Texas A&M is coming off of a game that, while it was not the greatest showing for the Aggies to say the least, capped off a really great season for Bucky McMillan's first year. The Aggies were picked third to last in the SEC, and they showed that they could hang with some of the best teams in the country— quite the building block for the first season under Bucky.
One thing you worry about when having to use the transfer portal so heavily, as McMillan was forced into doing, is that you end up losing the ability to properly build a culture. However, that was never really a concern this year, which is a testament to the guys in the locker room and McMillan's staff.
Nowhere was this camaraderie better seen than in McMillan's answer following Texas A&M's loss to Houston, where he shared about an emotional locker room moment at the press conference.
Bucky McMillan reveals just how gut-wrenching Houston loss was for Texas A&M
Here's what Bucky had to say about this team following the Houston loss:
"We're very thankful to this group. I'm telling you, you were in that locker room, you saw all the tears in that locker room— that usually happens when you have a team, more like Houston, that brings back a lot of guys. Or maybe a group like last year's A&M team, that had a lot of guys that played together for years. We had no returners, virtually, and those guys came together for 8 or 9 months from all over the world and they're crying their eyes out because it meant so much to them. That means something's right. They didn't want it to be over with."Bucky McMillan
That's pretty powerful. Even though this game was not a great result in any way, the Aggies really have a strong foundation going forward under McMillan.
There will be a lot of turnover going forward as many Aggies are out of eligibility, but it looks like the culture is in good hands with McMillan at the helm. Texas A&M will be back next season, hopefully as an even better team— and who knows just how high they can climb?