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Samford (22-10, 12-6/Tied for 3rd in SoCon)–When I was growing up, it would always be frustrating for me when playing certain Nintendo games where if you died in the game, you had to go all the way back to the very first level of the game when you died, but there were others that honored how far you had actually progressed in the game.
Both Super Mario Brothers and both Zelda wouldn’t force you to start the entire game at its very beginning, but rather would honor your progression point, so whatever level you had advanced to in the game, you only had to go back and start at the beginning of that level. That was true unless you didn’t save the game, which was a different issue entirely.
For Samford basketball, it doesn’t have to go back to the start of the game, and fortunately, the level it progressed to under Bucky McMillan–one which allowed the Bulldogs to invest into the program and have the largest NIL endowment in the league–will see the Bulldogs be able to start over at this level rather than the one it had to start some five years ago when the program had endured losing seasons in 11 of its previous 13 seasons.
The Bulldogs have now reached a higher level to progress from. Over the past four years, no team has won more games in the Southern Conference, as Bucky Ball had a notable impact and became the craze and the talk around the Southern Conference and throughout mid-major basketball.
The bad news is “Bucky Ball” has now moved on to the SEC. Many of the players that helped create a montage of memories over the past couple of seasons, which included winning the SoCon title in 2023-24, have also decided to hit the transfer portal as a result.
For Bulldogs fans, panic turned to hope within a matter of a few days due to Director of Athletics Martin Newton acting quickly, and this time around, there was a lot easier vision to see a way forward for the program than there was during the spring of 2020 for a myriad reasons that extended beyond the basketball hardwood. At that time, Samford’s program had become a revolving door player for all the wrong reasons.
Now the Bulldogs are leaving for the portal because of success and not due to bad culture. McMillan’s Bulldogs won 93 games and a Southern Conference title over the past four years is a head coach, which is why Texas A&M Director of Athletic Trev Alberts decided to bring “Bucky Ball” to College Station to replace Buzz Williams, who moved on to be the newest head coach at Maryland following Kevin Willard’s departure to become Villanova’s newest head coach.
Just four days following Bucky’s departure for College Station, Lennie Acuff, a native of the state of Alabama and formerly the sitting head coach at Lipscomb, was hired to replace Bucky.
With over 600 wins, which includes three-straight 20-win campaign as lead man of the Bisons program, Acuff not only seems like the right hire, but maybe the perfect one. The first move by Newton five years ago was to give a young 36-year-old coach that the locals loved his first chance, and now Newton has provided a local legend a chance to close out the twilight of his career around friends and family by returning to his home state.
You couldn’t script that, and in both instances, Newton has captured local appeal with the hires, which is something that you must do in a football-crazed state where basketball fanhood can sometimes be “Fairweather.”
That being said, the expectations and standard of excellence have obviously changed over the past five years for Samford hoops. The word “rebuild” is one that will garner some unwelcomed looks and comments when said in reference to Samford basketball, especially it is said within earshot of Saws BBQ or Lakeshore Drive.
Five years ago, rebuilding would have been a welcomed part of the new vocabulary, as fans were just getting indoctrinated into just what “Bucky Ball” was. Five years, 99 wins, and an NCAA Tournament appearance later, the verbiage is instead “reload” and the standard left by McMillan’s legacy has created a “win now” expectation among its fanbase.
Bucky Ball
With 93 wins, two SoCon regular-season crowns and a SoCon Tournament title, McMillan became the latest SoCon success story to make the jump to the big time of high major basketball, becoming the first SoCon coach to move on to a high major since Chattanooga’s Lamont Paris moved on to the SEC and South Carolina after spending five years rebuilding the Mocs program, ending with SoCon regular-season and tournament titles in 2022.
With McMillan’s exit, Samford had to get the hire right, to help try and keep intact what he had built in his five seasons as the head coach, which saw him finish one win shy of 100 during his time leading then program.
With that said, the Bulldogs have had the highest NIL Collective over the past couple of seasons, and that wasn’t necessarily designed to keep the best players around and from transferring out but mostly was designed to go out and be able to bring the best talent into the program.
Heading into the 2024-25 season, the Bulldogs had the highest paid team coming in of any team in the league, so naturally, even though the defending champions had lost four of five starters, including three key players to the transfer portal, the Bulldogs simply reloaded by dishing out the cash to make up for those losses.
While that money only ensured the Bulldogs a fourth-place finish in the league standings and a quarterfinal exit in the Southern Conference Tournament, the money did allow the Bulldogs to put together the second-best season in the program’s Division I history, and that included an invitation to the National Invitational Tournament for the first time in school history.
To understand how Samford went from the mid-major doldrums to a career launching pad for coaches and players in the new NIL era, it’s a testament to the job that Bucky McMillan did, and how a brand he believed in truly worked to perfection.
While it’s a remarkable story, the long-term effect of Bucky Ball and what the fallout might be when his eventual departure happened, is something I am sure Bulldogs Director of Athletics Martin Newton was fully prepared to face.
But as we know, things in college athletics often don’t follow the chronological estimation of the time we have to figure out the future. For Newton, he probably thought after the initial hire of coaches that took place, that he had locked up Bucky for at least another season. However, Texas A&M came like a thief in the night in the first week of April, hiring the 41-year-old coach away.
Less than 24 hours after news broke that McMillan was leaving for College Station and the SEC, four key players that had already announced they were returning to “run it back” in the 2025-26 season following a 22-10 season shortly after the 86-69 season-ending NIT loss at George Mason, were in the portal: center Riley Allenspach, guard Josh Holloway, forward Jaden Brownell, and wing Lukas Walls all announced they were entering the portal.
Nearly all of those departures ended up at power five programs, with Allenspach and Holloway set to join Bucky McMillan in College Station, while Jaden Brownell will continue his career at Southern California. Even Hamed Olayinka, who also spent just one season at Samford, ended up transferring out to UConn. Lukas Walls will also end up joining McMillan at Texas A&M.
Messy History
We’ve seen recent stories of SoCon programs with little tradition turn around their fortunes with just one hire. In 2010, UNCG hired Wes Miller, and eventually the program would be elevated to one of the top programs in the SoCon and a regular 20-game winner and perennial title contender.
Furman followed with the hiring of Niko Medved in 2013 and that program, which had had virtually no success in the SoCon since the late 1980s and early 1990s is now on level ground and entrenched alongside UNCG as a perennial league title contender.
You could even add Wofford to those teams that since 2010, has really become part of the SoCon “new money contenders” as the Terriers picked up their sixth title in 15 years this past March, with the Terriers’ 92-85 SoCon Tournament title win over Furman.
The latest program to transform its program from virtually no basketball tradition to now a meaningful one in SoCon hoops is Samford, and a lot of that was due to two men, which were Director of Athletics Martin Newton for having a vision and a belief, while the other was Bucky McMillan, who had confidence in a brand that he believed would work in the Southern Conference. Both were right.
Rewind all the way back to 2012 in a time long before NIL and the transfer portal, and you will find players from Samford flocking to transfer or if there had been a transfer portal then for entirely different reasons. Samford’s basketball program prior to Bucky McMillan in its NCAA Division I era was a blip on the radar if that, and other than a brief period at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st, the Bulldogs basketball program, more often than not, has been one that has been below average on the hardwood in its NCAA Division I history.
With that said, when the Bulldogs joined the SoCon under then head coach Jimmy Tillette in 2008-09, the transition into a new league was probably mostly done with football in mind first. After all, it’s the state of Alabama, and at the time when Samford transitioned into the SoCon, the league had yet to lose App State or Georgia Southern to the FBS, meaning it was still considered one of the best football conferences across the FCS landscape.
Tillette didn’t make it long into Samford’s journey into the Southern Conference, however, as Tillette was fired after 15 seasons following the 2011-12 season. Newton was in just his second year at Samford after taking over as the Director of Athletics, and he scanned the country to bring in a viable replacement for Tillette and his “Princeton Style” offense.
Newton would settle on Indiana assistant coach Bennie Seltzer, who had been pretty successful with the Hoosiers under then head coach Tom Crean.
However, Seltzer’s short time as head coach in Homewood would see more players exiting the program than being brought in, and while that might not be out of the ordinary now with NIL and the transfer portal being what they are in the current landscape, when it happened then it very much was.
A total of 14 players transferred out of Samford’s program from 2012-14, and in Seltzer’s lone two seasons as the head coach, Samford posted a 24-41 record, and so with the “bad culture” that had seeped in under Seltzer’s leadership.
Seltzer would lose five of his top six scorers following the 2013-14 season, and that was a trend that had to end. This wasn’t the Samford of current times, which lost similar numbers after winning a SoCon title in 2023-24, but rather this was players jumping ship for entirely different reason. Newton would appoint Scott Padgett, who was an assistant on Seltzer’s staff, as first the interim coach and then the head coach shortly thereafter.
Padgett was able to keep the program from completely going into the dumpster, however, but was never really able to keep the players from exiting the program, and by the end of the 2019-20 season, things had run their course in Homewood, and Newton decided to go in yet another direction.
Padgett did lead the Bulldogs to 20 wins in the 2016-17 season, which included a CIT win over Canisius, which was the first postseason win for Samford basketball.
Despite being the team picked to win the Southern Conference a year later, the Bulldogs were picked to finish second in the SoCon off that momentum and tournament run of a year earlier, which included knocked off No. 2 seed Furman in the quarterfinals that year, didn’t translate into success in 2017-18, as the Bulldogs could only muster a seventh-place finish with just a 10-22 record.
In Padgett’s final season, the Bulldogs finished off the 2019-20 campaign with just a 10-23 mark, which was a record much worse than should have been considering the amount of talent Padgett had available on his roster, and it started with electric point guard Josh Sharkey.
Sharkey would finish his career as Samford’s all-time assists leader (758 assists). His 285-career steals also saw him leave the program as the program’s all-time steals leader. If he had had a year of eligibility remaining at Samford, he could have seen those two totals skyrocket as a part of the “Bucky Ball” system.
Newton made the call and took the gamble after firing Padgett, bringing in the local high school coach from Moutain Brook HS, where he had won five state titles. McMillan, and “Bucky Ball” would be born, at least on the collegiate level.
In six seasons as the head coach, Padgett finished with just two above .500 seasons and never finished above sixth place in the Southern Conference standings in his career as the head coach. Padgett managed to lead one 20-win season, which was that 2016-17 team that ended up making a nice run in the SoCon Tournament.
After winning only six games in what was the COVID-19 shortened season in 2020-21, Bucky’s system would be full installed by year two, which also coincide with the only season in which the Bulldogs would struggle under the leadership of McMillan. Samford would only win six games in that first season.
It would also be about the players that McMillan would end up attracting to Samford’s program rather than the ones leaving, which had even been a problem in the latter years under Padgett. Talented players like Christen Cunningham, Triston Chambers, Justin Coleman, Wyatt Walker, Robert Allen, and Alex Thompson were all lost to transfer in the final couple of seasons with Padgett in charge.
Players like Cunningham and Walker in particular were two huge losses, as both would have been available had they stayed at Samford, and two players of that caliber could have made McMillan’s first season in charge go a bit differently.
Adjusting to Bucky Ball in 2024-25
In hindsight, the change might have come in a perfect sequence of timing for Samford basketball. While the Bulldogs were successful and won 22 games and garnered an NIT invite this past season, the fact remains that the teams did adjust.
For teams with good coaches, like virtually the entire Southern Conference, there was a predictable decline coming, and we started to see that in 2024-25 season, as more “Bucky Ball” created quite the buzz and stirred up quite the media circus at times, with some even calling for the program to become the “Gonzaga of the South.” I don’t probably then need to tell you that there was a little added motivation to quiet those making such claims.
Winning would become tougher for Samford this past season, and if it wasn’t having to adjust and do it with almost a different cast of characters entirely, it was the fact that there was pressure to continue to sustain such success with that same brand as the preseason league favorite. There’s no shame in finishing fourth with 22 wins of course, but Samford fell victim to the thing that plagues most defending champions in any sport. The desire by your opposition to defeat you.
Both Furman and East Tennessee State made the game paramount, as did most others around the league. The Bucs and Paladins counted a combined five wins without reply in 2024-25. The Bulldogs, which finished fourth in the league standings after a 12-6 finish in the league, wouldn’t lose to a team that finished below fifth in the league, going 10-0 vs. No. 6-10 in the league’s final standings, however, went just 2-6 against the top five.
The point was that adjustments were being made to “Bucky Ball” an even though the highest paid team in the league was able to win 22 games, the 3-6 mark in the last nine games, which included an early exit in the SoCon Tournament, as the Bulldogs bowed out with a 95-78 loss to Furman. Following the 86-69 loss at George Mason in the opening round of the NIT, it was the kind of ending to a season that left a sour taste even though the Bulldogs won an impressive 22 games.
So while it was surprising to see Bucky hired away based on the way the Bulldogs kind of limped to the finish line in 2024-25, it was inevitably going to happen at some point.
Lennie Acuff
So just who is Lennie Acuff? What is his coaching background and why is this hire the right one and the perfect one for the both the circumstances and the place which Samford currently finds itself in as a program?
Acuff is a proven winner and he’s been able to do it both at the NCAA Division II level as the longtime head coach of Alabama-Huntsville, and now, he’s proven at the NCAA Division I level at Lipscomb, taking the Bisons to the NCAA Tournament.
While Bucky McMillan was the “hometown boy” given a chance to start his collegiate coaching career in front of friends and family, which could help further launch him into even greater success now at the power six level, Lennie Acuff, who is now 68, will have the chance to close out the twilight of his stellar coaching career in his home state and now too far from friends and family to see him coach his final few years so should they choose to do so.
It’s not often that a program gets a chance to experience both ends of the career coaching spectrum, however, that’s exactly what will Samford and it’s basketball-excited faithful will now get to do with Acuff taking the helm.
During Acuff’s six years as the head coach at Lipscomb, the Bisons compiled a 110-82 overall record, which of course included getting the Nashville-based school back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2018 NCAA Tournament, which represents the only other NCAA Tournament appearance for the program.
He led the Bisons to three-straight 20-win seasons as the head coach, including the Atlantic Sun regular-season and tournament titles in 2024-25. He also coached what ended up being the A-Sun’s Player of the Year, in Jacob Ognacevic, as well as the tournament MVP, in former Furman guard Joe Anderson.
Acuff’s strong reputation as a head coach was built long before he arrived in Nashville in 2019, as he established himself as a proven winner on the hardwood during his time at NCAA Division II Alabama-Huntsville, where he spent 22 seasons as the head coach, compiling an impressive record of 437-214, which included winning seasons in 20 out of the 22 he spent in charge of the Chargers.
He led UAH to eight regular-season Gulf South Conference crowns and three Gulf South Conference Tournament titles in his 22 seasons and left as the program’s all-time winningest head coach. His job won’t be as much about rebuilding Samford, as it will be sustaining its perch as a new mid-major power and perennial SoCon title contender. In the age of NIL and the transfer portal, that will now be increasingly for difficult, even for coaches as good as Acuff.
With that said, this is the perfect hire for Samford, as Acuff will get to close out a legendary career in the state which he built that legendary, winning status–Alabama–and he will also get to go out on his terms as the head coach.
As for Samford and Director of Athletics Martin Newton, the worry won’t be about putting together a short list to replace Acuff should he have too much success, but he will have some time to be prepared to make the next coaching change, which is always a win for any AD. He knows that should things go well for Acuff and staff, he will be able to leave on his own terms and into retirement in his home state, which in a perfect world, it should be for any head coach.
The Project Ahead:
No program in the SoCon is having to replace more outgoing talent due to the transfer portal or being out of eligibility. Success can sometimes not only be a two-edged saber for the program and the head coach it employs, but also now the players the third-party NIL money employs.
The Bulldogs had more NIL money than anyone in the SoCon during the 2024-25 season, and though it didn’t yield a SoCon title like many had predicted prior to the season, it did end up securing a 22-win season and Samford’s first-ever NIT invite.
With that said, the goal and the pressure to win were enough that, when it didn’t happen, it was always going to be able to retain all the talent that Bucky’s and his support network’s piggy bank were able to lure to Homewood last spring and summer.
With that said, it’s unclear how much or if all that money went into the seven million, he gets for his NIL money at Texas A&M, or if some or any of it stayed in Homewood. What we can say is that Samford, at least for now, looks to be interested in sustaining its status as one of the top teams in mid-major basketball and the Southern Conference.
With that said, Acuff went about not only hiring a new staff, but quickly assembling talent out of the transfer portal and from the high school ranks in order to help Samford not only build for the future but also build for the “right now.”
Almost a completely new roster has been crafted and selected from the portal and high school ranks, as 12 of the 14 players on Samford’s roster are new players. The only player that stuck around from last season is guard Zion Wilburn and redshirt freshman forward Caleb Harrison both return to the fold as the only holdovers from the Bucky McMillan era.
Wilburn, who saw action in 20 games in his first season in 2024-25, averaging 5.1 MPG last season, should be in the mix to compete for one of the guard spots heading into the upcoming season. He finished his rookie campaign averaging 5.1 MPG and averaged 1.1 PPG and 0.4 RPG.
Though he didn’t see much time last season, he will compete for time at the two-guard spot this coming season and Wilburn will be one of the best athletes on the team.
With Samford having been stacked with so much talent last season, it was hard for the true freshman to see time on the floor. During his prep career prior to Samford, Wilburn came to Samford from Arizona Compass Prep School, and he came to Samford as a three-star recruit, according to 247Sports.
Harrison is a 6-9 forward out of Huntsville High School is another talented find by the previous staff, and he ended up choosing Samford over Belmont, Chattanooga, Dartmouth and Davidson. Harrison redshirted the 2024-25 season and garnered All-State honors as a senior. Harrison is also a big that can step out and shoot from the perimeter, as well as being skilled around the basket. Like Wilburn, the redshirt freshman will be in contention to start in the paint in the upcoming season.
Now that detailing the returning players from the Bucky McMillan era has been accomplished, it’s time to take a look at the team that Lennie Acuff and his evolving staff put together during the chaos window of transition to becoming latest hoops coach. One of the things that has made the transfer/NIL era most interesting is that it gives you a glimpse into what the overall identity a coach wants his team to have by the type of player brought in from the portal.
With that said, this crop of players will be a little different than those McMillan’s targets, with McMillan targeting more undersized and extremely athletic big men in lieu of maybe substituting that for skill around the basket.
One thing that is evident from the players brought in from Acuff is that they are skilled around the basket, as well as bringing a bit more size around the basket. This team will be a little bigger and maybe slightly less athletic and built for more of a different game that is not influenced almost completely by the press.
One of the best “gets” from the transfer portal for the Bulldogs this season is 6-9 center Dylan Faulkner, who was a big contributor for Samford until an injury ended up derailing his season. Faulkner is a highly skilled big man that can step out and shoot the three, and he will likely start right away.
Faulkner ended up seeing action in 15 games for the Bisons last season, logging 13 starts before an injury officially brought his sophomore season to an abrupt close. With that said, Faulkner will have at least two years eligibility left for Samford, and potentially three if he is awarded an extra year as a medical redshirt from a year ago.
The most important thing about Faulkner as a player, and this can be said for both players that join Acuff in his new venture and were around for his former one, is that they bring a winning edge and mentality to build around for the new, veteran head coach.
Faulkner continues to develop as a player, and he comes off an injury-shortened campaign, which saw him average 10.5 PPG and 5.3 RPG, while shooting an outstanding 60.8% from the field. He will be a key in helping both be a leader for a new generation of Samford basketball and help be a mentor for some of the younger players or newer players adjusting to the expectations of their new head coach.
In his limited action with Samford this past season, Faulkner finished the season with his best performance of the campaign coming in a 96-64 win at North Florida, posting 19 points and five rebounds in the win. For Faulkner, it was one of eight double-figure scoring performances of the season, which included 10 points and four rebounds in a win over Samford’s SoCon rival Wofford, as well as 14 points and four rebounds in a win over Chattanooga, which of course is another of the Bulldogs’ league rivals.
Another player that will help bolster the Samford backcourt and will compete for time in the backcourt is DaJion Humphrey out of Bowling Green, and he will have one year of eligibility remaining. The 6-4 guard transfer appeared in 20 games for the Falcons last season, which included making 12 starts and averaging 23.4 MPG.
He finished the season scoring 114 points, averaging 5.7 PPG and surpassed the 1,000-point milestone for his career in a Feb. 21, 69-68, win over Toledo. Humphrey is a good athlete and while he didn’t shoot a lot of threes last season, he did finish the campaign a solid 38.9% (21-of-54) from three-point land.
Illinois State transfer Cade Norris was another solid find out of the transfer portal for Lennie Acuff and he will have a chance to be an instant impact player. As a freshman for the Redbirds last season, Norris saw action in 17 games for ISU where he averaged 1.1 PPG and 1.2 RPG.
The 6-4 guard and will have three years of eligibility remaining and will have the opportunity to play alongside his brother, Keaton Norris, who joins the Samford program from Wright State, is a 6-0 redshirt senior guard that will have two years of eligibility remaining should he choose to play two more years. Obviously, the rare opportunity to play alongside his brother would likely enhance that appeal.
During the 2024-25 season at Wright State, Keaton Norris averaged 7.5 PPG, starting all 29 games he saw action in last season. As a point guard for the Raiders last season, Norris registered 10 double-digit scoring performances and even posted a career-high 21 points in a 78-70 win over Northern Kentucky.
Keaton Norris finished out the season averaging 4.34 APG and he also posted a 44.4% effort from three-point range (43-of-96) last season. Norris will be another in competition to replace Jones at point guard in 2024-25.
Rounding out the guards added for support from the transfer portal for the Bulldogs is Kam Martin, who comes to Samford from Long Beach State. Martin would end up ending the season as the team’s third-leading scorer, completing the 2024-25 season averaging 8.4 PPG to go along with 1.7 RPG. Martin will be a good addition to the backcourt as an athletic slasher and pure scoring threat.
The Frederick, MD., product already showed what he could do in just one season at a struggling program, in LBSU, and will figure immediately into the plans of Acuff as a shooting guard for the upcoming campaign. As a perimeter threat for the Bulldogs last season, Martin ended up shooting 34.6% (36-of-104) and was solid as a free throw shooter, knocking down 81.3% (65-of-80) from the line.
Martin’s best performance of his rookie campaign for The Beach came against San Diego, as he poured in a career-best 25 points in LBSU’s 76-70 win over San Diego. In the six-point win–one of only seven over the course of the entire season for LBSU–Martin connected on 8-of-10 from the field and was a perfect 5-for-5 from three-point range and was also 4-for-6 from the charity stripe. Coming out of high school in 2024, Martin was a 3 or 3.5-star recruit, as rated by most of the major recruiting services.
As for the frontcourt, the Bulldogs added a couple of more from the portal to help bolster things in the paint alongside Faulkner. Six-foot-eight sophomore Judson Bjornstad joins the Samford program from NCAA Division Union University where he is coming off an outstanding rookie campaign, which saw him garner the Gulf South Conference Freshman of the Year accolade and was named GSC Freshman of the Week on six occasions.
In the 2024-25 season, Bjornstad, who hails from Murfreesboro, TN, averaged 9.0 PPG, 5.0 RPG and 1.5 APG, making 24 starts in 29 games for the Bulldogs in his freshman campaign. In addition to his scoring averages last season for Union, Bjornstad also shot 39.7% (94-of-237) from the field, as well as 27.7% (26-of-94) from three-point land, and was an impressive 81.4% (48-of-59) from the charity stripe last season.
Bjornstad will likely be competing for a sport at the No. 4 position, and he is a player is a little like a younger version of former Chattanooga Mocs transfer portal addition Garrison Keeslar, who helped lead the Mocs to the SoCon’s first NIT title this past April.
A player like Bjornstad could end up being the ultimate glue guy type in the SoCon next season. Look for his game to flourish over the next couple of seasons at Samford should he choose to stick around Homewood. He will have three years of eligibility remaining.
Rounding out the transfer portal additions for the Bulldogs entering the 2025-26 season will be 6-7 forward and Queens graduate transfer Jaxson Pollard.
Pollard is even a little more athletic and aggressive when taking the ball to the basket than maybe Bjornstad is, however, he is very much the same type “glue guy” and does many of the unenviable hard things necessary to enhance winning and is a player that has what coaches like to refer to as “winning DNA”.
Like former Bulldogs point guard Rylan Jones, Pollard hails from the great state of Utah, and should compete for a spot right away as a starter. He is versatile in that he can play the No. 3 or No. 4 spot but will most likely play the small forward position for Samford in 2025-26.
In his final season at Queens, Pollard made appearances in 31 games, averaging 8.0 PPG, 4.9 RPG and 1.3 APG off the bench for the Royals. He posted a pair of double-doubles during the season, as he finished with double-doubles in games against both Coastal Carolina (12 pts, 10 rebs), as well as Eastern Kentucky (16 pts, 10 rebs). He scored a career-high 17 points against the Acuff-led Lipscomb Bisons in the in Atlantic Sun Semifinals last March.
Overall, Acuff and staff has put together a nice group from the portal and each will have a new role on a new team and other than Lamey and Faulkner, will have a new staff to get to know and learn from.
A lot is new for Samford, but the standard of expectation established by Acuff’s predecessor Bucky McMillan, which is one that involves winning now rather than rebuilding for the future, is very much a mentality of the administration and the fanbase, and Acuff has put together a group from the portal that has the potential to compete atop the lead right away.
Freshman Additions:
The Bulldogs have some talented players that they have also signed from the high school ranks, and many of which are looking to come in and make an impact from the outset of their careers. The Bulldogs were able to secure the signing of three talented guards that will have a chance to be impact players as soon as the 2025-26 season for Acuff’s Bulldogs.
JD Gossett (Huntsville HS), Cooper Davenport (Henderson HS), and Isaiah Campbell-Finch (Tampa Catholic) represent a talented a recruiting haul for Acuff and staff in their first season at the helm in Homewood.
Campbell-Finch was an especially good find for the new staff, and the 5–11-point guard signed with the Bulldogs among eight offers, which he held coming in.
Campbell-Finch is listed as a three-star recruit, according to 247Sports, choosing to play for the Bulldogs over the likes of Charlotte, Cleveland State, Dayton, Furman, Florida Gulf-Coast, Jacksonville, and Kent State.
Not only was Campbell-Finch recruited by Furman but also played alongside current Paladin guard Eddrin Bronson during his time at Tampa Catholic. During his final season at Tampa Catholic, Campbell-Finch ended up averaging 17.8 PPG and 4.9 APG. He will have a chance to compete for the starting point guard spot during the off-season and preseason camp, as it wouldn’t appear Acuff will redshirt any players this season.
Cooper Davenport is a 6-0 combo guard that comes to Samford from Henderson County High School in Henderson Kentucky. Davenport is another solid find for Acuff and staff, as he brings versatility into the fold for the Bulldogs with the ability to play either point guard or shooting guard.
Davenport is an excellent shooter from any spot on the floor and was a career 40% shooter from three-point range in his prep career at Henderson. One of Davenport’s primary strengths other than his elite shooting ability on the offensive end of the floor, is his ability as an on-ball defender. That, more than any other strength in his individual game, will give him the opportunity to play immediately.
Rounding out the commitments for Acuff and staff in their first season as the head coach in Homewood is 6-5 guard JD Gossett out of Huntsville, AL, and Gossett had originally committed to Acuff last summer at Lipscomb and has since decided to join Acuff at Samford. He will give the Bulldogs a little size at the point, and he will be in the mix along with Campbell-Finch and others from the portal like Jadin Booth.
Whatever the case, a player like Gossett will give Acuff and staff the added luxury of going with a bigger lineup and an ability to create potential matchup issues for the opposition.
The trio of guards will help supplement the style of play for Acuff and staff, which is utilizing highly skilled players that can shoot and cut effectively in a Princeton-like motion offense, which will closely resemble conference rivals Furman and Chattanooga.
Early 2024-25 Outlook:
Samford is a program structured to now compete right away even when they lose a head coach to a power conference and almost an entire roster to the transfer portal.
Two people among several are to thank for such fortunes, and they are former head coach Bucky McMillan for showing what Samford could do with some dedication, style of play and rabid support from the student-based fan support. Sometimes that student support, however, can be fickle. The other man to thank is Director of Athletics Martin Newton, for both thinking outside the box and having a vision to see what others could not.
Another thing that has made Samford among the most successful in mid-major basketball over the past few seasons is the willingness to spend money with the advent of the transport era, having spent the most on the talent brought in last season, and while it didn’t lead to a repeat title run as so many had predicted the Bulldogs to do last season, the spending of that money still helped Samford put together its second-best season in school history off a campaign that saw the Bulldogs have to replace massive production and a total of four starters.
Finally, as important as signing a good class from the portal and from the high school ranks, Acuff also had to assemble a coaching staff in his first season as the head coach of the Bulldogs.
He didn’t have to look far from home to find one of those assistants, in his son, Will Acuff, as he spent last season as an assistant coach at NCAA Division II Montevallo, which is also located in Alabama. Will Acuff serve as the Bulldogs’ recruiting coordinator for the Bulldogs this season.
Set serve as the top assistant on Acuff’s staff will be a familiar face, as associate head coach Tyler Murray is set to be reunited with Acuff in Homewood after having spent the previous five years in Nashville alongside Acuff at Lipscomb. Murray was elevated to the associate head coach position prior to the 2024-25 season.
Prior to making his way to Lipscomb some five years ago, Murray was part of Bob Richey’s staff for two years at Furman, helping the Paladins to a 25-8 mark in the 2018-19 season, which included wins over reigning national champion and No. 8 Villanova (W, 76-68 OT) and at Final Four participant Loyola-Chicago (W, 70-68), which was good enough to garner the Paladins an at-large invite to the NIT.
Many thought Murray would be the primary candidate to replace Acuff as the head coach at Lipscomb, however, Kevin Carroll would be hired out of nearby Trevecca Nazarene.
Acuff’s former player–Kip Owens–will also be reunited with Acuff, as Owens played at University of Alabama-Huntsville from 2014-18, and he comes to Homewood from Greenville, where he spent one season at Furman, helping the Paladins to a 25-10 record, which included three wins over the Bulldogs.
Prior to his one season at Furman, Owens helped out as a key assistant for the Flagler Saints for four seasons, which included helping the Saints to the Peach Belt regular-season and tournament titles in 2020-21, as well as an appearance in the NCAA Division II Final Four, as the Saints finished 18-3 overall and 11-1 in Peach Belt play in what was a season altered by COVID-19.
Rounding out the staff for Acuff in his first season at Samford will be Peyton Mattingly, who will serve as the Chief of Staff, as well as Thomas Owen, who will serve as the Director of Basketball Operations for the Bulldogs.
So what should we expect from Samford in the 2024-25 season? Expect the Bulldogs to be a contender near the top of the league, however, it’s likely the Bulldog won’t be quite as talented of a team as they were last season. That said, they will be every bit as well-coached, and that should see them make some waves in the league in Acuff’s first season as the head coach.
Starters Lost: (5) G-Trey Fort (transferred to Michigan State), F-Jaden B rownell (transferred to Southern California), G-Rylan Jones (out of eligibility), G-Josh Hollloway (transferred to Texas A&M), F-Collin Holloway (out of eligibility)
Others Lost: (6) C- Riley Allenspach (transferred to George Mason), G-Lukas Walls (transferred to Radford), Julian Brown (transferred to Niagara), F-Hamed Olayinka (transferred to UConn), G-Isaiah West (transferred to Belmont), G-Owen LaRocca (transferred to Indiana State)
Best Returning Player: G-Zion Wilburn or F-Caleb Harrison
Potential Breakout Player in 2024-25: G-Zion Wilburn
Best Transfer Portal Get: G-Jadin Booth (Florida Southern)
Best Freshman Addition: G-Isaiah Campbell-Finch
Overall Portal/Recruiting Synopsis and Grade: A
