Photo by Andrew Kilzer, TexAgs
Texas A&M Basketball
“I was blessed to get to go play in four different countries. I went to Iceland for a bit, then Japan. Then I stopped over in Europe for Luxembourg and Malta for the last four seasons. It was awesome, a great experience. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. My wife and I had such a wonderful time. It was a great four years. Iceland was cold. It was a good time. They’re a different culture, and you just learn. My first time – obviously, being from Texas, you don’t live in snow that much. It was my first time living in snow and driving with snow tires. It was a different experience that I never would have gotten to do had I not gone. I think while I was there they had the worst winter as far as the amount of snow they had in the past 30 years or so. Lucky me. It was freezing a lot. I know that. It rained a lot, kind of like Seattle. It just kind of rained a lot, and at night it kind of iced over. It was a slushy winter instead of pretty, white snow.”
“My wife, Jacy, enjoyed Japan. They were very fashionable and hip. They had a lot of trends, and I know she enjoyed the fashion and the culture over there more than – it wasn’t as cold. Over in Europe and Iceland they wear a lot of jackets and a lot of sweaters. It’s hard to make too much fashion out of jackets, beanies and long pants. As far as fashion, I think she really enjoyed the culture there in Japan.”
“I’ve been trying to make it to an Aggie basketball game. Life always gets in the way. Hopefully here in December or early January, I’ll get to make it to a game. I followed them all the way down there in Atlantis. I’ve been keeping up with them. Of course, they could have pulled that last one out against Syracuse. That would have been big going forward. But hey, we beat Texas the first time we’ve gotten to play them in five years and the however-many times before that that we lost to them. That win there and that win over Gonzaga – the program’s going in the right direction. The whole program is going one-hundred percent now.”
“My whole family were Aggies. Even though they didn’t push me to go there, I just always wanted to come to A&M to be a student. I saw my older brother go, and he was a student. He, for Christmas, would give me little A&M gifts or explain all the yells. I just kind of had that Aggie spirit in my blood. Then it was like, ‘Hey, do you want to come on scholarship and play basketball?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, of course!’”
“The Aggies went to the Sweet Sixteen the year before I got there during my senior year of high school. When they went to the Sweet Sixteen, it was just a whole different mindset that we could be really good. We got some good recruiting classes, and it just all built up. It was just a good situation for me to be in.”
“It was an honor to be recruited by Billy Gillispie. ‘Aw man, this guy wants me to come play at A&M? They just got out of the Sweet Sixteen. Are you sure?’ It was pretty cool. He told me his plan for me and what he liked. It kind of fit. Funny recruiting story – Coach Turgeon flew down and wanted me to go to Wichita State. Actually, we really liked that relationship with Turgeon and where that was going, but it was all the way in Kansas. It kind of worked out well. I chose to play for Gillispie and continue that legacy that you had going. It stinks that he left, but I really wanted to play for Coach Turgeon up in Wichita too, so it worked out for the best.”
“College basketball was the best four years of my life. Just to say that we were able to make four NCAA Tournament appearances is a blessing in itself. Not many people get to do that. It was awesome to know that we carried on A&M’s path. We kept it going the right direction.”
“I think Mark Turgeon is just a brilliant coach. He just knows how to get his players to do what he knows will make them successful. He was able to take Joseph Jones and Dominique Kirk and help them lead in his new system. Guys like Josh Carter and Bryan Davis and Donald Sloan and Derrick Roland – they all bought in. That was really big, and you had the older guys and upperclassmen saying, ‘Hey, we want to keep this thing going. New guys, here’s the old way we did it, and here’s how we’re buying into this new system.’ It was just a good fit and a good way to carry on.”
“I remember The Baptism being the first time I was like, ‘Man, I really don’t like Baylor.’ We lost that heartbreaker earlier in the year and Sloan put that away. The rubber chickens and Dr. Pepper bottles came flying in. I think somebody threw a hamburger. Man, that felt so good. Looking back, my little brother, Tom, played Baylor this year at SFA. We told him to do The Baptism if he could. ‘We don’t care. Do it if you can.’ He didn’t get the chance, but it’s a good memory knowing we did that to Baylor.”
“There’s a point that you realize that you’ve got to play with confidence. Of course, you come in a little nervous. ‘Where am I going to fit in?’ Josh Carter just came off leading the nation in three-point shooting. I’m his backup. You just realize that you need to step up and play well. Your point guard is giving you confidence. Your big men are saying, ‘Let’s do this.’ You do what you’re called upon to do. You don’t want to be the weak link of the team, so you just step up and say, ‘I can do this.’”
“There’s nothing like a walk-off. I get a lot of credit for the Arizona game sophomore year. It was a big shot, and then I realized that was my only three-pointer for the game. Derrick Roland and Sloan led the way for that game. It was a glorified moment. I loved it. It was awesome. It was cool to be on SportsCenter, and then we moved on to the next game. It’ll always be one of my favorite memories.”
“Losing to Purdue was really heartbreaking, and so was the end of that season. I remember that one and the UCLA game. Those are two games where we were like, ‘We’re better than this team. We have this.’ Josh banked in a shot that bounced off the backboard. Everything just all fell into place in both of those games, and all of a sudden it was taken away from you at the end. That hope – all of a sudden, it was like, ‘It was there. We had it.’ There’s a next round, but we fall two points or four points short. Those are both heartbreaking. We had it there, and it got away from us.”
“B.J. Holmes made a lot of big shots. The one against Colorado my senior year was obviously one of the bigger ones. That got some momentum going. I think we had a team meeting that weekend just to say, ‘Hey guys, we’ve got to turn this around. This has got to mean something to you.’ It’s fitting that B.J. stepped up and hit a big shot. That got us back going on the right track. Turgeon’s coaching job that year – we were a small, gritty team. That was probably his least talented offensive team at the time, and we found a way to win. We won games and got to the Tournament for the fourth time in a row.”
“It’s cool to tell people that I played with Khris Middleton. I say, ‘Hey, I played with Khris! He’s two years younger than me.’ It’s exciting to see him. I’m really hyped for all the Aggies in the NBA right now. They’re all good people. It’s exciting to see them carry Texas A&M into the NBA a little bit.”
Aggie Flashback with former A&M forward Nathan Walkup
Key quotes from Nathan Walkup interview
“These days I’m working down at our family’s metal fabrication company. I’m just working, doing some engineering and learning the ropes here with the family. I’m growing, saving some money and taking married life one day at a time.”“I was blessed to get to go play in four different countries. I went to Iceland for a bit, then Japan. Then I stopped over in Europe for Luxembourg and Malta for the last four seasons. It was awesome, a great experience. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. My wife and I had such a wonderful time. It was a great four years. Iceland was cold. It was a good time. They’re a different culture, and you just learn. My first time – obviously, being from Texas, you don’t live in snow that much. It was my first time living in snow and driving with snow tires. It was a different experience that I never would have gotten to do had I not gone. I think while I was there they had the worst winter as far as the amount of snow they had in the past 30 years or so. Lucky me. It was freezing a lot. I know that. It rained a lot, kind of like Seattle. It just kind of rained a lot, and at night it kind of iced over. It was a slushy winter instead of pretty, white snow.”
“My wife, Jacy, enjoyed Japan. They were very fashionable and hip. They had a lot of trends, and I know she enjoyed the fashion and the culture over there more than – it wasn’t as cold. Over in Europe and Iceland they wear a lot of jackets and a lot of sweaters. It’s hard to make too much fashion out of jackets, beanies and long pants. As far as fashion, I think she really enjoyed the culture there in Japan.”
“I’ve been trying to make it to an Aggie basketball game. Life always gets in the way. Hopefully here in December or early January, I’ll get to make it to a game. I followed them all the way down there in Atlantis. I’ve been keeping up with them. Of course, they could have pulled that last one out against Syracuse. That would have been big going forward. But hey, we beat Texas the first time we’ve gotten to play them in five years and the however-many times before that that we lost to them. That win there and that win over Gonzaga – the program’s going in the right direction. The whole program is going one-hundred percent now.”
“My whole family were Aggies. Even though they didn’t push me to go there, I just always wanted to come to A&M to be a student. I saw my older brother go, and he was a student. He, for Christmas, would give me little A&M gifts or explain all the yells. I just kind of had that Aggie spirit in my blood. Then it was like, ‘Hey, do you want to come on scholarship and play basketball?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, of course!’”
“The Aggies went to the Sweet Sixteen the year before I got there during my senior year of high school. When they went to the Sweet Sixteen, it was just a whole different mindset that we could be really good. We got some good recruiting classes, and it just all built up. It was just a good situation for me to be in.”
“It was an honor to be recruited by Billy Gillispie. ‘Aw man, this guy wants me to come play at A&M? They just got out of the Sweet Sixteen. Are you sure?’ It was pretty cool. He told me his plan for me and what he liked. It kind of fit. Funny recruiting story – Coach Turgeon flew down and wanted me to go to Wichita State. Actually, we really liked that relationship with Turgeon and where that was going, but it was all the way in Kansas. It kind of worked out well. I chose to play for Gillispie and continue that legacy that you had going. It stinks that he left, but I really wanted to play for Coach Turgeon up in Wichita too, so it worked out for the best.”
“College basketball was the best four years of my life. Just to say that we were able to make four NCAA Tournament appearances is a blessing in itself. Not many people get to do that. It was awesome to know that we carried on A&M’s path. We kept it going the right direction.”
“I think Mark Turgeon is just a brilliant coach. He just knows how to get his players to do what he knows will make them successful. He was able to take Joseph Jones and Dominique Kirk and help them lead in his new system. Guys like Josh Carter and Bryan Davis and Donald Sloan and Derrick Roland – they all bought in. That was really big, and you had the older guys and upperclassmen saying, ‘Hey, we want to keep this thing going. New guys, here’s the old way we did it, and here’s how we’re buying into this new system.’ It was just a good fit and a good way to carry on.”
“I remember The Baptism being the first time I was like, ‘Man, I really don’t like Baylor.’ We lost that heartbreaker earlier in the year and Sloan put that away. The rubber chickens and Dr. Pepper bottles came flying in. I think somebody threw a hamburger. Man, that felt so good. Looking back, my little brother, Tom, played Baylor this year at SFA. We told him to do The Baptism if he could. ‘We don’t care. Do it if you can.’ He didn’t get the chance, but it’s a good memory knowing we did that to Baylor.”
“There’s a point that you realize that you’ve got to play with confidence. Of course, you come in a little nervous. ‘Where am I going to fit in?’ Josh Carter just came off leading the nation in three-point shooting. I’m his backup. You just realize that you need to step up and play well. Your point guard is giving you confidence. Your big men are saying, ‘Let’s do this.’ You do what you’re called upon to do. You don’t want to be the weak link of the team, so you just step up and say, ‘I can do this.’”
“There’s nothing like a walk-off. I get a lot of credit for the Arizona game sophomore year. It was a big shot, and then I realized that was my only three-pointer for the game. Derrick Roland and Sloan led the way for that game. It was a glorified moment. I loved it. It was awesome. It was cool to be on SportsCenter, and then we moved on to the next game. It’ll always be one of my favorite memories.”
“Losing to Purdue was really heartbreaking, and so was the end of that season. I remember that one and the UCLA game. Those are two games where we were like, ‘We’re better than this team. We have this.’ Josh banked in a shot that bounced off the backboard. Everything just all fell into place in both of those games, and all of a sudden it was taken away from you at the end. That hope – all of a sudden, it was like, ‘It was there. We had it.’ There’s a next round, but we fall two points or four points short. Those are both heartbreaking. We had it there, and it got away from us.”
“B.J. Holmes made a lot of big shots. The one against Colorado my senior year was obviously one of the bigger ones. That got some momentum going. I think we had a team meeting that weekend just to say, ‘Hey guys, we’ve got to turn this around. This has got to mean something to you.’ It’s fitting that B.J. stepped up and hit a big shot. That got us back going on the right track. Turgeon’s coaching job that year – we were a small, gritty team. That was probably his least talented offensive team at the time, and we found a way to win. We won games and got to the Tournament for the fourth time in a row.”
“It’s cool to tell people that I played with Khris Middleton. I say, ‘Hey, I played with Khris! He’s two years younger than me.’ It’s exciting to see him. I’m really hyped for all the Aggies in the NBA right now. They’re all good people. It’s exciting to see them carry Texas A&M into the NBA a little bit.”
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