Ever since he wowed the country with a 25-point performance against Gonzaga in the 2009 NCAA tournament, Orlando Mendez-Valdez might have Western fans wondering where former Topper guard went.

For at least a few days, the now-professional Mexican basketball player returned to Bowling Green for the first time as an alumnus — an experience he said brought back both positive memories and feelings.

“I can’t lie — I miss a lot,” he said.

Mendez-Valdez now plays for the Halcones (Falcons) Uv Xalapa, a member of the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto in Mexico.

He said the team is strictly professional, with no scholarships and no classes, but Xalapa, like many Latin American professional teams, is tied directly to the Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico.

The Falcons won the league championship on March 10, their third title in a row and fourth since the club’s inception in 2003.

Mendez-Valdez said he signed with the team after following a close friend’s advice, and this season — along with the money that came with it — worked out nicely.

“I already knew what I was getting myself into with that kind of team, but (the championship) was huge,” he said. “All of Latin America was watching.”

Athletics Director Wood Selig said he could see that sort of success coming from a player that “showed nothing” after his freshman season and eventually developed into one of Western’s most memorable faces.

“Some people are just leaders. Some people are just winners. Some people are just competitors and refuse to lose,” Selig said. “Orlando is all of that rolled into a very athletic basketball player.”

Mendez-Valdez averaged 13.0 points in 23.8 minutes a game for Xalapa, enough to earn him an invite back for next year’s team as well as a tryout with the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.

With all that has changed in less than a year, Mendez-Valdez still has his same sense of fashion. He wore a white T-shirt, worn jeans and fine-tipped gelled hair on his first full day back in Bowling Green.

Mendez-Valdez is also engaged to volleyball player Aquila Orr and has set a June 19 wedding date.

Until then, Mendez-Valdez said he’ll continue to live in his apartment in Mexico, where he relies on a laptop to communicate with his friends and family in the United States, once he leaves the country again on Sunday.

Head Coach Ken McDonald said it’s been difficult but worth it to keep in contact with his former senior leader.

“I told him I disowned him — that he was no longer one of my boys,” McDonald said, laughing. “We were laughing about that, because he doesn’t have a phone, so he said we’d either have to Skype, or I could text him at some random number, and he would get it.”

Mendez-Valdez said he’s not sure where he’ll be playing basketball next year, whether it be for Xalapa or an NBA D-League team. But he’s not looking past the big day or the nerves that come along with getting married.

“It’s just having my family there, having her family there, having alcohol — it’s going to be fun, and I hope in a good way,” he said.

For more on Mendez-Valdez’s return to Bowling Green, check out the Toppertalk sports blog.