After the departure of Texas A&M's head basketball coach Buzz Williams, the Aggies desperately searched for the right man for the job and landed on none other than Bucky McMillan. With nearly the entire 2024-2025 roster either graduating or following Williams to Maryland, McMillan certainly had a lot of work to do to build an entirely new program.
Since coming to Texas A&M, McMillan has won over the 12th Man without even playing a game yet, due to his intense recruiting, picking up top players in the transfer portal to come and play at A&M. A couple of these players include Mackenzie Mgbako, Pop Isaacs and Zach Clemence, some huge names from top competing DI programs.
Not only did McMillan have to pick up a large number of players, but he also had to come up with a whole new coaching staff, as most of Williams' staff followed him to Maryland. McMillan has managed to wrangle up a whole new staff with his most recent addition of Andrew Kegley to serve as Texas A&M's senior associate athletic director.
Like all sports, basketball certainly has a lot of injuries, and trainers are one of the most important parts of a coaching staff. McMillan set out to get one of the best trainers in the game, Andrew Kegley from Mississippi State.
Kegley's most recent gig was serving as Mississippi State's men's basketball athletic trainer for three seasons, his first being the 2022-2023 basketball season. In his time at Mississippi State, the Bulldogs made three NCAA Tournament appearances and had 21 wins each season.
Before he made it to Starkville, Kegley served as the primary athletic trainer at Arkansas-Little Rock, working with the men's team during the 2021-2022 season.
This won't be the first time Kegley has been in Aggieland though, as he served time early in his career as a working as an intern athletic trainer with both the men's and women's teams, which ultimately kick started his career and has eventually brought him back to Texas A&M under the direction of McMillan.
As the new adventures of Bucky Ball begin to take place in Reed Arena starting in November, having a trustworthy trainer on the bench is a huge win. While this upcoming season may be completely different basketball then the styles of coaching seen in the past, McMillan has cultivated not only great players but also a great staff.
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