By: Joey Mullins
 
Bucky McMillan was hired as Samford's head men's basketball coach on April 6, 2020. While this is his first job at the collegiate level, McMillan brings a wealth of coaching experience that will benefit the Bulldog program for years to come.

When McMillan was 15 years old, he began coaching his brother's Over the Mountain (OTM) basketball team. He then moved on to coaching a team with the Alabama I Can Through Education Foundation. When he was a student-athlete at Birmingham-Southern College, McMillan coached a 17-and-under AAU team that finished sixth among the estimated 150 teams at the national tournament in Orlando.

Given this, it was no surprise when McMillan decided to pursue a career in coaching after graduating from Birmingham-Southern. Not only did he already have experience coaching, but he had learned from three coaches who had taught him a great deal.

First, his father, who was an appellate judge by profession, coached his team in the OTM basketball league. The senior McMillan's love for coaching basketball had a profound effect on the future career of his son.

"When you're younger, you see what your father does and you look up to your father," McMillan said. "The impact he had as a coach on so many people always stuck in my mind."

McMillan played high school basketball at Mountain Brook High School under another of his mentors, Mark Cornelius. McMillan credits Cornelius with teaching him a great deal about the game of basketball.
McMillan then moved on to Birmingham-Southern College where he played for Coach Duane Reboul, who probably had the biggest impact on his coaching career. McMillan says that Reboul, who is now on McMillan's Samford staff as an assistant to the head coach, had a great ability to relate to all types of people.

"Coach Reboul probably had as big of an impact on me as anybody in my life, outside of my family," McMillan said. "What Coach Reboul was really good at was he could talk to people from all different backgrounds. My father was able to do the same thing. He could relate to people and talk to them, it didn't matter if they were a wealthy kid from the suburbs or a kid who was poverty stricken. It didn't matter what the color of your skin was, Coach Reboul did a great job relating to them and getting everybody to buy into the same mission of teamwork and hard work."

After graduating from Birmingham-Southern in 2007, McMillan was hired as the junior varsity basketball coach at Mountain Brook, and he spent the last 12 years as the school's head varsity coach.

As the head varsity coach, he led the Mountain Brook program to unprecedented success, reaching the state finals in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, and the team won the title in the state's highest classification in 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019. He accumulated 332 wins, averaging nearly 28 wins per season.

While the Mountain Brook program had reached some success previously, the team had never seen the sustained success it reached under McMillan's direction. McMillan said one of the biggest factors was getting people to believe that success at that level was possible.

"We had a lot of success that I don't think people thought was possible," McMillan said. "The biggest factor was just putting confidence in people. We could do it, through a lot of hard work and teamwork."

When the opportunity to come to Samford came up after the 2019-20 season, McMillan said Director of Athletics Martin Newton was a big part of why he chose to accept the offer.

"I really think Martin Newton is a great athletics director," McMillan said. "I know he cares about the different sports, and he loves basketball. You want an athletics director that is going to fight for your program. He's given me this opportunity and we want to make him look good, because we all respect him. I really just think the world of him as an athletics director."

McMillan said having the ability to win, but also to do things the right way and provide a quality education was important to him as well.

"I couldn't coach at a place where I couldn't be successful on the floor, and I know we can be successful here," McMillan said. "But I also wouldn't want to coach at a place just because you can be successful there. It has to be a place that the values align and a place that you can say, if I had a son, I would be proud if he went to school there. This is a place that hits all fronts from the academics to the athletics, and just the core values of the institution."

McMillan was hired at Samford during a very difficult time, with the campus closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the situation has made his transition even more challenging. 

"We didn't get to meet our team face-to-face until late July," McMillan said. "It's really unique, whenever you come in as a new coach, wanting to establish a new culture, establish style of play, work with your guys and get to know them. This year it has been a phenomenal challenge."

McMillan and his staff have been working with the team since returning to campus in late July. He said he likes what he has seen, but he wants to see more consistency from the players.

"I think the biggest thing is, we have to get guys who are consistently playing hard and unselfish, and we're moving in that direction," McMillan said.

McMillan has surrounded himself with an experienced coaching staff. In addition to Reboul, his staff consists of assistant coaches Tra Arnold (recruiting coordinator), Sergio Rouco and Gerald Gillion, Director of Player Development and Scouting David Good, and Director of Operations and Analytics Matthew Powell.

"I wanted to bring in guys who could compliment things that I don't have experience with," McMillan said. "One of the things in high school you don't experience is, you don't go out and recruit players to come to your university, so I wanted guys who have experience doing that."

The NCAA announced recently that schools could begin their basketball seasons on Nov. 25, just two weeks after the normal start date of Nov. 10. McMillan said he looks forward to starting his first season with the Bulldogs.

"Everything I hear is that the majority of the coaches are ready," McMillan said. "I think most people want to have that full season. Obviously, with the virus, the circumstances are unique and it's something you have to take seriously. It seems like we're getting closer and closer to understanding it."

As we approach the start of the 2020-21 basketball season, excitement is building around the Samford men's basketball program. A new era in the program is beginning and all of Samford is looking forward to seeing what the future of the program holds under new Head Coach Bucky McMillan.