How Nebo became the Aggies’ top player
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams knows Houston-area recruiting, dating back a quarter century when he was an assistant at Texas-Arlington.
Williams, who was Virginia Tech’s coach five years ago, doesn’t recall A&M senior forward Josh Nebo playing at Cypress Lakes. But that’s turned in to quite a compliment for the Aggies’ best player.
“I don’t remember Nebo coming out of high school — he must have dramatically changed over the last five years,” said Williams, in his first season at A&M. “His impact allows us to have a chance in games because he does so many things you can’t coach.”
Nebo, who leads the Aggies in scoring (12.1 points per game), rebounding (7.9 per game) and blocks (38 total), helped spring A&M to a surprising start in SEC play, considering it appeared the Aggies might not win a league game at one point in nonconference action
A&M (8-7, 2-2 SEC) hosts South Carolina (9-7, 1-2) at noon Saturday as the Aggies try and move one game above .500 five games in to SEC play.
It didn’t help Nebo’s notoriety at Cypress Lakes that he played alongside current NBA rising star De’Aaron Fox and Nick Garth, who excelled at Lamar University the last four seasons. Nebo, eager to continue his basketball career after helping lead Cypress Lakes to the Class 6A state quarterfinals in 2015, signed with Saint Francis University in rural Pennsylvania.
Nebo (6-9, 245) grew about three inches and added 50 pounds his first two years of college, and along the way chose to play closer to home at A&M under-then coach Billy Kennedy. He redshirted in 2017-18 and bided his time while adjusting to college life in College Station.
Last season, which turned out to be Kennedy’s last at A&M, Nebo led the Aggies with 69 blocks, more than doubling any of his teammates and collecting nearly half of A&M’s 143 blocks on the season.
“The previous staff must have done an incredible job on and off the floor his redshirt year,” Williams said. “His improvement (from high school) is dramatic. I don’t know there are many players in the country who go from where he was as a high school senior to (now) … it’s been a stock for sure that you would want to invest in.”
For a time, Williams wasn’t sure if he’d get any return from Nebo in his senior season.
“He tore his hamstring on the first sprint of boot camp,” Williams said of that startling moment in early September. “I didn’t know how good of a player he was … but I can say upon injury, I did not feel confident he was going to be where he is now.”
Nebo, who’s earning looks from pro scouts this season, said he knew he could not rush back from the injury trying to show the new staff his skills in the paint.
“I was just trying to get healthy – just doing what I could control,” Nebo said. “I wanted to make sure I could do everything I could to get back with the team.”
Nebo sat out the season opener, a 77-63 home victory against Northwestern (La.) State, and earned his first action in the Aggies’
second game, a win over Louisana-Monroe.
Following a rough patch in late November and early December when the Aggies lost consecutive games to Harvard, Temple, Fairfield and Texas, they’ve won five of their last seven games — and Nebo is the biggest reason why. He’s made 18-of-21 (85.7 percent) of his field goals in SEC play, in giving opposing teams much more to mull than versatile A&M guard Savion Flagg.
The Aggies are coming off an 89-85 home loss in overtime to LSU on Tuesday, when Nebo led the way with 20 points and nine rebounds, but in the two games prior A&M had defeated Mississippi and Vanderbilt by double digits.
“It took us a while to get going,” Nebo said of the Aggies’ route to winning this season. “I feel like we’re getting better every week, we just have to stay on the right path.”
brent.zwerneman@chron.com twitter.com/brentzwerneman