'I always expect to be in the NCAA Tournament': Texas A&M coach previews season ahead

USA Today

7 hours ago

'I always expect to be in the NCAA Tournament': Texas A&M coach previews season ahead
After a tremendous kickstart to the Bucky McMillan era at Texas A&M, the first-year head coach sat down with college basketball insider Jon Rothstein to talk some ball this afternoon.
McMillan comes to Bryan-College Station, Texas, after leading Samford to historic success over the last few years, including the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2000. Now, he is looking to lead the Aggies' men's basketball program to new heights with no signs of slowing down his preparations anytime soon.
Here is everything McMillan said on Rothstein's podcast on the CBS Sports College Basketball YouTube channel:
Q: How did Henry Ward McMillan III become Bucky?
"I was called that since birth, my dad's name was Bucky. I don't know why it's not on my birth certificate because they knew they were going to call me that. My dad was called that so I don't know. If it wasn't so hard to get a name change, I might do it. My dad was named after a baseball player named Bucky Harris back in the day so there you go."
Q: Does life feel like a movie right now for Bucky McMillan?
"It's gone so fast, I haven't had time to really think, but I mean, basketball is basketball. Someone asked me that the other day. Coaching at Texas A&M is awesome, but still the same feeling I had coaching JV basketball in terms of treating every job like that's your group, that's your team and let's go. I know when I coach JV basketball, this is the world I live in and this is the most important thing in my sports world. Now, the SEC is the most important thing in my world and Texas A&M being my focus."
Q: If your life were a movie, who would play Bucky McMillan?
"The guy from Punk'D. Ashton Kutcher that guy."
Q: What was it like connecting being the Samford head coach, to then getting offered the job at Texas A&M?
"There's a lot of similarities in Texas to the Alabama people, like real chill, down-to-earth people. I love College Station. It's just an easy town to kind of acclamate to. People are welcoming and it's great being undefeated. When you're undefeated everybody loves you. I haven't had to pay for a dinner yet so I need to push this season back as long as possible. It's a great place and I think it's got everything it takes to win in every sport here and have success in every sport. The new era of college athletics, I don't think every university is going to be able to do that. They're going to have to pick and choose. This place can compete for championships in every sport in the SEC I believe."
Q: When the job opened, did you say to yourself I think this is one I am going to have a chance at?
"You never know. In the South, you never know how the dominoes will fall. I know it's one that I would have to take and I'd want. I talked to our athletic director, obviously the coaching carousel moves and there's opportunities you're involved with. My athletic director at Samford, a guy named Martin Newton, who's a big guy in my life. There's been jobs I've asked him about he said besides the money, I don't know about that one for you. When we talked about Texas A&M, he was like, I don't want to see you go, but man... that's a place you could go and I think you'd be really, really successful there. When he kind of gave me the go-ahead that would be a place where I'd fit and it fit me, I was all-in to being out here."
Q: What exactly is "Bucky Ball"?
"When I was coaching high school basketball in Alabama back in the day, all the coaches in the suburban schools they played in the 30s and 40s. Really slow, ran the flex, no shot clock, shoot it after a minute and I was committed to, if I coached, I would never do that. We were going to trap until they shot the ball, shoot as quickly as possible, take a lot of threes and so a lot of old-school coaches in the area use to say that as a negative. Like it wasn't disciplined if you played fast and shoot threes. We started winning a lot and it became known as a positive in the community where I lived in. Basically, up-tempo basketball and shoot a lot of threes. You see more and more of it today, but 15 years ago some people thought a three-point shot would be a bad shot. We've always been a high-volume three-point shooting team, up-tempo team.
Q: What coaches did Bucky McMillan study to learn his own offensive system?
"I played for a great college coach in Duane Reboul who was the coach of Birmingham-Southern, they were in the Big South at the time. He won two NAI National Championships before that. He was kind of the same way, early three-point shooting before that was popular, spacing the floor and so I studied him a lot. There's some college coaches now that are my competitors, I can't say too much about. I can't hurt myself in the recruiting game, but there's some guys that I'm friends with in the business, one of them had a similar route to me. Nate (Oats) at Alabama, I'll go ahead and say it. I've watched them analytically and we're kind of into the anayltics before the analytics were the analytics."
Q: What are the impressions of the roster you've put together at Texas A&M?
"We did as good as we could possibly do when we got hired. Our staff, when we got everybody in place, supporting us and the way we had to go about this. I am not saying that this will be the best team we will ever assemble, but I will say is I am very proud of what we were able to do based on when you're looking at the supply and demand chain at the time we got hired."
Q: What most excites you about the talent you've assembled in College Station?
"That we're a good shooting team. That's what I see when I watch them. We have a lot of good shooting and when you have that you're capable of beating anybody. You want more than that obviously or you're capable of losing to anybody, but I certaintly think it's a team you'll see make 20-plus threes in some games this year. If it became between one or the other, like a team that could lose to some teams but also a team that could knock off some the best team in the country, give me that team because we all know to make a run to the tournament you're going to have to pull that. We know the goal of what this is. Basketball is a postseason sport, a tournament sport. If we can do our job getting to the tournament, it's your path. You just got to have one of those two games where you shoot it extremely well and these guys we have their capable. We have multiple guys that I think could shoot over 40% from three-point land."
Q: What are your feelings knowing that you're a couple of months away from being a head coach and competing in the SEC?
"It's a great league to be in because of what you said. You're goal is to get in the NCAA Tournament and you're goal is to win the NCAA Tournament. If you can compete at a high level in the SEC, which was the best league in college basketball last year and arguably the best league ever assembled, you got a chance certaintly when the majority of the teams are making it to the tournament. If you're in this league, iron sharpens iron. If you can compete at a high level in this league it's special, but if you get in the tournament after being in this league, you're going to be tournament ready."
Q: What crumbs can Buck McMillan share on Texas A&M's non-conference schedule for the 2025-2026 season?
"We're going with the 8-5 model, so we will play five Power Five teams total and eight non-power fives."
Q: Based on the personnel that you've assembled after one shooting workout, is making the NCAA Tournament a realistic goal for the Aggies coming up here in 2026?
"Yeah I certaintly think it is. People forget sometimes, A&M was playing for an SEC Championship and in the championship game. Like you said 14 of the 16 teams got in, and this year it's just going to be about this team coming together. I always expect to be in the NCAA Tournament. When I was in mid-major I was expecting to be in the NCAA Tournament. I dang sure to be in it at Texas A&M and I expect when we get there, to win there. I think all these guys we recruited expect the same way."
The finishing touches on the Texas A&M men's basketball schedule are yet to be implemented, but the newly transformed roster is geared up and raring to hit the court in Reed Arena.
Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Dylan on X: @dylanmflippo.