Bucky McMillan Reflects on Texas A&M's Surprising Year One in College Station

Despite a less than desirable end to the season, the Aggies still showed clear signs of progress under head coach Bucky McMillan.

Mar 19, 2026; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Texas A&M Aggies coach Bucky McMillan during a first round game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

The No. 10-seed Texas A&M Aggies saw their basketball season come to an end at the hands of the No. 2-seed Houston Cougars on Saturday night. The 88-57 loss was the largest margin the Aggies faced this year.

While Texas A&M's season didn't end the way they hoped, the overall trajectory for the program is clearly headed upwards. The Aggies were projected to finish the regular season as the No. 13 team in the SEC, but went on to make the NCAA Tournament's second round.

Head coach Bucky McMillan, Rashaun Agee, and Pop Isaacs met with the media after the loss. McMillan spoke highly of the 2025-26 squad, not only for what they accomplished this season, but for how they were able to do it with so many new faces on the roster.

Inside McMillan's Reflection on Year One

Mar 18, 2026; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Bucky McMillan speaks to the media during a press conference ahead of the first round of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

When asked about year one as the head coach at Texas A&M, McMillan pointed to how the Aggies exceeded the expectations of many. He also noted how competitive the Aggies were against most of their opponents this season, and how the program should only continue to trend upward.

"I think it's great when you can be a tournament team, you can compete in our league, which has been analytically the toughest league in the country the past two years," McMillan said. "I think we have an identity of who we are and how we're going to play.

"We've showed we can play with a lot of teams...but I do think that this was a major step getting to the tournament this year, where we finished in the SEC, and I think that it should just continue to grow from here."

McMillan then transitioned into how he felt about his roster as a whole. As many know, Texas A&M didn't return any of its starters from last season. The head coach said that despite not knowing each other when they joined the program, the group still forged a strong identity together that showed itself during March Madness.

The Aggies' head coach also spoke briefly on how you can draw similarities between his group and teams that have played with each other for years.

"We're very thankful to this group," McMillan added. "If you saw all the tears in that locker room, that usually happens when you have a team more like Houston's that brings back a lot of guys. Maybe a group like last year's A&M team that had a lot of guys that played together for years."

"We had no returners virtually and these guys came together for eight or nine months from all over the world. They're crying their eyes out because it meant so much to them, so that means something is right, they didn't want it to be over with."

McMillan closed his thoughts on the season as a whole by looking at the bigger picture. In only his first year in College Station, Texas A&M surpassed nearly all expectations. The best part? He doesn't seem satisfied with just a single win in the NCAA Tournament.

"If you told us before the season that we would do this, I'd still say 'no, because I want to go to the Final Four', but if you take yourself away from it and you say where everything started and where we got to, you'd probably say that that's a pretty big deal for this group and we're only gonna keep getting better."

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