Bucky McMillan Reaches 90 Wins as Samford Beats VMI

History has been made as Samford head coach Bucky McMillan is now the second winningest coach in Samford history after the 81-68 win over VMI. McMillan now has 90 wins at Samford which surpasses John Brady. This is just yet another historic milestone in the tenure of McMillan who led Samford to their first outright Southern Conference regular season and tournament championship last year. In 2022, Samford was the Southern Conference co-champion that season.

McMillan now holds a 90-44 (.672) record at Samford while John Brady finished 89-77 (.536) before moving on to LSU. McMillan just now sits behind the legendary Jimmy Tillette who had 229 career wins in his 15 years at Samford.

Asking McMillan about this milestone postgame, he deflected to the coaches and players he achieved these 90 wins with.

“Oh man, it's awesome,” said McMillan. “It’s fun because if you are somewhere long enough where you have a lot of wins, there’s a lot of people that you’re gonna remember enjoying those times with. So like every time you look back, you don’t remember necessarily specifically like how we won the game or this play. But like, you kind of remember the guys that you won with and experience that with. Here we’ve had a great group of guys and a great group of coaches.”

He then went on to add one more thing. “So hopefully we can get 91 on Saturday (vs UNCG), cause that is going to be an absolute war.”

To get to the 90-win mark in just halfway through your fifth season is quite a feat. This is even more impressive when you factor in the shortened COVID-19 season when Samford just had six wins. Putting that win total into perspective, it took John Brady until his sixth season to get his 90th victory and McMillan did it in 32 fewer games.

Bucky McMillan sits first in school history in winning percentage. He has won 67.2% of his games and that includes a shortened 2020 COVID season in his first season. If you take out that season, McMillan has won 73% of his games while at Samford with a 84-31 record. His winning percentage is the highest for a coach in Samford’s history and it is not even close.

That is remarkable especially for a program that has struggled mightily before McMillan took over.

McMillan has also won three championships in his time already with a co-regular season, outright regular season and a conference tournament championship. The last two championships came last season with arguably the best team in school history. Last year’s SoCon tournament championship was the first since Samford joined the conference in 2008.

In Samford’s history, they have won eight conference championships. Bucky McMillan has three of those. He has also won three straight Southern Conference Coach of the Year awards, the first SoCon head coach to do that in the last 50 years.

For the first time in school history, McMillan achieved three straight 20-win seasons and the first to have back-to-back 20-win seasons. Last season, Samford set a school record for wins with 29.

McMillan also has had to do this with constant roster turnover given the transfer portal and NIL era which makes coaching in mid-major basketball that much harder. It is definitely harder now than ever before.

Then you include McMillan’s championships along with having to compete against tougher competition makes it even more impressive. McMillan’s average overall strength of schedule rating is the highest in Samford history per College Basketball Reference.

Last season, Samford also reached their highest NET ranking and KenPom ranking in school history. Samford finished 81st in KenPom last season. Before McMillan took the job, Samford was in the bottom 30 of the country in NET ranking and KenPom. That is like if McMillan took over the 2025 version of Alabama A&M or Alabama State and placed them in the SoCon.

Why can we not use UAB and head coach Andy Kennedy as an example? Well they have a much better basketball history as they have made the Sweet 16 twice and also have an Elite Eight appearance. The Blazers also have a higher budget which is significantly higher than Samford’s*

*Still waiting on that home-and-home game contract UAB Athletic Director*

In Scott Padgett’s penultimate (and honestly should have been his last) season, Samford finished 298th in KenPom with a 10-22 record.

With all this being said, the real credit has to go to Samford athletic director Martin Newton who hired McMillan from Mountain Brook High School. McMillan had zero college coaching experience as we all know. The first two hires Newton made in Bennie Seltzer and Scott Padgett did not work. Both of those coaches had good players transferring out in bunches before transferring was a thing. This hire had to work and it absolutely has. 

Along with Samford President Beck Taylor, they are the right people to continue to take Samford basketball to heights it never has reached.

If you ask those who are from Mountain Brook and have followed Mountain Brook basketball for a long time, they are not surprised by McMillan’s fast Samford success. He is doing the same thing at Samford that he did at Mountain Brook. Before he got hired at Mountain Brook, the Spartans had never played in a state championship game and only been to one Final Four (when McMillan played!).

McMillan proceeded to win five state titles in seven seasons, won the National Coach of the Year in 2018 and got the Spartans to a top five ranking nationally in 2019. Oh, he also has two former players in the NBA in Trendon Watford and Colby Jones.

So we have gotten to this point, what’s next? Well right now Samford is working to get back into the NCAA Tournament. The next step after that is winning a game in the Big Dance. How far can this program go?

Everyone wants to use the phrase, “Why can’t we be the next Gonzaga.” Sure that would be nice but let’s put a ban on saying that. Samford is striving to be more than that. Just talking about it is not enough, plans need to be put into action as well. To get there, it needs the resources to keep up in this era of college basketball. Samford is getting better in that regard, but there is always more to do. 

We do know that McMillan will continue to win basketball games. It is up to the Samford leaders to match that intensity off the court. There is always more to do and more to give.

For now, get to the Pete Hanna Center to support these Bulldogs. There are only seven more times to do that in 2025. There is not a better show on the hardwood right now than Bucky Ball. If there is one other thing we do know, it’s a movement.