In the span of a couple hours, Texas A&M basketball got two big pieces of news relating to the transfer portal as Bucky McMillan puts together his first roster in College Station.
The first bit of good news arrived just before 8 a.m CT when former Creighton and Texas Tech guard Pop Isaacs signed with Texas A&M. Isaacs had been committed to Houston since mid April but with Milos Uzan returning to school, Isaacs decided to look elsewhere and will now head to Aggieland.
The morning got even better when incoming transfer Mackenzie Mgbako announced he would be pulling his name out of the draft and heading to Aggieland. While the former five-star was among McMillan’s first commitments, his stock had been rising after strong showings at the G-League Elite Combine which earned him an invite to the NBA Combine where he also performed. Isaacs and Mgbako will now join a talented roster that also features fellow four-star transfer portal prospects Marcus Hill (NC State), Jacari Lane (North Alabama) and Rylan Griffen (Kansas).
On the 247Sports’ College Basketball Show, Director of Scouting Adam Finkelstein and National College Basketball Writer Isaac Trotter shared their thoughts on A&M’s big day and what it means going forward.
Finkelstein: “I want to talk a little bit about Texas A&M, Bucky McMillon coming over, replacing Buzz Williams, this was a big day for the Texas A&M program because Mackenzie Mgbako, who committed to them out of the portal from Indiana, went to the NBA Combine, beginning with the G-League showcase, and had a great showing there, played his way into the combine, and then played really well there. Then all of a sudden, there was some momentum for this former five-star prospect who initially had one-and-done aspirations. People were wondering, ‘Hey, is he just going to try and go to the NBA right now’? Well, he announced today that he was pulling his name out of the draft, going to, in fact, end up at Texas A&M. That wasn’t the only good piece of news for that program today. They also got a commitment from Pop Isaacs. This is, I think, tremendous news, great momentum. Now, I’ve said this before about Mackenzie Mgbako, and I hope it comes to fruition. Please play him at the four. Stop the three stuff, put him at the four where he’s got the chance to be most effective, where he creates the most mismatches, and forget about whatever positional nonsense has led him to be least efficient.”
Trotter: “I feel like they just really revamped their shooting just on today alone, right? Jacari Lane, who you already knew was going to be there and can really shoot it from three. But Pop Isaacs high volume, high-level 3-point shooter. Mackenzie Mgbako, for a four-man, can really, really shoot it as well. Throw that in with Rylan Griffen, who we know can be one of the top shooters in the SEC, it’s like they could trot out some lineups with some four shooter lineups that could give give opponents some trouble, especially Bucky McMillan’s pace and space, try to get it up and down in transition. Samford was one of the high volume 3-point attempt teams, and they just shot a ton of transition three. I envision this working offensively. Now, I do have some questions about what they could be defensively. Federiko Federiko, the transfer from Texas Tech, very good interior defender as a rim protecting anchor for that defense. They’re going to need a big year out of him. What can you get from their backup bigs? That’s going to be a question as well. Do they have enough physicality? Maybe a Marcus Hill from NC State can give them some added rim pressure from the guard spot.
There’s some questions to fulfill here, but for a late start, this roster looks a whole lot better than maybe what I envisioned when Bucky first got the job. Because remember, he was two weeks behind all of his other compadres in roster building because he got that job so late in the cycle. To put together this type of roster, I think they could envision themselves making the NCAA Tournament next year. I don’t think that’s crazy as a ceiling outcome for Texas A&M. That would be a really good year one for Bucky, and we’ll see what he can do from that point on. But yeah, no doubt. Big day for them today, getting Pop to transfer from Houston over to Texas A&M, and then obviously getting Mackenzie Mgbako to leave the draft.”
