Texas A&M basketball wins the lottery by hiring Samford's Bucky McMillan

It was going to happen sooner or later. Some power conference basketball program in need of a new buzz was going to take a close look at Samford's Bucky McMillan, realize it was staring at one of the best young coaches in the country and make him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Virginia and Florida State, among others, had their chances, but Texas A&M just won the lottery. After an extraordinary five-year run at Samford, the 41-year-old McMillan is finalizing a deal to take over in Aggieland to succeed Buzz Williams, who bolted for Maryland.

Replacing Williams' buzzsaw with Buckyball is like going from watching the paint dry to playing paintball. The Aggies didn't just change coaches. They changed auras. They changed eras. They changed styles, philosophies and generations.

Gone is the mud-wrestling, glass-eating approach that won games but not enough of them in Williams' six years, never enough to secure an SEC regular-season championship or SEC Tournament or advance past the NCAA Tournament's second round.

It's out with the old school and in with a new wave of advanced analytics at warp speed. Under McMillan, the Aggies will press for the duration, push the pace past the comfort level of most opponents and shoot almost exclusively from the arc, at the rim or at the free-throw line.

One analogy is what another former high school coach, Nate Oats, has done for Alabama. Another that should resonate throughout Aggieland: Johnny Football played basketball on grass as the magical, mercurial, Heisman-winning Texas A&M quarterback. Buckyball is Johnny Football in sneakers but with method to the madness, discipline within the frenzy, defense leading to offense leading to butts in the seats and Ws on the stat sheet.

Samford finished fifth nationally in scoring a year ago at 86.1 points a game. The Bulldogs, after losing seven of their top eight scorers from that double SoCon championship and NCAA Tournament team, dipped to 13th this season at 82.9 points a game.

Expect the Aggies to do what the Bulldogs have done the last five years but with more size, speed, athleticism and skill. And, if you like, McMillan will explain the logic that fuels his approach in a persuasive PowerPoint presentation complete with charts, graphs and calculations that lead to one irrefutable conclusion.

This stuff works.

It worked at Mountain Brook High School in a well-to-do Birmingham suburb. Far from a basketball power when the school elevated the gym rat McMillan from assistant to head coach at the tender age of 25, he led the program to five state championships and two runner-up finishes.

His Spartans became known for playing a lot of players that played their guts out, the grinders and stars alike, including two current alumni in the NBA in Trendon Watford and Colby Jones.

It was Samford Athletic Director Martin Newton, whose program needed a jolt, who recognized that McMillan's unique blend of energy, intelligence and toughness beyond his years would translate to the college level just down the road from Mountain Brook. After COVID wrecked McMillan's first Samford season, his recruiting and teaching kicked in with a vengeance.

Samford has won 20 games for four straight seasons, a new school record. More firsts: Four straight winning records in the Southern Conference, back-to-back SoCon regular-season championships and that 29-victory double-championship season in 2023-24 that ended an eyelash shy of upsetting Kansas in the NCAA Tournament.

See #AllBall for video evidence of the phantom foul that prevented Samford from pushing the ball with numbers down a single point in the final 15 seconds.

If there's a single play that captures the essence of Buckyball, it was that clean chase-down block of an attempted Kansas dunk after the Jayhawks had broken the Samford press. High energy. Extraordinary effort. No quit. True grit. A year later, it's still a shame one official, who saw contact that wasn't there, negated it.

The heartwarming story with the heartbreaking ending inspired me to write a song.

Don't be fooled by McMillan's age or by a countenance that makes him appear much younger than 41. He's been running a program for 17 years, and that's not counting the youth program he created before he became a high school head coach. He respected and absorbed the experience and wisdom of his elders, most notably his college coach at Birmingham-Southern. Duane Reboul - who led the Panthers to two NAIA national titles and through a successful transition to Division I before the school foolishly dropped the program to DIII - has served as McMillan's special assistant at Samford.

When you look at McMillan, think young Billy Donovan moving from Marshall to Florida. See young Todd Golden moving from San Francisco to Florida and leading the Gators to this Final Four in Year Three in Gainesville.

The SEC is as deep as it's ever been, but given the resources Texas A&M can provide, McMillan has the potential to follow a similar career arc. Given the style of basketball A&M fans have been watching for the last six years, they are advised to buckle up and enjoy this ride.

You have to hope for McMillan's sake that Texas A&M AD Trev Alberts and President Mark Welsh III give him the kind of support that he received from Newton and President Beck Taylor at Samford. It's impossible for a coach to work for two better men in those positions.

No doubt they'll find a quality successor - Jerod Haase, perhaps? - while McMillan finds continued success in College Station. But no matter what happens from here, Buckyball will always be a special part of Samford basketball history.

Let's hope