THE McMILLAN FILE

PERSONAL

Hometown: Mountain Brook, Alabama
College: Birmingham Southern, 2007

COACHING CAREER

2008-20: Head Coach, Mountain Brook High School (5 state titles)
2020-25: Head Coach, Samford (99-52, 5 seasons)
2025-: Head Coach, Texas A&M

POSTSEASON EXPERIENCE

2024: NCAA Tournament (Samford)
2025: NIT (Samford)

Follow @BuckyBasketball

Bucky McMillan was named the head men's basketball coach at Texas A&M on April 5, 2025. The three-time Southern Conference Coach of the Year arrived in Aggieland after five seasons at the helm at Samford.

Renowned for his innovative and fast-paced offensive and defensive styles of play, known as "Bucky Ball," McMillan transformed Samford into one of the top basketball programs in the Southern Conference. He guided the Bulldogs to three SoCon Championships – two regular season crowns and a tournament title – while compiling a 99-52 record, which included 20-plus victories in each of his last four seasons. He earned SoCon Coach of the Year honors in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

In 2024-25, the Bulldogs ranked No. 13 nationally in scoring offense (82.9 ppg) while ranking in the top-10 in three-pointers attempted and made. Defensively, Samford forced an average of 16.1 turnovers per game, which ranked No. 4 in the country.

Within the SoCon, Samford led the league in scoring, fast break points (14.2/g), steals (9.9/g), turnovers forced, turnover margin (3.2/g), offensive rebounds (13.1/g) and bench scoring (28.5 ppg) as the Bulldogs earned an invitation to the 2025 NIT.

McMillan orchestrated the best season in Samford program history in 2023-24 when the Bulldogs earned their first NCAA Tournament berth in more than 20 years. Samford compiled a school record 29 wins and swept the SoCon regular season and tournament titles for the first time. In the NCAA Tournament, the Bulldogs narrowly lost to Kansas, 93-89, in one of the most memorable games of the tournament. The 2023-24 season included a school record 17-game winning streak and the team was a perfect 18-0 on its home court.

McMillan's path to the collegiate level came after experiencing unprecedented success at the high school level in the state of Alabama. As the head coach of Mountain Brook High School, located just outside of Birmingham, McMillan led the Spartans to five state championships in Alabama's highest classification and advanced to the championship game seven times in his 12 seasons at his alma mater. Named the National Coach of the Year in 2018 by the National High School Coaches Association, McMillan won 333 games at Mountain Brook while averaging nearly 28 wins per season.

McMillan played his college basketball at Birmingham-Southern from 2002 to 2006, where he was name to the Big South Conference Academic Honor Roll all four seasons and to the league's All-Academic Team as a senior. He was also added to the National Association of Basketball Coaches Honor's Court. McMillan earned his bachelor's degree in education services from Birmingham-Southern in 2007.

As a student at Mountain Brook High School from 1999 to 2002, McMillan received All-State honors from the Birmingham News in 2002 and was nominated for the McDonald's High School All-America Team. The Birmingham News also named him to its All-State Athletic Academic Team.

YEAR-BY-YEAR RECORD AT SAMFORD

Year	Overall	SoCon (Place)	Notes
2020-21	6-13	2-9 (10^th)	No. 10 seed at SoCon Tournament
2021-22	21-11	10-8 (t3rd)	No. 3 seed at SoCon Tournament
2022-23	21-11	15-3 (t1st)	*SoCon Champions, No. 2 Seed at SoCon Tournament
2023-24	29-6	15-3 (1st)	+SoCon Champions, NCAA Tournament
2024-25	22-11	12-6 (t3rd)	No. 4 seed at SoCon Tournament, NIT
TOTALS	99-52	54-29