Issue date: 11/13/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Carlos Guerra Takia Starks, a senior guard on the Texas A&M women's basketball team, has stepped up to take a leadership role after the graduation of Morenike Atunrase and A'Quonesia Franklin. A&M Head Coach Gary Blair says Starks is the best shooting guard to ever play at A&M. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Battalion Admin New facilities, national rankings and rookie contributers headline the 2008-2009 Texas A&M basketball season. Seniors Takia Starks and Josh Carter are set to lead the Aggies. [Click to enlarge]

When senior guard Takia Starks joined the Texas A&M women's basketball team in 2005, she was shy.

"When I first came in I was a bit shy, and wouldn't talk as much," Starks said. "Now it's crazy, I'll be walking through campus or out and about and people will recognize me. I got to meet a lot of great people here."

That recognition has come from Starks' emergence as a team leader on the Aggie basketball squad. When A&M lost key players Morenike Atunrase and A'Quonesia Franklin to graduation after the 2007-2008 season, Starks was ready to take a leadership role and become the poster girl of the team.

Starks is ranked fifth all-time in scoring at A&M and fourth in career field goals and three-pointers made. After her senior season, she is likely to be drafted to the Women's National Basketball Association.

After the 2007-2008 season, she won the Big 12 Most Outstanding Player award and was named to the Big 12 all-tournament team for her work in leading the Aggies to a Big 12 tournament championship.

In October, Starks was named to The Sporting News All-American team as a first team selection. She is the first Aggie to be named to a pre-season All-American squad.

Despite her individual accolades, Starks has remained humble and dedicated to her work and progression.

"The All-American award, which was a personal goal for me, no one at A&M has ever been up for it so it was an honor," Starks said. "I'm going to try to run the team, maybe not as good as [A'Quonesia] did but I'll try to do her proud in my own little way.

"I haven't been thinking too much about it. Every day someone reminds me about it, but I take that and use it to drive myself even harder than I've been working. Working hard for so long all these years at A&M to be blessed with an honor like that, it's tremendous."

A&M Head Coach Gary Blair said Stark's accolades are a reflection of the team as a whole and that, while Starks has worked hard to get to where she is today, part of her awards should go to her teammates.

"She makes everyone else on the team better, but to get her screens she better go give a piece of her award to Micheaux who's setting her up or give a piece to Aqua who gave her so many assists in transition," Blair said. "I believe it's an individual award but she will share it with the team because they helped her along the way to get better. When an individual is up for awards, I believe the team is up for an award. An individual would not be noticed unless her team was in the Top 20 or Top 25, that's just the way things go. I think that she represents all of us."

Blair said Starks was the best shooting guard to ever play at A&M. He said during the 35 years A&M has had a women's basketball team, there has never been a guard as complete as Starks.

"She brings it every day," Blair said. "She's a quite an assassin with that jump shot of hers, she's just so textbook."

In the 2007-2008 season, Starks played shooting guard but will make the change to point guard.

"I'm playing the point guard spot so I want to keep the turnovers down," said Starks. "I want to shoot 50 percent from the two, and 40 percent from the three, those are my targets for the season."

While Starks has personal goals, she is far more concerned about the upcoming season and the team. In the 2007-2008 season, Starks was instrumental in helping the Aggies have one of the best seasons in program history, reaching the Elite Eight and almost upsetting the eventual champion Tennessee.

"We want to get to the Final Four," Starks said. "We have a lot of new freshmen so we want to get them in, work the offense. We want to keep our shooting percentage up and improve our rebounding. In a perfect world, we're beating Texas twice, Baylor twice, [Oklahoma] twice, getting the Big 12 championship and tournament championship, getting all the trophies we can. It's definitely possible, anything is possible."

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