NCAA Tournament automatic bid caps rise of Samford, HC Bucky McMillan

CBS Sports college basketball insider reminded that McMillan was head coach at Mountain Brook High School prior to being hired by Samford in April 2020.

At the time of his hiring, AL.com's Joseph Goodman noted that McMillan was appointed head coach at Mountain Brook when he was only 24, went 332-74 and won five state championships.

Samford (29-5, 15-3 in Southern), joined the conference in 2008 and had one winning season in the 14 years preceding McMillan's arrival

The Bulldogs have gradually gotten better under his watch, winning six games in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season and going 21-11 the past two seasons, including a 15-3 mark in conference play last year.

They were upset by Chattanooga in the first round of the conference tournament and finally broke through this season with their 76-69 win over East Tennessee in the tournament finals.

Entering Monday, Samford ranked fifth in the nation in scoring (86.3 points per game) on the strength of the country's ninth-best field goal percentage (49.4%) and eighth-best three-point rate (39.6%).

Aussie 6-foot-9 junior forward Achor Achor is the team's best player, averaging 15.5 points and six rebounds on 59.3% shooting. Against East Tennessee, he had 25 points on 7-of-9 shooting, going 11-of-14 from the foul line.

Per Joe Lunardi's Bracketology update on March 11, Samford is in line to be a 13-seed. It hasn't taken long for McMillan to turn the program around, and he officially has Samford on the map.