DENVER — Texas A&M basketball coach Buzz Williams said Friday he has had discussions with Aggies guard Jace Carter, as well as Carter’s parents and teammates about Carter’s revelation he had been the target of death threats and racial slurs on social media this season.
Texas A&M advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament with an 80-71 win over Yale Thursday night in Ball Arena. After the victory, in an interview with KBTX-TV, Carter outlined how it had been “a long year” for him.
“It’s been crazy,” Carter said in the locker room interview. “Been getting death threats, people calling me racial slurs, all types of stuff because I’m missing free throws, missing shots. If you’re a little kid and not mentally strong it can mess you up, but I feel like I try to approach it like a grown man.”
The senior guard played nine minutes in Thursday’s win over the Bulldogs and finished 10 points.
“I’m just happy I could help us win,” Carter added in the interview. ” … It’s hard, especially when it’s coming from your own fanbase … it does get challenging at times, but at the end of the day I’m comfortable with who I am as a man, who I am as a basketball player.”
Williams was asked Friday about Carter’s comments as well as his players’ participation in social media overall.
“Yeah, it’s been a topic that has been more prevalent than ever in my career,” Williams said. “But I have spent more time with our players on their reaction of others than I ever have. I think that’s probably what comes with this now, the opinion of others seems to influence so much of decision-making.
” … I’ve tried to handle that right with Jace’s dad, Jace’s mom. Just so that you don’t think that it’s (just) Jace, that conversation has happened with multiple players within our organization multiple times … That’s why I’ve kind of quit social media, just because of the things that were coming towards me. It’s just dangerous.”
Williams said he has tried to advise his players how to handle all they might see about themselves on social media, including what they may post themselves. He added he had “two conversations today about it” in reaction to what Carter had revealed after Thursday’s game.
“I think when you’re 22 and you’ve grown up with a screen, you can’t tell ’em ‘don’t look’,” Williams said. “But you have to try to find ways to educate them on how to handle it. I think the thing that bothers our group, and all groups, is when it’s coming from what they think are on the inside, I think that’s where their heart posture changes, like, I thought they were cheering for us … I think because we’ve tried to handle it in a very open way, our guys feel comfortable talking to me about it. I just transparently in the conversation try to discern what I believe is right, if my children were saying it to me.”
Carter has played the last two seasons for Texas A&M after two seasons at University of Illinois-Chicago, with six starts and 32 games played this season. He averaged 3.9 points per game in his 17.2 minutes per game this year.
The Aggies will face Michigan Saturday at Ball Arena in the second round of the South regional.
