Arkansas Basketball: 7 candidates to replace Eric Musselman as Head Coach
By Joey Loose
Bucky McMillan
The Razorbacks will have their early attention on significant head coaches, but there are a few intriguing names to consider in the mid-major market. Arkansas won’t be looking too closely at a lot of the hot mid-major names out there, especially with people like Dusty May and Mark Byington off the market, but McMillan is certainly worth some consideration.
A native of Birmingham, McMllan played his college ball at Birmingham-Southern before starting his coaching career at the high school level. He helmed Mountain Brook High School for twelve years, turning that program into one of the best in the nation. In 2020 he jumped to the collegiate level at Samford and his brand of “Bucky ball” got the Bulldogs into the NCAA Tournament and just shy of a monumental upset over Kansas just a few weeks ago.
The big thing is that McMillan doesn’t have a lot of experience and is certainly the greenest of the coaches we’re mentioning today. These last four years are his only D1 experience or collegiate coaching experience. Other coaches have had success jumping from the SoCon to the power conference level, but it’s unclear if Arkansas wants to bring in someone like McMillan. Still, he’s a very intriguing name who’ll get plenty of interest from other schools in the coming years and wouldn’t be a horrible backup plan.