Bucky McMillan
American basketball coach
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henry Ward "Bucky" McMillan III[1][2] (born August 12, 1983) is an American basketball coach who is currently the head coach at Texas A&M University.
| Current position | |
|---|---|
| Title | Head coach |
| Team | Texas A&M |
| Conference | SEC |
| Record | 22–12 (.647) |
| Biographical details | |
| Born | August 12, 1983 Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| 2002–2006 | Birmingham–Southern |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 2006–2008 | Mountain Brook HS (assistant) |
| 2008–2020 | Mountain Brook HS |
| 2020–2025 | Samford |
| 2025–present | Texas A&M |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 121–64 (.654) (college) 332–74 (.818) (high school) |
| Tournaments | 1–2 (NCAA Division I) 0–1 (NIT) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| SoCon tournament (2024) 2 SoCon regular season (2023, 2024) | |
| Awards | |
| NHSCA Coach of the Year (2018) 3× SoCon Coach of the Year (2022–2024) | |
Early life and education
McMillan played basketball at Mountain Brook High School in Mountain Brook, Alabama and led them to a state final four in 2001. He played college basketball for Birmingham-Southern from 2002 to 2006.[3] McMillan was named to the league All-Academic team as a senior, and he graduated from Birmingham-Southern in 2007 with a degree in education services.[4]
Coaching career
While in college, McMillan coached youth teams in Mountain Brook, and became the junior varsity head coach in 2006. McMillan was hired as the head coach at Mountain Brook in 2008.[3] In his first season, the team finished 18-12.[5] He won three 7A basketball championships, two 6A basketball championships for Mountain Brook.[6] He coached the Spartans to two championship runner-ups, seven final four appearances, 10 regional appearances and nine area titles.[3]
in 2018, McMillan was named the national Boys Basketball Coach of the Year by the National High School Coaches Association after the team finished 34-3. He's the first Alabama coach to win the national honor from the NHSCA.[7] McMillan was named the coach of the 2019 Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game.[5] He was the USA Today's Alabama Coach of the Year in 2019. In 2020, Mountain Brook was ranked 13th in the top 25 public high school basketball programs in the United States over the previous ten years.[4] He finished 333-74 in twelve seasons at Mountain Brook, averaging nearly 28 wins per season.[5][3]
On April 6, 2020, McMillan was hired as head coach at Samford, replacing Scott Padgett.[5] His former coach at Birmingham Southern, Duane Reboul, came out of retirement to join McMillan's staff as a special assistant at Samford.[8] McMillan drew attention for his uptempo and aggressive style of play, nicknamed "Bucky Ball", and his team posted a 96–83 upset at Belmont on December 5, 2020.[9] In his first season, Samford finished 6-13 overall and 2-9 in the Southern Conference, and had eight games canceled due to COVID-19 precautions.[10] In 2022, McMillan was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year by the media.[11]
On April 5th, 2025, Texas A&M announced the hiring of McMillan as their head men's basketball coach.[12] In his first season with the team, McMillan led the Aggies to a 4th-place finish in the SEC and an appearance in the NCAA Division I Tournament. McMillan won his first March Madness game as a head coach with Texas A&M beating Saint Mary's 63-50 in the Round of 64.
Head coaching record
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samford Bulldogs (Southern Conference) (2020–2025) | |||||||||
| 2020–21 | Samford | 6–13 | 2–9 | 10th | |||||
| 2021–22 | Samford | 21–11 | 10–8 | T–3rd | |||||
| 2022–23 | Samford | 21–11 | 15–3 | T–1st | |||||
| 2023–24 | Samford | 29–6 | 15–3 | 1st | NCAA Division I Round of 64 | ||||
| 2024–25 | Samford | 22–11 | 12–6 | T–3rd | NIT First Round | ||||
| Samford: | 99–52 (.656) | 54–29 (.651) | |||||||
| Texas A&M Aggies (Southeastern Conference) (2025–present) | |||||||||
| 2025–26 | Texas A&M | 22–12 | 11–7 | T–4th | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
| 2026–27 | Texas A&M | 0–0 | 0–0 | ||||||
| Texas A&M: | 22–12 (.647) | 11–7 (.611) | |||||||
| Total: | 121–64 (.654) | ||||||||
|
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
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