New beginnings in a familiar community: From Mountain Brook to Samford
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BVM) — Call it being in the right place at the right time. After 12 seasons of coaching boys basketball at the perennial powerhouse Mountain Brook High School, head coach Bucky McMillan is getting the opportunity he has rightfully earned. He will now be the 29th head coach in Samford University men鈥檚 basketball history.聽
McMillan will be taking over for former head coach Scott Padgett, who accumulated an 84-115 record over the span of his six-year tenure at Samford. Their best Southern Conference finish throughout that time frame was tied for sixth. After years of mediocrity for the Bulldogs, the Alabama native will be trusted with the turnaround operation, and with good reason.
During his 12 years at Mountain Brook, the 36-year-old won five state championships at the highest classification. He got the Spartans to the title game two other years, where they finished as runner-up. He registered 333 victories, good for an average of nearly 28 per season. These statistics came with high honors, as he was named the Alabama-Mississippi all-star game head coach, and in 2018 was named National Coach of the Year by the National Coaches Association.聽
McMillan also hosts the Bucky Ball Academy, a youth camp to enhance and unify basketball in the Mountain Brook community. The camp focuses on creating players who orient their game around the values of hard work, unselfishness and fearlessness. He will continue to host this camp while at Samford.聽
As a player, McMillan is actually an alumnus of Mountain Brook High, where he was a standout leading the team to the state鈥檚 final four in 2001. He went on to compete at Division III Birmingham Southern University and was named to the league鈥檚 all-academic team his senior season. On the court he did a little bit of everything, averaging 6.8 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game en route to a 19-9 finish.聽
Now entering his inaugural season as a Division I college basketball coach, McMillan has the tools at his disposal to begin the program鈥檚 renaissance. His experiences of both coaching and playing at a high level, alongside the fact that the Bulldogs lost only two seniors to graduation will give him plenty to work with. Additionally, McMillan鈥檚 former coach at Birmingham Southern, Duane Reboul, also came out of retirement to join his staff at Samford as a special assistant.聽
The new position will also allow McMillan the comfort of remaining in his hometown. Mountain Brook and Birmingham are just 10 minutes away from one another, so the pressures of finding a new home and building new connections in a new environment are something he won鈥檛 have to worry about.
With the pieces of the puzzle coming together, optimism is starting to build around the program once again. McMillan has people hopeful thanks to his unique basketball mind. Martin Newton, the director of athletics at Samford University, summed up the community’s excitement in one sentence via a Bulldogs press release.聽
鈥淚 encourage everyone to get their season tickets now and enjoy the Bucky Ball era of Samford basketball,鈥� Newton said.聽
