Paul Finebaum: Texas A&M is in 'a much better position' with Bucky McMillan than Buzz Williams

The Southeastern Conference has had the great showing that the league wanted during March Madness. However, the lone team who had a coaching change, after exiting in the opening weekend of the tournament, is the one that Paul Finebaum is best-suited for better success next season than they had in this one.

On ‘McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning’ on Monday, Finebaum made that point. He didn’t say which program at first but clearly hinted it was the hire of Bucky McMillan by Texas A&M.

“I know the question is coming here but I can tell you, right off the bat, one school who made the playoffs this year has already upgraded and I’ll just let that one sit there for a second,” Finebaum said.

When asked by McElroy, Finebaum dove into the hire of McMillan by the Aggies to end last week. He thinks that A&M is now better set to contend than they were with the floor and ceiling that they had established under Buzz Williams, who left almost a week ago now to become the new head coach of Maryland. Fans in Aggieland may not fully believe that yet but is something that Finebaum thinks is true based on his resumé in coming from Samford.

“The easy answer is Texas A&M. I think Texas A&M today sits in a much better position with Bucky McMillan to get to a Final Four than it did under Buzz Williams,” sad Finebaum. “And I know it’s easy to pile on Buzz Williams after he left. He was a good coach. He wasn’t a great coach. He could take you to the tournament, he might win you a game. He wasn’t going to get you too much farther than that. I think Bucky McMillan has a chance to, to completely be an absolute game-changer in the SEC.”

“Anybody who has been up close with Bucky McMillan the last however many years at Mountain Brook (High School) and, obviously the last couple years at Samford understands what we’re saying. And that’s okay,” Finebaum said. “I don’t need to convince A&M fans because they were more hung up on their athletic director the other day, was he running coaches off. Instead, he went and, to me, made one of the best coaching hires I’ve seen in many, many years.”

McMillan is 99-52 (.656) overall through his five seasons at Samford as the Bulldogs won three league title in the SoCon and made the NCAA Tournament in 2024 for their first appearance since the turn of the century as they nearly upset Kansas. ‘Bucky Ball’ powered that success as his style of play with a high tempo that saw them score 79.8 points per game in his tenure, including three-straight offense in the Top-30 and two-straight in the Top-15 nationally, while it caused their opponents to average 15.1 turnovers a game.

It’ll be interesting to see how McMillan translates into coaching in the SEC. For now, though, Finebaum really likes the choice as one of the better hires he has seen in recent seasons.