Get ready to learn #BuckyBall
Three days after the departure of former coach Buzz Williams to Maryland, Texas A&M appears to have their new head basketball coach. According to multiple sources on Friday evening, the Aggies will hire Samford’s Bucky McMillan to lead the basketball program.
Texas A&M is set to hire Samford coach Bucky McMillan as the school’s next men’s basketball coach, sources tell me and @jeffborzello. The sides are finalizing a five-year deal, per sources. pic.twitter.com/ErYKxoj40X
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) April 4, 2025
If you had never heard the name Bucky McMillan until the past couple of days, well, join the club. But if you look at his background, it’s hard not to be intrigued.
McMillan became the varsity coach at Mountain Brook High School at the ripe old age of 25, and proceeded to win FIVE state titles in 12 seasons. He was then hired at Samford in 2020, and after a rocky start in his first season, led the Bulldogs to two regular season conference titles (their only ones this century) along with four straight 20-win seasons after they’d only had two 20-win seasons in the past 20 years.
McMillan’s style of play, branded “Bucky Ball,” is known for it’s aggressive, full-court pressure on defense and an offense that thrives on the three-point shot.
Quick look at “Bucky Ball.” Last season, Samford’s national statistical rankings per game included:
– 4th in turnovers forced (16.1)
– 7th in 3-pointers made (10.8)
– 11th in 3-point attempts (29.6)
– 19th in fastbreak (14.1)
– 27th in assists (16.5)https://t.co/ahpHE1mKXd— Alex Miller (@AlexMill20) April 5, 2025
Samford ranked No. 13 in the country in scoring last season, so it’s safe to say that stylistically, he is a stark departure from what the Aggies saw under Buzz Williams, where the team thrived on defense and rebounding but was limited by an inability to consistently create and make open shots.
Obviously A&M had a highly publicized pursuit of Chris Beard that ended with him getting a raise at Ole Miss, and the Aggies were rumored to have reached out to Grant McCasland as well. Both of which would have been high-profile hires (even if I was against hiring Beard for off-the court reasons). But when you swing and miss with the home run hires, A&M did exactly what I had hoped they would do, and that is to find a young coach who has overachieved at a smaller school and hope you strike gold. They could have gone after more of a “name” who has failed at previous stops and would be a bit of a re-tread. It’s the safe thing to do to appease a fanbase, but it also rarely works out at a high level. McMillan may prove to not be ready for big-time college basketball, and if so, you move on to the next one. But there’s also the chance that you just found the next Nate Oats, Todd Golden or Scott Drew, and that is a shot worth taking.
Now the next step for McMillan will be to cobble together a roster for the 2025-26 season. The Aggies have only one scholarship player from last season who hasn’t either exhausted their eligibility or entered the transfer portal, so there is significant work to be done on that front. You’d assume McMillan may bring a few of his best players from Samford with him, but A&M will also be leaning on the transfer portal heavily to build next year’s team. We are currently in a recruiting dead period until April 10, but I’d expect McMillan and his staff to move quickly to get players on campus before the transfer portal window closes on April 22.