Bucky McMillan

Bucky McMillan (born August 12, 1983) is an American basketball coach. He is currently the head coach at Samford.

Bucky McMillan
Current position
TitleHead coach
TeamSamford
ConferenceSoCon
Record48–35 (.578)
Biographical details
Born (1983-08-12) August 12, 1983
Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Playing career
2002–2006Birmingham–Southern
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2006–2008Mountain Brook HS(assistant)
2008–2020Mountain Brook HS
2020–presentSamford
Head coaching record
Overall48–35 (.578) (college)
333–74 (.818)) (high school)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
SoCon regular season (2023)
Awards
2× SoCon Coach of the Year – Media (2022, 2023)
NHSCA Coach of the Year (2018)

Early life and education

McMillan played basketball at Mountain Brook High School in Alabama and led them to a state final four in 2001. He played for Birmingham Southern from 2002 to 2006.[1] 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.[2]

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.[1] In his first season, the team finished 18-12.[3] He has won three 7A basketball championships, two 6A basketball championships for Mountain Brook.[4] He coached the Spartans to two championship runner-ups, seven final four appearances, 10 regional appearances and nine area titles.[1]

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.[5] McMillan was named the coach of the 2019 Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game.[3] 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 past ten years.[2] He finished 333-74 in twelve seasons at Mountain Brook, averaging nearly 28 wins per season.[3][1]

On April 6, 2020, McMillan was hired as head coach at Samford, replacing Scott Padgett.[3] His former coach at Birmingham Southern, Duane Reboul, came out of retirement to join McMillan's staff as a special assistant at Samford.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] In 2022, McMillan was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year by the media.[9]

Head coaching record
Statistics overview
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Samford Bulldogs (Southern Conference) (2020–present)
2020–21 Samford 6–132–910th
2021–22 Samford 21–1110–8T–3rd
2022–23 Samford 21–1115–3T–1st
Samford: 48–35 (.578)31–24 (.564)
Total:48–35 (.578)

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

References
  1. Thomas, Ben (April 6, 2020). "Samford makes it official, hires Mountain Brook's Bucky McMillan as men's basketball coach". AL.com. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  2. "Bucky McMillan Named Head Men's Basketball Coach". Samford Bulldogs. April 6, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  3. "Samford hires longtime high school coach Bucky McMillan". ESPN. Associated Press. April 6, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  4. "Basketball Past State Champions - Boys". www.ahsaa.com. Archived from the original on 2015-07-21.
  5. Potter, Mattie (April 23, 2018). "Alabama's Bucky McMillan named 2018 NHSCA Boys' Basketball Coach of the Year". NHSCA. Archived from the original on 2018-04-26. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  6. Goodman, Joseph (April 10, 2020). "Basketball folk hero joining Bucky McMillan at Samford". AL.com. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  7. Jordan, Jason (December 9, 2020). "By Embracing 'Bucky Ball,' Samford Off to Fast Start Under Its First-Time Coach College". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
  8. Stephenson, Creg (April 15, 2021). "Samford basketball lands Top 100 national recruit Wesley Cardet". Al.com. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
  9. "All-SoCon men's basketball teams announced" (Press release). Southern Conference. March 2, 2022. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
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