A&M stars’ seasons, dreams unfulfilled
Pitcher Lacy, guard Carter likely to be high draft picks if they turn pro early
COLLEGE STATION — With the start of baseball season only days away at the time in February, Texas A&M ace pitcher Asa Lacy addressed his straightforward approach to pitching — one the junior planned to employ to try and lift the Aggies to the College World Series.
“I like to keep it simple,” said Lacy, who added that the Aggies’ collective “blood was pumping” for the start of the season. “Just go out there each and every Friday night and give my team the best chance to win.”
Three weeks later, A&M’s other most prominent athlete this spring promised a fresh start for the women’s basketball team, which already was strong.
“We can make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament,” junior AllAmerican guard Chennedy Carter promised earlier this month. “My team is ready for anybody we face or anybody that steps in our way.”
Lacy and Carter, two rising stars who perhaps have played their final games for A&M, had no idea at the time their biggest foe this season would be a respiratory illness — COVID-19 — that has for the most part shut down the country.
The Southeastern Conference on Tuesday announced that all regular-season conference and nonconference competitions are canceled for the rest of this school year (through May). That includes SEC title contests and spring football games.
“Unprecedented times call for these measures, and we are navigating through unfamiliar territory,” A&M athletic director Ross Bjork said.
What exactly will A&M fans miss out on this spring? It starts with Carter’s No. 18 Aggies (22-8), who were as good as anybody in the country when they were at their best — aka when Carter, who’d returned to the lineup following an ankle injury, was at her best.
Should Carter turn pro, and that’s looked likely for some time, she projects as a top eight selection in the WNBA draft scheduled for April. Coach Gary Blair, who led A&M to a national title in 2011, should have a solid team again next year, but the Aggies are not the same without the dynamic Carter.
Also, the men’s team won five of seven games to close out the regular season under first-year coach Buzz Williams, and some longtime league observers were expecting the seventh-seeded Aggies (16-14) to make a run in last week’s SEC tournament in Nashville, Tenn., for a shot at the NCAA Tournament.
Meantime, Lacy projects as a top five selection in the baseball draft in June and was just getting rolling as the designated ace. Lacy has a good chance of becoming the Aggies’ first top five pick since fellow lefthander Jeff Granger was selected No. 5 in 1993 by the Kansas City Royals.
The Aggies’ baseball season ended at 15-3, with Lacy and No. 2 starter Christian Roa of Memorial High trying to lead the program back to the CWS in Omaha, Neb., for the first time in three years. They were scheduled to start SEC play last weekend at Auburn.
The A&M softball team, which has as rich a title history as any of the school’s programs, had started 17-9 and 1-2 in league play before shutting down. Another perennial national contender, Pat Henry’s track and field program, wrapped up with the women ranked third in the country and the men seventh.
Henry was the most publicly irate among the A&M coaches at the suspension of competition. The Aggies made their way back from Albuquerque, N.M., late last week after already arriving to the NCAA indoor championships.
“They could have started and finished these championships without effecting all these young people’s careers,” Henry said.
Finally, golfer Walker Lee of Houston made the shortened season one for the ages for the Aggies in winning the 2020 Cabo Collegiate in Los Cabos, Mexico, by a stroke after closing out play with a course record-tying 7-under 64.
“One of the best rounds of golf I’ve been around,” said coach J.T. Higgins, who led the A&M golf team to the 2009 national title. “He was the best guy by four shots in a final round against a great field filled with All-Americans.”
Now Lee, Higgins and everyone else sporting maroon are left wondering “what if” about their respective springs. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey understands their frustrations — right along with every other college athlete who didn’t earn the chance to close out a season or career.
“This is a difficult day for all of us,” Sankey said Tuesday, “and I’m especially disappointed for our student-athletes.”