Samford Basketball Coaching Hot Board: Who Should Samford Target?
Samford is officially looking for their 30th head men’s basketball coach in their history. Bucky McMillan has left for Texas A&M after five seasons and a 99-52 overall record. Here is a breakdown of nine potential candidates that Samford’s administration should contact.
Mitch Cole (Current Texas A&M Associate Head Coach)
If Samford wants to continue the continuity from the previous regime, look no further than former Samford associate head coach Mitch Cole. Cole has been a head coach before at Birmingham-Southern and Berry College. He went 51-17 in three seasons at Berry before coming to Samford to join Bucky McMillan’s staff in 2021. Cole was an assistant at Little Rock and also at Texas A&M from 2011-2016.
He was also an assistant under Duane Reboul at Birmingham-Southern who recruited McMillan to BSC.
Cole would have the best chance at keeping Samford’s recruiting class together and get some on last year’s roster to return. He has been officially named as Bucky’s right-hand man at Texas A&M so that could already eliminate Cole from the running.
Mick Hedgepeth (Alabama-Huntsville Head Coach)
Mick Hedgepeth is just 35 years old but Samford could look his way just as they did with McMillan, a potential star on the rise. In just one season at UAH, Hedgepeth went 32-2 and was named the Gulf South Conference Coach of the Year. Both of UAH’s losses came to Nova Southeastern to bookend the Chargers' season. Before UAH, Hedgepeth was the coach at Berry College and Sewanee before that with a combined 80-31 record.
Hedgepeth plays a similar style to Bucky Ball in terms of scoring output. UAH was 15th in Division II in points per game with 88, finished 11th in DII in three-point percentage with 39%, and second in overall field goal percentage (52%). They scored 80+ points in 27 of their 34 games.
He played at Crossville High School in Crossville, Alabama before playing collegiately at Belmont. Hedgepeth finished with over 1,000 career points and was inducted into the Belmont Hall of Fame in 2023.
Ander Galfsky (Chattanooga Assistant Coach)
Galfsky just finished his third season at Chattanooga as an assistant coach. He played collegiately at Birmingham-Southern under head coach Chris Graves who replaced Mitch Cole in 2011. Galfsky worked at Campbell as the Director of Basketball Ops before leaving there to join Dan Earl’s staff at VMI.
He then joined Earl’s staff at Chattanooga where he became an associate head coach and was elevated to lead assistant during his time there. Galfsky played a major role in recruiting the roster in Chattanooga and it could be his time to be a head coach.
He has not been a head coach before but Samford’s last coach came from high school. Want to hit one of your SoCon rivals and hire the NIT champions’s lead assistant? You can do that.
Trey Montgomery (Colgate Assistant Coach)
Montgomery is a Samford alumnus playing at Samford from 2006-2010. He finished his career with over 1,000 career points and more than 350 rebounds, 200 assists and 100 steals. He made 112 appearances which included 88 consecutive starts to finish. Montgomery is another young coach who could fit the mold of what Samford is looking for.
He was heralded for being a great leader on and off the court during his time at Samford. Montgomery has been an assistant at Colgate since 2022 and Penn University before that.
Lennie Acuff (Lipscomb Head Coach)
Going away from the younger coach who could be ready for a bigger job is Lipscomb head coach Lennie Acuff. Acuff, 60, led Lipscomb to the NCAA Tournament this past season going 25-10 and 14-4 in Atlantic Sun play. Lipscomb just had their third straight 20-win season. Acuff was the head coach at Alabama-Huntsville from 1997 to 2019. There he became the all-time winningest coach in Gulf South Conference history with a 437-214 record.
Acuff’s daughter lives in Birmingham and his son is an assistant coach at Montevallo. He knows the state very well and would bring over 35 years of coaching, 32 of being a head coach to Homewood. He just made the tournament but would he be looking to make a move back to his home state?
Tony Pujol (North Alabama Head Coach)
Pujol, 57, just finished his seventh season as the head coach at North Alabama. He just had his best year yet at UNA with a 24-11 record and an NIT appearance. His UNA team took Samford to overtime earlier this year. Pujol was an assistant at Alabama from 2009-2014. North Alabama’s first season in Division I was his first season in 2008. In his time at UNA, he had 12 all-conference selections, including five on the league's All-Freshman Team.
Ronald Nored (Atlanta Hawks Assistant Coach)
Nored made himself known as the point guard for Brad Stevens’s Butler teams who went to the Final Four in consecutive seasons. He is from Homewood where he starred at Homewood High School taking Homewood to the AHSAA State Finals in 2008. Nored does have head coaching experience in the G-League from 2016-2018.
He has worked his way up to be an NBA assistant since 2018 for the Charlotte Hornets, Indiana Pacers, and now the Atlanta Hawks. It has been a popular move this coaching cycle for schools to hire coaches with NBA or G-League experience. Would Nored leave an NBA assistant job to be a collegiate head coach? That is the question.
Andrew Wilson (VMI HC)
Wilson just finished his third season at VMI leading them to a 15-19 record which is only the third time in 10 years that VMI had double-digit wins. VMI is one of if not the hardest job in the country and there is no doubt Wilson made noise with VMI this past season. This was only his third season being a head coach working at James Madison and Georgia Southern previously among others.
He has no connections to the state of Alabama but if you offered anybody a good job to get out of Lexington, Virginia, from the hardest job in the country, they would.
Jim Crutchfield (Nova Southeastern Head Coach)
Crutchfield is older at the age of 69 but he just wins basketball games. He has been a DII legend for his entire career and has built an absolute machine at Nova-Southeastern. NSU just won their second DII national championship in three years going 36-1. You can count on one hand the number of losses for Nova Southeastern, five, in the last four seasons.
People would say that Crutchfield has absolutely made for himself in Florida and is pretty content. Would he really be looking to move up at this age? Most people say probably not but he would definitely be worth a call.
Time is of the essence for Samford when it comes to naming a new head coach. The portal has been open for two weeks and Samford just has one player that was on the roster last season. The new coach could very well come from outside this list of candidates. There is no time to waste.
