offense which allows B.J. Holmes, Harris' replacement in Kansas City, to concentrate more on scoring off the bench.

"Offensively, we flow better," Turgeon said.

Turgeon believes the Aggies are a different defensive team with Harris on the floor. A&M allowed opponents to shoot 41.1 percent during the regular season, so Turgeon was displeased in Kansas City after Nebraskas shot 50 percent and Kansas shot 56 percent. In their regular-season matchups, A&M limited Nebraska to 37 percent, while Kansas shot just 43.5 percent, using a late to run to overcome the Aggies.

"If we want to have any chance this weekend," Turgeon said, "we need to have Dash back and healthy."

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Texas A&M starting point guard Dash Harris missed both Big 12 tournament games with a bone bruise in his right wrist, but he said he'll be ready when the Aggies open play in the NCAA tournament Thursday or Friday.

"That's a lot of time off and with these couple of days that I had off," Harris said. "I'm just resting and rehabbing, icing up and stuff like that," Harris said. "That should be enough time off. I'm just taking it day by day and hoping it will get better."

B.J. Holmes played well in Harris' absence, but getting Harris back will allow coach Mark Turgeon to return to his usual rotation with Holmes coming off the bench. It will also ease foul-trouble situations such as in Friday's semifinal loss to Kansas. Turgeon had nowhere to turn when Donald Sloan was forced to the bench with three fouls at the 17:22 mark of the second half.

Sloan sat briefly twice in the second half and both times Kansas made runs.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Texas A&M will play without starting point guard Dash Harris because of a bone bruise in his right wrist suffered in the regular-season finale at Oklahoma, combined with ongoing tendinitis in the same wrist.

The fourth-seeded Aggies face No. 12 Nebraska at 2:05 p.m. in the quarterfinal round.

Harris averages 26.4 minutes and led the Big 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio before the tendinitis kicked in in early February. Harris was averaging 5.0 points and 3.0 assists, but more important, he's the club's floor lead. B.J. Holmes will get his fourth start of the year in Harris' place. Holmes, a 37.8-percent 3-point shooter, is averaging 9.2 points a game.