Thought this might be worthy of it's own thread.

Samford to hire high school coach Bucky McMilan.

Bucky McMilan leafing Mountain Brook [High School] for Samford

Greatest high school coach since Gerry Faust!

(For the younger crowd, Faust went straight out of a great high school career at Cincinnati Moeller where he went 178-23-2 and broke the dominance of the steel towns of the north east in Ohio high school football, to head coach at Notre Dame in 1981. But he went only 30-26-1 at Notre Dame, winning 1 bowl game (the 1983 Liberty Bowl by 1 point) in 5 years. Then he dropped down to the University of Akron where he went 36-49-3).

(04-05-2020 04:09 PM)swvabucsfan Wrote:  Greatest high school coach since Gerry Faust!

(For the younger crowd, Faust went straight out of a great high school career at Cincinnati Moeller where he went 178-23-2 and broke the dominance of the steel towns of the north east in Ohio high school football, to head coach at Notre Dame in 1981. But he went only 30-26-1 at Notre Dame, winning 1 bowl game (the 1983 Liberty Bowl by 1 point) in 5 years. Then he dropped down to the University of Akron where he went 36-49-3).

Yes, hiring a high school coach to lead a college division 1 program is risky business. It possible could be done successfully but history does not show may winners.

To go a little further down the "high school coach jumps directly to D1 level college head coach" rabbit hole: one guy who did alright making the leap was Paul Brown. He built a legendary high school dynasty in Massillon, Ohio, from 1932 through 1940, then jumped directly to the head coaching position at Ohio State for 3 years where he won a national championship in 1942. Going directly from High School to a D1 national title in your 2nd year as a college head coach is not bad. Even with WWII hitting collegiate athletics hard.

Of course Brown is in the conversation for the GOAT of football coaches, moving to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center for the war years of 1944 and 1945. Then to the pros forming the Cleveland Browns, winning All-America Conference titles in 1946-1949, and NFL titles in 1950, 1954 and 1955.

So if this Samford hire is the Paul Brown of basketball coaches, they'll do just fine. But guys like that don't come along very often.

Winning the Arby's pays off.

Bobby Rader interviewed Bucky McMilan this morning. I listened mostly to see how he planned to make the transition from high school to D-1, especially in setting up a staff. Apparently he is going to hire college level assistants including his former coach at Birmingham Southern.
Probably, though, the most interesting part of the interview for an ETSU fan was when he was discussing his team's season. They lost their point guard early in the season, a young man named Paulie Stramaglia, who is Mario Stramaglia's brother. Not an earth shattering revelation, I grant you; but, hey, a person has to keep occupied.

Sports Illustrated has an online article about Samford's new hire:

Bucky McMillan

The article notes there have been a lot of high-school-to-college coaching busts, but there have been some success stories, too: John Wooden, John Thompson, and Bob McKillop.

It will certainly be interesting to watch and see how this turns out.

(Be sure to also watch the video portion. Pat Forde compliments the SoCon and ETSU.)