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Texas A&M Sticks it to Buzz Williams With Huge Recruiting Win

Bucky Ball is already winning.
DJ Burton|
Texas A&M Aggies head coach Buzz Williams during the first half in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena.
Texas A&M Aggies head coach Buzz Williams during the first half in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena. | Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

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Texas A&M Aggies

Just over five months ago, Texas A&M basketball was in shambles. Coach Buzz Williams had just announced his departure to Maryland, and the roster had just been purged through the transfer portal and graduation. 

Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts made the call to hire coach Bucky McMillan, a young coach fresh off of revitalizing the Samford Bulldogs after assembling a high school coaching career that turned Alabama high school hoops upside down. 

McMillan landed his first high school recruit at Texas A&M on Thursday, securing a commitment from four-star guard Neiko Mundey following his official visit on Sept. 13. 

Neiko Mundey, Get Ready to Learn Bucky Ball

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

McMillan was able to steal Mundey from right under Williams’s nose. Mundey, a 2026 6-foot-3 combo guard out of Prince George’s Christian Academy in Landover, Maryland, is ranked as the third-best player in the state. He is also considered the eighth-best guard and the No. 65 overall player nationally. In typical Williams fashion, the Terrapins had no interest in the star guard and never extended an offer to him. 

“Mundey is an aggressive and competitive two-way player who brings a consistently high level of intensity to the court,” 247Sports director of scouting Adam Finkelstein wrote in his scouting report. “He scores in high volume, has the early makings of a true defensive stopper, and makes things happen on both ends of the floor.”

Mundey is an explosive playmaker who averaged 21 points per game with a 44 percent shooting percentage while going 40 percent from beyond the arc. Mundey’s skillset will fit nicely with McMillan’s “Bucky Ball” playstyle. The high-paced, aggressive tempo plays right into Mundey’s best attributes, likely being one of the biggest factors in his commitment. 

“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 told CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein regarding the origins of the nickname. “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.”

Texas A&M fans will get their first chance to see Bucky Ball and the new Aggies basketball squad in action a little over a month away when the team squares off against the Arizona State Sun Devils in Rosenberg, Texas on October 26. 

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DJ Burton
DJ BURTON

DJ Burton is a journalist from Kingwood, Texas. He is a credentialed writer for Texas A&M Aggies On SI. He graduated from Texas A&M with a journalism major and a sport management minor. Before attending A&M, Burton played offensive line for two seasons at Hiram College in northeast Ohio, where he studied sport management. Burton brings experience covering football, baseball, softball, men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball. He also served as a senior sports writer for A&M’s student newspaper, The Battalion.

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