Bucky McMillan to lean on mature roster entering Year 1 in Aggieland

Click here to view Texas A&M’s Wednesday press conference.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Amid the lush, green, rolling hills of Central Alabama sits the upscale suburb of Mountain Brook.

Residents of this community of 22,000 are eager to rave on about local hero Bucky McMillan, the basketball savant who made the meteoric rise from high school assistant to Texas A&M coach in less than a decade.

Admirers include Ashley, the physical therapist who watched McMillan’s turbo-charged “Bucky Ball” win five state championships for Mountain Brook High School.

There’s also Frank, the life-long friend, who saw McMillan transform nearby Samford University’s basketball program from perennial loser to two-time Southern Conference champion.

And then there is a waitress at Otey’s, who’s just wondering if McMillan will be coming into the restaurant on Wednesday.

No such luck. His schedule only allowed time to answer questions about Texas A&M hoops during Southeastern Conference Basketball Media Days.

Returning to his hometown, though, must bring emotional feelings of nostalgia.

“You’ve heard this thing, you know, it takes a village to raise a child, right?” McMillan said from the podium. “This village raised me. I wouldn’t be here without the people in this village. We did a lot of great things together.

“We’re about to do a lot of great things at Texas A&M. And there are a lot of people I’m meeting out there. It was special when we did it here because we all did it together. At Texas A&M, when we get it done, it’s going to be even more special because there’s a lot more people that are going to have to come together to do it. I’m looking forward to making it happen.”

Aggies hope it can happen at A&M as fast and smoothly as it did in McMillan’s previous stops.

He took over a Samford program, which had endured nine losing campaigns in 11 seasons.

By McMillan’s second year, Samford posted 21 victories. By his fourth year, Samford was on the verge of shocking No. 4 seed Kansas in the NCAA Tournament. Alas, a controversial call enabled Kansas to escape with a 98-89 victory.

His first victory at A&M — likely vs. Northwestern State at Reed Arena on Nov. 3 — will be the 100th of his collegiate career.

Actually, he’s already come a long way at A&M, considering he took over a team with no roster.

Previous coach Buzz Williams’ final team at A&M was overloaded with players in their final year of eligibility. When he left for Maryland, two holdovers — Solomon Washington and Pharrell Payne — followed him there.

Only Chris McDermott — at the time a non-scholarship player — remained.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Chris McDermott is the only returning Aggie from Buzz Williams’ 2024-25 Texas A&M team.

McMillan rewarded McDermott with a scholarship. He aggressively dived into the transfer portal.

He signed guard Jacari Lane from Northern Alabama. He signed forward Mackenzie Mgbako from Indiana. Zach Clemence, Marcus Hill, Rylan Griffen, Federiko Federiko, Rashaun Agee, Ali Dibba and Pop Isaacs followed.

Suddenly, the empty roster was full of possibilities. There are high-volume shooters at every position. The majority of the players shot better than 35 percent from three-point range last season. Some shot 40 percent.

Mostly, though, McMillan is optimistic because the team he assembled has a wealth of experience.

“They're mature players,” he said. “We're not totally healthy right now with Mackenzie. When we have everybody, we have a deep team. You have an old team that's deep, OK? When you have old players that are mature, this isn't their first rodeo with college basketball.

“You're going to hear every kind of coach speak this week. We’ve all heard it. We all know it. The truth is to compete at this level, the talent gaps can be big or they can be slight. But to have a successful season, you're going to have to have a team that has maturity to fight through the adversity of the season, the highs, the lows.

“You'll see some teams that go on a four-game losing streak… They tank the season because they weren’t ready for the hard part. I think our players have been a part of college basketball and know that it's not easy.”

Experience and attitude can go a long way. But in the ultra-talented SEC, that isn’t necessarily enough. A record 14 SEC teams were selected for the NCAA Tournament field last season. Four reached the Elite Eight. Two were in the Final Four. Florida won the national championship.

Navigating the SEC could be treacherous for a team of transfers who’ve never before played together and never before played in McMillan’s system.

But the Aggies aren’t backing down.

“We have expectations to win games and to win at a high level, if I'm honest with you,” said Isaacs, who scored 25 points for Creighton in a 77-73 loss to A&M last season. “I feel like we have a team that could really win some games in the SEC and prove some people wrong.

“We’re really together as a group, and we want to make the tournament. When you start there, anything can happen. We just want to start taking things game by game when we start playing. I think the rest will take care of itself, because I do think we have a really good group to win some games.”

McMillan does, too.

“Everywhere I've been, whether high school or college, we wanted to get to the top of the league,” he said. “We did that at a place in high school that certainly had not been to the top of the championship that they played for. In the Southern Conference at Samford, we did the same thing. Now, we're in the SEC.

“Obviously, (we’re) not just happy to be here, but get to the top of this league. If you can get to the top of this league, you can be a national champion. I think Texas A&M is a sleeping giant. I think you can win a national championship at Texas A&M. I've been elated to be here thus far.”

A national championship at Texas A&M? Skeptics will have doubts.

But the people of Mountain Brook, the village that helped raise McMillan, certainly would not.