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NCAA Tournament Team Loses All But One Player in Mass Exodus After Head Coach Departure

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Matt Wadleigh | Last updated Apr 10, 2025 11:28 AM ET

The college basketball transfer portal officially opened one day after the Sweet 16 field was set. Since then, thousands of players have entered with hopes of finding new homes.

Some teams have been hit hard. One of those is UC San Diego, which was a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament but lost its entire starting lineup after head coach Eric Olen left for New Mexico.

No. 15 Robert Morris also lost its entire starting lineup, although the Colonials did not go through a coaching change.

With the NCAA Tournament, another team that was playing in March Madness has seen some roster overhaul amid a coaching change: the Texas A&M Aggies.

The No. 4 Texas A&M team lost to No. 5 Michigan in the Round of 32. Then, after Maryland head coach Kevin Willard took the Villanova job, Texas A&M's Buzz Williams went to Maryland.

Now, Samford coach Bucky McMillan is in College Station, and he revealed the Aggies have just one player left.

"I haven't slept much at all. I laughed when Coach Cal said he met with the team and there was no team last year. We have one player on the roster. We're going to put our best foot forward," McMillan said on the Paul Finebaum Show.

Texas A&M had some key redshirt seniors, including Wade Taylor IV and Henry Coleman III, but some others left to join Williams at Maryland.

As it stands, here are the former Texas A&M players in the portal, per 247Sports:

Rob Dockery
Pharrel Payne (transferred to Maryland)
Andre Mills
Solomon Washington (transferred to Maryland)
George Turkson Jr (transferred to Maryland)

The official roster on the Texas A&M website has no players listed as of Thursday, so it will be interesting to see what McMillan does with his new program. However, that one player McMillan is referring to seems to be Christopher McDermott, who played briefly in seven games this past year.

McMillan spent five years at Samford, going 99-52 with an NCAA Tournament trip in 2024, where Samford gave Kansas a run for its money.

The silver lining is that McMillan brings some exciting philosophies to the game, and he has already started working on adding players via the portal.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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