Aggie Flashback with former A&M basketball player Joe Wilbert

Key quotes from Joe Wilbert interview

“My son is a sophomore at The Woodlands now. As a matter of fact, they’re doing great as a team at 21-5, 5-1 in district. It’s a blessing and it is just so great to watch my son play. Sometimes, I sit in the stands and just think, ‘Wow, I have a son that plays basketball.’ So it is amazing, and I’m enjoying being a father and supporting him on and off the court. Right now, I’m just wanting him to get better, but his mom and I talk about his college periodically. I would love for him to be an Aggie, if he’s good enough to go there. But, it is his choice and I’ll support him wherever he goes. I just told him there is one place you cannot go and that is the University of Texas. He is not going there. I looked him dead in the eyes, like a job interview and said, ‘You are not going to the University of Texas.’ So that isn't happening.”

“This A&M team is great. They’re 17-2, ranked number five in the country and I’ll let the Aggie world know right now, this is one of the most important week’s coming up right now. They’ve got Arkansas on the road, which is a tough place to win. Then, if we can beat Iowa State at home, I could see us running the table. We’ve got to go on the road to Vanderbilt, I think South Carolina was a bit overrated, so this is a big week for us. If we ran the table this week, I could see us going really high.”

“Billy Kennedy is a great guy, a first class guy. He’s very religious and just a lovable guy. Every time I visit with him our conversations are great. One of the best things about this turnaround is that it’s being done by a local guy in Alex Caruso. I could’ve played with him because this kid competes. He’s my favorite player because he competes. It’s not about scoring 30 points or getting rebounds, for him it is about competing. I would have loved to play with that guy when I was at A&M.”

“Jalen Jones is like me in the sense that he’s very competitive and is a great rebounder. He brings a lot of energy to the court, but the key to this team isn't Jones, House or Caruso, it’s Davis. If he plays good, everybody else plays good. I think if Jones or House have 30 points, we can still lose. But, if Davis has 15-18 points, he opens up everything else for the other guys like Jones or Caruso. He’s the key to our team. Davis allows Jones to freelance out there and shoot threes, post up when he needs to, shoot from the elbow or the wing. But, when Davis isn't playing well, Jones has to go play in the post.”

“When my team started conference play 7-0, I remember us having a big win at home versus Texas. Once that happened, it propelled us to great heights. It reminds me of the win we had at Tennessee this season. That got the guys thinking, ‘Okay. We are good and we can beat these people on the road.’ So when we beat Texas at home, that got us confidence and we started rolling, then we get to Lubbock and have some ‘issues’ out there but got out of there. I usually don’t talk about the Lubbock situation, not because I’m embarrassed, but I just try not to talk about it. Now, if people want to talk about it, I’ll talk about it. So Dave South came to me this past Christmas when I was doing my toy drive and told everybody, ‘I’m going to tell everybody about the Texas Tech/A&M fight.’ He says, ‘We’re on the plane flying back and I look at the media guy and he tells me that every time Tech wins people get a free hot dog or free popcorn.' Then I went to the front and told Coach Barone why they wanted to fight us. So he asks why and I said, ‘They were mad because they wanted their free hot dog.'”

“Our team would have beaten this team, no question. I’d take Alex out of the game and right there goes the heartbeat of the team. I’d get him and talk crazy to him. I’d tell him, ‘Hey, you’re the best player to ever come here, after me.”