Texas A&M has hired Samford’s Bucky McMillan as its next basketball coach, the school announced Saturday. McMillan is expected to sign a five-year contract with the school and will succeed former coach Buzz Williams, who took the vacant job at Maryland earlier this week.
“We’re incredibly excited about Bucky coming to Aggieland to lead our men’s basketball program,” Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts said in a release from the school. “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, 41, has been at Samford since 2020 and went 99-52 during his tenure at the school. Samford reached the NCAA Tournament last season before losing to Kansas in the first round. The Bulldogs went 22-11 this season and lost in the opening round of the NIT.
“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 press release. “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 will bring one of the most creative offensive systems to Texas A&M. McMillan’s relentless, up-tempo style of offense has been coined “Buckyball.” Samford finished this season ranked 15th in average possession length, per KenPom.com.
McMillan will take over a program that has won at least 21 games during the last four seasons. Texas A&M’s 2024-25 season ended with a loss to No. 5 seed Michigan in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last month.
Samford finished the 2019-20 season 7-23 and ranked No. 325 in the NET before McMillan arrived from Mountain Brook High School in Mountain Brook, Alabama. McMillian coached high school basketball from 2006-2020 before taking his first Division l job with Samford.
The news of McMillan’s reported hire comes after Ole Miss coach Chris Beard elected to remain with the school after receiving a raise and an NIL budget considered to be top five within the SEC to remain with the the Rebels. Beard was one of the logical candidates to replace Williams at Texas A&M.
Texas A&M looked into a lot of candidates before deciding on McMillan, Norlander reported.
McMillan is just the latest domino in the coaching carousel to fall. When Villanova fired former coach Kyle Neptune last month, the program zeroed in on Maryland’s Kevin Willard as his successor. Shortly after Willard left Maryland, the Terrapins poached Williams away from College Station.
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