Starks’ struggles symbolic of Aggies’ fall
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M’s Billy Kennedy, typically a patient sort, had finally fielded enough questions and absorbed enough amateur analysis concerning TJ Starks, and exactly what is going on in his sophomore guard’s head.
“I’m not a psychologist,” Kennedy said Friday. “You’re getting deeper and deeper, and it’s over my head. If I could figure it out, believe me, it would be working.”
With his team 1-8 in the Southeastern Conference halfway through league play, Kennedy was being interrogated on a couple of fronts: What is wrong with Starks, and why can’t his Aggies hold a lead?
“If I had the answers,” he said with a shrug, “we’d be winning games.”
The Aggies (8-13, 1-8) play at Missouri (11-10, 2-7) at 5 p.m. Saturday, in trying to salvage a seemingly lost season less than a year after a Sweet 16 showing in the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s a long season, and we’ve been going through the grind and adversity,” A&M guard Wendell Mitchell said. “We all have to just stick together.”
Watched loss from the bench
Sticking together has been one of the Aggies’ most difficult tasks, because of what Kennedy considers Starks’ occasionally wayward ways on the court — ways that left him benched for much of a 75-71 loss at Mississippi on Wednesday.
“I just chose not to play him after the first five or six minutes,” Kennedy said of Starks, his lone holdover from last year’s starters in the NCAA Tournament. “I thought we could get better play from some of the other guys — give them an opportunity to play.”
The Aggies led by nine in the second half at Mississippi before falling by four. It’s been a recurring theme for the team this season: Lead late, lose a bit later.
“We turned it over down the stretch, and we hadn’t done that the previous 37 minutes,” Kennedy said of the Aggies’ most recent crumple. “I thought we did a pretty good job for the most part. When the game is on the line, you have to do a better job of executing and getting good shots.”
With the game on the line Wednesday, Starks wore a warm-up shirt and was not part of the action. It’s not the first time this season his minutes have been limited after a kerfuffle with the coaches.
“It’s really not (always) basketball related,” Kennedy said of Starks’ handful of seatings. “It may be effort or execution-wise; demeanor and body language. Those things are important to me. He’s accepted responsibility and pushed through it.”
After playing 38 minutes in the Aggies’ 93-76 home loss to topranked Tennessee a week ago, Starks wound up with six minutes against the Rebels four days later, all early in the game. Kennedy said as of Friday he intends for Starks to play at Missouri, but wasn’t certain whether he’d start.
“We’ll find out in the game how he reacts,” Kennedy said. “… I think he’s back on track.”
Two teams going nowhere
The Aggies are angling to avenge their most embarrassing league loss of the season, a 66-43 Missouri triumph in Reed Arena on Jan. 19. The Tigers won their first league game in four tries at that time and have since won one more over their next five SEC games.
“We’re kind of beat up physically and obviously mentally, when you’re not winning games,” Kennedy said. “But I think for the most part we’re fighting through it and keeping our attitudes in the right direction. Hopefully that all leads to a win, but sometimes you can play as hard as you can and play well and still not have enough, and sometimes that’s happened to us.”
Following the Missouri game, the Aggies play two of their next three at home, against Georgia on Tuesday and against Alabama on Feb. 19. Despite his myriad setbacks, Starks led the Aggies to their lone SEC victory, when he banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer at Alabama on Jan. 12.
“At the end of the day we just have to keep going, and we want to pull him along, also,” Mitchell said of Starks. “We’re just glad to have him back (in the lineup), and back on the right track.”