Rising Conferences: The Rise of Samford Basketball
Bucky McMillan has Samford off to their best start in program history this season. Let's visit Samford's basketball history and what led to the craziness that is Bucky Ball.
Samford is a small private college that sits on a beautiful campus in the suburb of Homewood outside Birmingham Alabama. As of the fall of 2023, they had just a shade under 6,000 students.
Samford joined the Division 1 ranks as an independent team in 1972 and stayed independent until 1978 when it joined the Trans America Athletic Conference. Samford called the TAAC home from 1978 until 2001 when it rebranded into the Atlantic Sun and stayed for a two-season stint. The TAAC saw teams like Troy, Georgia State, Samford, Jacksonville State, Central Florida, Campbell, Stetson, Mercer, Jacksonville, and Florida Atlantic.
During the Bulldogs run in the TAAC, they saw their only two NCAA Appearances come in 1999 and 2000 where they lose both times in the first round as the 14th and 13th seeds respectively. Long Time head coach Jimmy Tillette led the Bulldogs to a 24-6 record and 21-11 record in each season.
Fun fact, in the 1999 season, Samford won the TAAC conference tournament despite being the 3rd seed. Florida Atlantic’s record that season? 2-28 overall and 0-18 in conference. Crazy what a couple of decades can do to a school.
For Samford, after back-to-back NCAA appearances, Samford stayed in the TAAC when it rebranded into the Atlantic Sun for two seasons. In both of those seasons, they saw mediocre results. After just two years, the Bulldogs left the A-Sun and joined the Ohio Valley Conference. In their 5 seasons in the OVC, they again saw mediocre results 4 out of 5 seasons. In 2005-2006 season, Jimmy Tillette led the Bulldogs to a 20-11 record, while 14-6 in conference play. Unfortunately for Samford, Murray State was a powerhouse that season and took the OVC’s lone bid.
After hopping around 3 conferences in a ten-year period, Samford finally found a permanent home in Southern Conference in 2008. Jimmy Tillette remained the head coach until 2012 after four seasons of mediocre results where the Bulldogs finished below .500 in 3 out of four seasons. Bennie Seltzer took over as the head coach, however, after just two seasons and a 24-41 record, he was also dismissed.
The Bulldogs then hired Scott Padgett who had been serving under Seltzer as an assistant coach. Samford saw better results under Padgett finishing with a 20-16 record in 2017 with a CIT appearance, however, out of the six seasons Padgett was the head coach, they finished below .500 in 4 out of 6. In conference, they never finished above .500. As a result, Padgett was dismissed in 2020.
Seeking some way to stop the cycle of mediocracy, Samford hired Bucky McMillan. Previously, McMillan was serving as the head coach of Mountain Brook High School where he posted a 333-74 record from 2008-2020. Yes, Bucky was a 12-year high school coach who made the jump to Division 1. In fact, he was named the USA Today’s Alabama Coach of the Year in 2019.
His first season saw mixed results, as most transition seasons do. The Bulldogs finished 6-13 overall and 2-9 in the SoCon during the Covid shortened season. However, something happened. Samford went 21-11, 10-8 in conference in 2021-2022, then 21-11 again, but 15-3 in conference in 2022-2023, and now they are off to the best start in program history in 2023-2024. The Bulldogs are 18-3 overall and 7-1 in conference. How has Bucky done it?
Bucky Ball.
Bucky Ball has been a term that’s coined from McMillan’s unique style of up-tempo offense. In fact, Samford ranks 17th out of 362 teams in offensive rating, while also ranking 100 out of 362 teams in defensive rating. For a team that is as good as Samford is offensively, you usually must sacrifice defense, but Bucky has found a way to be an offensive juggernaut while also still playing decent defense.
This season, Samford has scored below 75 points in a game, just 3 times, in which all three were their losses to Purdue, VCU, and Furman. The Bulldogs have scored over 100 points in a game 3 times, and over 90 points in a game 7 times. That is insane for a college basketball team. Some of what’s come into play is their Strength of Schedule, which some have argued has inflated their stats, however, I’d argue that this has better set up the Bulldogs to compete in their Mid-Major conference.
Bucky found a diamond in the rough in Achor Achor who was a JUCO transfer out of Chipola College. Achor had offers from Bowling Green, Bradley, North Carolina A&T, UIC, McNeese, and Bryant before settling with Samford as his school of choice. Two years later, he’s averaging 16.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and nearly 2 blocks per game. He’s shooting an insane 61.2% from the floor on the season. This is all while averaging just 21.5 minutes per game. That might seem odd to you, but that’s Bucky Ball.
Most college teams will have a couple of players average 30 minutes or more per game, then another 4 or so that average 20, and maybe sprinkle 1 or 2 that average 10. Nope, not Samford. Currently 10 players that have played in many of their games are averaging over 13 minutes per game. Their top scorers don’t average more than 21 minutes per game. Their leading player in minutes? Rylan Jones at just 24.7 minutes per game.
Cross-referencing these statistics back to the offensive rating, it’s clear that a big piece of Bucky Ball is fresh legs. Why drive your best players into the ground when you can recruit a whole team of offensive players that you can swap in-and-out and never take your foot off the pedal. This is what’s led the Bulldogs to have one of the most efficient offenses in conference.
Bucky Ball is real, it’s intense, and it’s fun to watch. In just four seasons, he has taken a program that’s had two decades of mediocrity and turned it into a fast-growing name in the country among college basketball fans. Samford is well on its way to its first NCAA tournament in two decades and will be a whiplash for the team that get’s called against them on Selection Sunday.