Texas A&M Aggies Coach Bucky McMillan Explains "Bucky Ball” Origins

Texas A&M coach Bucky McMillan discussed what makes his style of basketball so special.

Samford Bulldogs head coach Bucky McMillan during the NCAA first round practice session at Delta Center. / Rob Gray-Imagn Images

In one of the most tradition-rich environments in the nation, new Texas A&M basketball coach Bucky McMillan hopes to start a new one in Aggieland.

McMillan’s uptempo style of basketball has been deemed “Bucky Ball,” and relies on hustle, quick 3-pointers and smothering defense. He recently discussed the origins of “Bucky Ball” with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein.

Samford Bulldogs head coach Bucky McMillan during the second half in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament against the Kansas Jayhawks at Vivint Smart Home Arena-Delta Center. / Gabriel Mayberry-Imagn Images

The Aggies’ new coach has an impressive high school coaching resume at Alabama’s Mountain Brook High School, where McMillan said “Bucky Ball” was coined.

“When I was coaching high school basketball in Alabama back in the day, all the coaches in the suburban schools they played in the ’30s and ’40s,” McMillan said. “Really slow. Ran the flags. No shot clock. Shoot it after a minute, and we were just — if I coached, we were never going to do that. We were going to trap until they shot the ball. Shoot as quickly as possible. Take a lot of threes.”

Essentially, his different pace and style set his teams apart from the teams they were playing, thus bringing on the term “Bucky Ball.”

McMillan is not the only contributor to “Bucky Ball,” he told Rothestein. He said his collegiate coach played a major role in shaping his own game plan as a coach.

"I played for a great college coach in Duane Reboul, who was the coach of Birmingham Southern, who was in the Big South at the time," McMillan said. "He went to an NAIA national championship before that, and he was kind of the same way, early three-point shooting before it was popular, spacing the floor. I studied him a lot."

The Aggies will see “Bucky Ball” in action as they traverse through their gauntlet of a road SEC schedule. They will travel to Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama and Auburn in McMillan’s first year as A&M’s leader.

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