Bucky McMillan says he won't lobby for Texas A&M, but he sounds desperate

Texas A&M Aggies men's basketball coach Bucky McMillan is trying to play hard to get with the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

He believes his Aggies, 20-10 with one game to go, have a resume that should get them into the March Madness tournament. Yes, they've lost six of their last nine games, but McMillan believes in the overall resume of his team.

Will the selection committee? On one hand, he's talking like he won't beg for his team. If the selection committee wants Texas A&M in the tournament, they can come and get the Aggies.

On the other hand, McMillan sure is making a public case for his time. He says he doesn't want to lobby for the Aggies, but by saying that, he is.

“Look, I mean, I’ll just say it like this. I don’t like to make anyone upset or the NCAA Tournament committee upset,” McMillan said after a win over Kentucky on Tuesday night, according to Thomas Goldkamp of On3. “I’m not trying to lobby. I’m not going to lobby for our team. At the end of the day, you should want our team in the tournament because we’re good enough. We’ve won 20-plus games and we have a winning record in the league. But we need to go get this next one regardless, I want to make a run in the SEC Tournament.”

The Aggies can certainly make a strong case for themselves by beating LSU to finish the regular season. Put that together with a run in the SEC Tournament, as McMillan said, and they could find themselves firmly off the bubble.

Texas A&M Aggies a bubble team heading into SEC tournament 

Texas A&M has had some big wins this season. The issue is that the Aggies are 0-4 against the only ranked teams they've played. As mentioned, they've also been in a bit of a tailspin before the win over Kentucky.

“But I’m not going to lobby, I’m not going to cry about getting in or anything like that,” McMillan said. “That’s not what it’s about here. You should want Texas A&M there in the tournament. We’ve done stuff on the road. Even the games we’ve lost against the top teams in the league have been right there a lot of times.”

McMillan seems a bit desperate here. If the Aggies' resume speaks for itself, there'd be no reason for him to play this "we want you to want us" game.

Texas A&M can, of course, control a lot of its own destiny by playing winning basketball over the next few weeks. Perhaps McMillan should focus on that instead of playing these games in the media.