Henry Coleman III looks back on four memorable years in Aggieland

Throughout a four-year career at Texas A&M, Henry Coleman III shined on and off the court, fully embracing the spirit of the 12th Man. The senior joined TexAgs Live to relive some of his favorite memories in Aggieland and speak on the program's direction under Bucky McMillan.

Key notes from Henry Coleman III interview

• It was important for me to be at Bucky McMillan's press conference. I love this university. I'm thankful for Buzz Williams, what he did and his impact in my life. He changed my life. I still have a real love for this university. For Coach McMillan, to be at his Welcome Event and support, it just meant a lot to me just to see that and see the culture we built around that and how he is going to carry that on with his new staff and his new players.
   
• It's been a rollercoaster the last few weeks. For myself, I've kind of reflected on my time here. Try to focus on all of the good things because when it gets to the end, you maybe want to focus on what went wrong. “I could have done this. I could have done that,” but I think I've lived with no regrets. I feel like I've made an impact on this university, whether that's basketball or whether that's just being in the community. I feel like I've made an impact, and I've tried my hardest every single day.
   
• We did an unbelievable job. For us, it might not always be the accolades. I've seen Manny Obaseki grow in an unbelievable way. I've seen Wade Taylor IV go from a guy who said, “He was too small. He can't play in the SEC. He's not built for it,” to being one of the best we've seen at this university and one of the best we've ever seen in the SEC. You've seen all of these guys grow as players, but even more importantly, as young men. For us, I don't think it was accolades that we focused on. Yeah, we wanted to win the SEC. Yeah, we wanted to win a national championship, but I think us growing as young men and getting prepared for the real world is something that I think we always will wear on our hearts.
   
• I think that's just truly special. All the credit to Williams, but also the staff. I think he surrounded himself with a staff that was willing to pour into young men. Willing to help us in the basketball world but also in life. Every coach had their door open. You could walk up there and talk sports, you could talk life, you could talk fishing like I used to do with Dale Layer. It was an open environment where you could always just have a conversation. I think those small conversations helped us in the long run to become better men.
   
• It's truly rare to have a core group stay together during this era. You have friends on other teams and you see all of these people leaving, leaving a good team to go to a bad team. So you see a lot of weird things happening. For us to have the core group speaks to the testament to Texas A&M and Williams. A lot of guys wanted to stay here. A lot of guys were offered certain things to go here, go there or move back home, but everybody wanted to stay here. Because of the culture here, because you want to go to a baseball game, you want to see Texas A&M football beat Alabama here. You want to see those things, and so I think that's why a lot of people wanted to stay. For us, it was amazing, and we had a lot of fun.
   
• I think it goes to your coaching staff, but it also goes to the character of the person that you are. If you come to somewhere and you are trying to build something, you're trying to make history, you're trying to impact other's lives. You kind of want to stay around to see that happen. You kind of want to see it blossom. For us, I think it was we wanted to stay around because we wanted to create a culture and environment that was fun for fans, that was fun for other student-athletes, and it was fun for the freshman coming in. We wanted to have a certain culture and environment that was a true one, a real one and a loving one.
   
• Did I have a favorite basketball moment at A&M? That's a difficult one. I want to say Auburn, just because it was everything compounding. Our habits, our love, our work and our trust. For it to be on Senior Night and to beat the No. 1 team in the country. It's just a microcosm of what we had worked towards our entire time here as far as wanting to be on that pedestal, wanting to be the best Texas A&M team that we could be. For all the seniors and the managers that night, to go out like that in front of an amazing crowd that cheered us on the entire time is truly special.
   
• I would say that NIT run and that SEC Tournament run really changed all of our lives. We all looked in the mirror and said, "We can do it." Then, years after that, we reflected on that like, "We might be going through a bad loss, or a two-game losing streak or a three-game, but remember when we lost eight? And how we were able to will our way out of that? How were we able to be men in that situation?" I give huge credit to Quenton Jackson and his leadership while he was here. Me, Taylor and Obaseki, we were all young guys. We had never experienced this before, so Jackson's leadership truly changed that season, and I would almost say kind of changed the trajectory of where A&M basketball was going to go. Huge shoutout to Jackson for that.
   
• We've talked about it since day one here. Defense travels. Wherever you are in the country, defense travels. We always hung our hats on defense. We wanted to be the best defensive team out there. We went through a little bit of offensive struggles here and there, but I think our defense and what we accomplished on that end, and how teams probably didn't want to play us the game after because of how physical we were and how determined we were on the glass. If there was a loose ball, you had to watch out because we were going after it. Huge credit to Devin Johnson and Layer for their expertise on the defensive end. There was a switch that just changed after year one, like we have to be the best defensive team in this conference, so we tried our best each and every day at that.
   
• It wasn't surprising to me that Williams left. I know him very well, and I know what he is trying to build. He is my guy for life. He's changed my life and my family's life, so the respect that I have for him, whether he was at A&M, whether he's at Maryland or whether he went back to Virginia Tech. My respect for him will always stay the same because of the effort and the impact that he had on people's lives. The care that he put in each and every day, being the first person at the gym no matter what, whether we got in at 2 a.m., whether we had the day off, he was going to be the first person in there. How he carried himself and how he impacted people's lives goes beyond basketball.
   
• It's funny because when you're on visits, and you're telling recruits, "Yeah, Coach lifts. If you can't tell, you see him running up and down the sidelines. Coach is jacked. He lifts." He goes in there at 5 a.m., so when you have to go in at 6 a.m., you're like, "Well, coach is already lifting. I can't complain now." Williams is 50 years old, and he's in there trying to bench press, squat and stuff. It was an eye-opener for us, like, "If coach is in here, we can't complain at all." It was good.
   
• Pharrel Payne is going to kill it in the Big Ten. His game has truly blossomed. He was always a good player, but he has turned into a hard player to truly guard. His physicality, him finishing both hands around the rim, his trajectory just keeps going linear and straight up. For him, I'm excited, and I think he'll truly kill it.
   
• I truly think Payne is a pro. I think Solomon Washington is a pro. I think Taylor is one because of his leadership and his willingness to win. He's been doubted his whole life. This is just another step to where he's doubted, and I know for a fact he's going to outwork every single person in that gym, and he's going to have a chip on his shoulder, and he's going to try and prove every single person wrong who has doubted him. So, I have no doubt that Taylor will be successful at the next level.
   
• I've known of McMillan. He coached Trendon Watford, a guy who ended up going to LSU. He was an unbelievable high school player. So, I know a little bit about him. I had watched some Samford games. I had watched the big one everybody talks about against Kansas. McMillan's basketball expertise is really truly well-versed. I think he is somebody who is what I call a “new era” coach. It kind of goes outside the box of traditional basketball. I think, he's super cerebral when it comes to the offensive of it, and he's going to be really, really hard to guard. I think he's coming to the best league. Where the pace is up and down, and I think he will have tremendous success in doing that.
   
• McMillan has a mantra about him that's very likable. He's very relatable. For any type of recruit, you want to go with a coach that is relatable and a coach that's real. With my little conversations with him, I've picked it up early. He's real. He sounds like a guy who tells you the truth whether you really want to hear it or not. I think for the recruits out there that are looking at him, I think he's a real deal guy.
   
• I honestly don't know what's next for me right now. I wanted to work in compliance within the SEC, Big Ten or any conference. That's what I've worked towards. That's what I love. Staying around the game, but kind of behind the scenes, and just having an impact on young people's lives at the student-athlete level.
   
• I could potentially see myself staying here. Just wherever it takes me. I have a true love for this university. I've seen what it's done for my life, but also other people's lives. I think that's one thing. When you're going through this, you always want to be selfish and look at yourself, you know, "What has it done for me?" But you take a step back, and you look at your teammates and how it's impacted Andersson Garcia's life, how it's impacted Hayden Hefner's life and how it impacts Washington's life. It's changed it. I think this university truly can change your life. There are so many opportunities to learn, grow, and meet new people. It's truly special.
   
• I think it's my personality, but it's a lot of Aggies out there. If you see somebody lost on campus, you're probably trying to help them out. For Jamie Morrison, he has been an unbelievable coach, and I think he is a person who is immersed in this university. He truly cares. I remember watching that Texas A&M game at Texas, and you could see how much he cared and how much those girls cared on the floor. I think it's for the university, but it's also a little bit for him, and how he has created this culture there. Huge shoutout to Morrison.
   
• I already have my plans for Masters Week. I'm going to sit at home the rest of the week and just watch the Masters. I'm excited. I think it's going to be a good one, especially when you have the live guys coming back and the PGA guys. I still think there's a little bit of beef between those guys, so it's always good to have all of them back and to see the rivalries come back.
   
• I have a pretty good relationship with Sam Bennett. I'm proud of him and what he's doing. I know he is about to climb up in the ranks because he's putting in a lot of work, and he's developing as a golfer but also as a person.
   
• My football team is the Steelers. For right now, I'm a little hesitant about where we're going. I've trusted Mike Tomlin for the last almost 20 years. How long I've been alive, and how long my dad told me I had to be a Steelers fan. We need a quarterback. If it's Aaron Rodgers, I wouldn't mind taking Rodgers and then drafting somebody a little bit later. Hopefully Jaxson Dart is able to stay around. Will Howard, I wouldn't mind. You get under Rodgers, and you learn a lot of stuff, so you're able to take over the offense in one or two years. But I will say that defense still looks beautiful. That's one thing I'm not worried about, but you have to score points to win a game.
   
• I don't really have an NBA team I follow. I just kind of like watching the games. I really, truly like watching this Lebron James, Luka Dončić and Austin Reeves thing. It's special to watch, and I've had a love for that. I also watch a lot of my old teammates. Mark Williams, who I grew up with, is playing for the Hornets. Watching Jackson. I still watch Jaylen Johnson, who plays for the Atlanta Hawks. Just watching a lot of my old teammates and seeing the success they've had always brings a smile to my face. Dexter Dennis is doing unbelievable. He's still defending at a high level. I always see his dunks on Twitter and Instagram, so he's doing really well.
   
• I think it's Garcia's personality. It's his story, where he's from. He plays with such a chip on his shoulder, but he also plays with such gratitude for being at this university. For being here and being around a lot of people who really care about him. I think he just wore it on his shoulder about how blessed he was to truly be in this position, and that's how he played. He was the hardest-playing guy on that court each and every night. I'm super thankful for him. Then, when he started doing the trumpets in the band, it just became even better. He's been somebody who has changed my life and opened my eyes about how to live with gratitude each and every day.
   
• My GOAT is Michael Jordan. Yeah, it's Micahel Jordan for me. Williams always quotes “The Last Dance.” I like Jordan because I feel like he was feared. I'm not saying Lebron isn't feared, but he's loved. I feel like Jordan was feared. Kobe Bryant was, too.