Players’ safety ‘priority No. 1’ for Williams
COLLEGE STATION — Buzz Williams is preparing for his second season at Texas A&M, while bracing for what might come next in college basketball.
“I’m concerned,” Williams said Tuesday of whether the season will be played because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Everything is different. … We have to follow the medical experts and the guidance that they’ve given us. And safety and (the players’) well being has to be priority No. 1. So how is this going to play out?
“You’ve seen what’s happened over the last 30 hours.”
That was general commotion and some postponements as the NCAA desperately tries getting the ball rolling on a 2020-21 campaign, following a season that was cut short of the NCAA Tournament, a big-time moneymaker for the organization and college sports.
For their part, the Aggies, 16-14 last season, were scheduled to be in Sioux Falls, S.D., this week but opted out of a tournament with an opener against West Virginia scheduled for Wednesday. A&M instead will open against New Orleans on Sunday in Reed Arena before a small, spaced-out crowd.
“This is all unprecedented,” Williams said. “So we’re going to follow the guidance, and we’re going to continue to be as responsible as we can. How is this going to play out? I don’t know. But we have to be cautious.”
A&M fans had plenty of reason for optimism as last season pressed on. The Aggies finished 10-8 in SEC play, their first winning record in league competition in four years, in Williams’ first season.
The native Texan and former Marquette and Virginia Tech
coach was named the SEC coach of the year for his early showing with the A&M program, and the Aggies had designs on perhaps making the NCAA Tournament with what they hoped would be a solid showing in the SEC tournament in Nashville, Tenn.
A&M, like most other programs, never played a game in the postseason, however, because of the mushrooming pandemic, leaving Williams and his staff and players to begin preparing for the next season — and with valuable seniors Josh Nebo and Wendell Mitchell moving on.
“We’re more locked in,” A&M forward Savion Flagg said of the team’s approach this season in response to an unconventional last year. “We had just missed on a tournament we were supposed to play in … and now we just feel any game could be canceled on us. We’re just eager to (play).”
Flagg, a former Alvin High standout, and senior guards Quenton Jackson and Jay Jay Chandler are the program’s leaders. Flagg was named to the coaches’ All-SEC preseason second team, after averaging 10.4 points and 5.1 rebounds per game
last year.
“Our seniors are leading,” Flagg said, “and everyone else is following along.”
Williams, an assistant under then-A&M coach Billy Gillispie 15 years ago, said he appreciates his veterans’ approach in his second season.
“My favorite thing is how hard our returning guys have worked relative to incorporating the new kids,” Williams said. “Every day was brand new last year, and the returning guys have much more of an understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish.”
The Aggies in the offseason selfreported prohibited workouts in a church gymnasium during an NCAA mandatory shutdown period prompted by the pandemic. A&M athletic director Ross Bjork said in October the university was taking care of the matter “appropriately.”
“We’re very aware of everything as it happened and when it happened,” Williams said. “… We’ve handled it appropriately from the very beginning, and we’ll continue to handle it the right way.”
In addition, Williams said redshirt freshman guard Cashius McNeilly has opted out of playing this season. McNeilly, nephew of A&M associate head coach Jamie McNeilly, missed last season with a foot injury.
“His family is concerned about the pandemic, and rightfully so,” Williams said of McNeilly, who’s from Thornhill, Ontario. “He’s on scholarship and taking online classes. He will rejoin us next year, but he will not be with us this season.”
The Aggies, picked 11th out of 14 teams in the SEC preseason media poll, welcomed four freshman guards this fall comprising the nation’s No. 19 class via 247Sports.com: Hayden Hefner of Nederland, Hassan Diarra, Jaxson Robinson and LaDamien Bradford. Whether fans will get to enjoy the newcomers, including senior transfer forward and rebounding specialist Kevin Marfo, is another matter.
“All the kids are resilient to some degree, but … where is this going to be a week from today or a month from today?” Williams wondered of the upcoming season. “I don’t know.”