Bucky McMillan recaps first season at Texas A&M, comments on vision for the future
By Mark Kern
Published:
Bucky McMillan took the Texas A&M job last offseason after a very good run as the Samford coach.
He helped lead the Aggies to the NCAA Tournament, and even got a win against St. Mary’s in the first round. However, the Aggies ran into a buzz saw on Saturday night as they were knocked off by the Houston Cougars, ending their season.
While the long stings in the moment, McMillan talked to reporters after the game about the season and how it sets the team up moving forward.
“It’s great when you can be a tournament team and compete in our league. We have an identity to who we are,” McMillan said. “We’ve showed we can play with a lot of teams, but came up short today. This was a major step that should continue to grow from here. We had no returners, and these guys came together for nine months from all across the world. I’ve done this before, I’ve started programs, and everywhere I’ve been, the first year was the lowest we achieved and we rallied from there. If you look at where we started and where we got to, what we accomplished was a big deal for this group.”
Coming to College Station, McMillan wanted to bring his ‘Bucky Ball’ to the SEC. His teams are known for pressuring the ball and making things difficult for opposing offenses. It’s a chaotic system that led the Aggies to a 22-12 record and one NCAA Tournament win in Year 1.
In today’s college basketball, every year is truly a new season. Guys are transferring in and out, and it can be hard to build any continuity. The fact that the Aggies were able to do this on the fly with a brand new roster shows that McMillan is more than capable of competing in the SEC.
As he said in his press conference, he has done a fantastic job in his career of taking a big step after year one, and that should have fans in College Station very excited for the future.
