‘Bucky ball’ comes to Texas A&M as Bucky McMillan takes his coaching talents to College Station. But will his offensive system work well with new players up and down the roster?
The tradition continues! It’s another year of our countdown of the top 100 preseason teams in college basketball until the start of the season. Each day, we will reveal the next team until we reach the team slotted at number one. Up next: Texas A&M basketball.
The past few seasons, Bucky McMillan led one of the most dominant teams in mid-major hoops as Samford compiled a 51-17 record since 2023, reaching the NCAA Tournament in 2024 and nearly upsetting Kansas.
McMillan’s offense has been one of the highest scoring in the country – 82.9 PPG last year was 14th best. The year before? 5th in the nation at 86.1 PPG. It took a few years to reach those heights, but it quickly became known as ‘Bucky ball.’
Now, McMillan takes over at Texas A&M, where he’s hoping to implement that offense with a whole new program and roster. No players remain from last year’s team, so it’s not even worth talking about how A&M can improve. It’s a complete restart.
And the restart includes quite the roster. The starting backcourt of Pop Isaacs and Marcus Hill has power conference experience and players who play with burst, will score the basketball, but will also look to play quickly and move it to teammates. Playing quickly is important for McMillan’s system, so that should be fun to watch in this backcourt.
Then there’s former Alabama and Kansas wing Rylan Griffen. He’s had an up-and-down few seasons but has shown an ability to can three-point shots in the past.
Down low? Former five-star recruit Mackenzie Mgbako from Indiana and big man Federiko Federiko. They round out a team filled with household names in college basketball. It feels as if there could be a show made about this squad. It’s a team filled with talent – but also many, many personalities.
And I didn’t even get to the bench, which features 2x-All-Atlantic-Sun player Jacari Lane, seventh-year forward Rashaun Agee, and Ali Dibba, who is on his fourth team in five years and was an All-Missouri Valley Conference selection a year ago.
Further down the bench? Former Kansas big man Zach Clemence and former Texas Longhorn Jamie Vinson. As if we needed more players to feature in this sitcom!
McMillan also brought along former Samford guard Josh Holloway, along with a few other depth pieces. Needless to say, it’s a deep team, which is required to make sure the fast-paced offense works as it should. But does it have the right pieces to make it run like a well-oiled machine? We’ll get to that further down in this article!
Head coach: Bucky McMillan (1st season at Texas A&M, 6th season overall)
2024-25 record: 23-11 (11-7)
2025 postseason finish: Lost to Michigan (91-79) in second round of NCAA Tournament
Notable departures:
- EVERYONE
Notable non-conference games:
- at Oklahoma State (Nov. 9)
- vs. UCF (Nov. 14)
- vs. Florida State (Nov. 28) – Tampa, FL
- at Pitt (Dec. 2)
- vs. SMU (Dec. 7)
Projected Rotation
PG: Pop Isaacs (6-2, 182, Jr.)
2024-25 stats: 16.3 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 3.9 APG, 38.3 3P% (Creighton)
SG: Marcus Hill (6-3, 192, Gr.-Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 11.5 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 1.6 APG (NC State)
SF: Rylan Griffen (6-5, 181, Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 6.3 PPG, 2.1 RPG, 1.4 APG, 37.2 FG% (Kansas)
PF: Mackenzie Mgbako (6-9, 225, Jr.)
2024-25 stats: 12.2 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 1.1 APG (Indiana)
C: Federiko Federiko (6-11, 226, Gr.-Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 5.1 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 0.7 APG, 74.3 FG% (Texas Tech)
6: Jacari Lane (6-0, 178, Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 17.3 PPG, 4.0 APG, 3.2 RPG, 1.3 SPG, 40.6 3P% (North Alabama)
7: Rashaun Agee (6-7, 231, Gr.-Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 9.4 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 1.0 APG, 55.0 FG%, 39.1 3P% (USC)
8: Ali Dibba (6-5, 210, Gr.-Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 17.2 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.5 SPG (Southern Illinois)
9: Josh Holloway (6-1, 178, Jr.)
2024-25 stats: 7.9 PPG, 2.7 APG, 2.7 RPG, 1.5 SPG (Samford)
10: Jamie Vinson (6-11, 243, So.)
2024-25 stats: 2.2 PPG, 1.1 RPG, 0.1 APG, 75.0 FG%, 4.8 MPG, 9 GP (Texas)
11: Zach Clemence (6-11, 232, Gr.-Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 1.4 PPG, 1.4 RPG, 0.4 APG, 5.3 MPG, 8 GP (Kansas)
12: Jeremiah Green (6-3, 189, Fr.)
247Sports Composite #136-ranked recruit
13: Chris McDermott (6-7, 228, So.)
2024-25 stats: 1.3 PPG, 2.1 RPG, 0.3 APG, 37.5 FG%, 6.4 MPG, 7 GP
14: Noah Shelby (6-3, 190, Jr.)
2024-25 stats: 3.9 PPG, 1.0 RPG, 0.8 APG, 35.1 FG% (Rice)
15: Ruben Dominguez (6-6, 213, So.)
International recruit from Spain
Texas A&M basketball team MVP: Mackenzie Mgbako
As a former 5-star recruit, Mgbako had an impressive freshman season at Indiana, averaging 12.2 PPG, 4.1 RPG, and 1.3 APG. However, as a sophomore, his scoring average remained the same, rebounding increased by a small margin, and assists decreased slightly. In fairness, Mgbako also played about two minutes fewer per game, and that led to him entering the transfer portal for his junior season.
Now, he figures to be a star and go-to option for Texas A&M. While Pop Isaacs could lead the team in scoring if he needed to, he’ll also have to do a good chunk of facilitating. And Mgbako has a unique blend of toughness and energy around the rim while also having some range. He can play the small forward of the Aggies want to go big, or the power forward if they want to go small.
It’ll be tough to tell how spread out the scoring is for a Texas A&M team with a lot of talent and guys who have been called upon to put the ball in the basket at previous schools. But Mgbako seems like a good bet to be a force in that department with the potential for a breakout season if his new team treats him as such.
Texas A&M basketball make-or-break player: Rylan Griffen
What can Rylan Griffen be for this Aggies team? At Kansas, he was an afterthought and also struggled with efficiency. His 37.2 FG% and lack of production in other parts of the game made it difficult for Bill Self to keep him in the game. In fact, Griffen saw a decrease of six minutes per game compared to his sophomore year at Alabama.
And that sophomore campaign is what Texas A&M is hoping to get out of the former top-50 recruit. Griffen averaged 11.2 PPG, shot 39.2% from three, and pulled down 3.4 RPG – not a strength of his game – but showed more of a willingness to contribute. That’s what Texas A&M is going to need out of Griffen. If he can become a tone setter for a team that will definitely need that to gel correctly, it can really set the stage for great things to come.
Key analytic: 3P%
A big part of ‘Bucky ball’ at Samford was having a team that could drain three-pointers. In the 2023-24 campaign, when Samford went 29-6, they ranked 5th in the country in 3P%. While Texas A&M doesn’t need to be lights out, they do need to be an above-average three-point shooting team to maximize McMillan’s offensive scheme.
And right now, that’s a problem. Right now, the only surefire guys in that department is Lane (40.6 3P% last season). Isaacs started on fire from deep last season and shot 37.8% behind the arc as a freshman, but was terrible as a sophomore, well below 30%. We talked about Griffen’s struggles last year, too, so while they both have potential, it’s tough to say they can be reliable game-to-game from distance.
Agee shot very well last year, but also doesn’t attempt a lot of threes, and before that was virtually a non-factor and liability from distance.
And the rest of the key players are far from reliable, with Hill shooting roughly 20% from deep last year, Holloway at worse than 30%, and Dibba around 34%.
To be clear, if McMillan can maximize and draw consistency out of the guys who have shown some three-point shooting talent in the past, then Texas A&M can soar past expectations and make a deep run in March. Otherwise, this could be one of the most up-and-down teams in the country.
Texas A&M basketball 2025-26 projections
Projected conference finish: 9th in the SEC
Projected postseason ceiling: NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 exit