SAN ANTONIO — Samford’s Bucky McMillan has been named the new men’s basketball coach at Texas A&M, the school announced Saturday.
McMillan is getting a five-year deal with the Aggies, sources told ESPN.
“I couldn’t be more excited to wake up to the reality of being the head basketball coach at Texas A&M,” McMillan said in a statement. “As a guy that grew up around the SEC, I am motivated by the vision of Texas A&M’s leadership to compete at the highest levels of college basketball. As I’ve done my entire career, I won’t rest until we get the Aggies playing at a championship level year-in and year-out.”
McMillan led Samford to a pair of Southern Conference championships and one NCAA tournament appearance in his five seasons, posting a 99-52 overall record that included four consecutive 20-win seasons with the Bulldogs.
His teams play at a hyper tempo in a style known as “Bucky Ball,” which translated to immediate success at Samford and earned him Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors three times with a program that struggled to win for a generation.
“People ask what kind of style do you play? And I oftentimes say ‘it’s real simple, we play the kind of style that WINS, we just want to do it FASTER,'” McMillan said.
“We’re incredibly excited about Bucky coming to Aggieland to lead our men’s basketball program,” Aggies athletic director Trev Alberts said in a statement. “He’s an innovator as a coach, and he has a smart and analytics-driven approach to the game. Bucky brings a unique combination of qualities to our program and we’re thrilled to begin the next chapter of our basketball history under his leadership.”
McMillan takes over for Buzz Williams, who left for Maryland after making three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances with the Aggies, including a berth as a No. 4 seed in this year’s tournament.
McMillan has a track record of consistent results at every level. The NCAA tournament bid at Samford in 2024 was the school’s first since 2000. Samford took No. 4 seed Kansas to the brink in the first round, cutting a 22-point deficit to one point with less than a minute remaining. The Bulldogs ultimately lost 93-89 after a controversial foul call in the final minute.
The 41-year-old McMillan profiles as one of the country’s most intriguing and promising young coaches. He won five state high school titles at Mountain Brook High School in Alabama and, in a rare move, took the head college job at Samford directly from high school. In a 12-year run at Mountain Brook, he won 333 games, averaged nearly 28 wins per season and turned the local program into a household name nationally.
He defined a style that includes a heavy emphasis on pressing and disruption. It is one that not only plays fast on offense, but it attempts to speed up the opposition. In each of the past two seasons, Samford’s opponents turned the ball over at a rate that put the team in the top 20 in the country for opponent turnover percentage.
The energy and style should help engage a Texas A&M fan base that isn’t organically a basketball group. Texas A&M is expected to have nearly $7 million available in NIL and revenue sharing this season, a competitive number for the SEC that should give the school a chance to be competitive in the conference.
