Bucky McMillan shows college basketball he’s not afraid with daring non-conference scheduling move

Bucky McMillan is showing fans that he’s NCAA Tournament-minded with the news that came down today of his scheduling a series against the Florida State Seminoles. Though FSU has had some rough patches, they’re still a premier name that has put several big time players into the NBA over the last few years, such as Jonathan Isaac, Scottie Barnes, and Terance Mann.

A perennial complaint against Buzz Williams during his time in College Station was a lack of premier non-conference games. This lessened quite a bit by Buzz’s last two years, but the poor strength of schedule for the Aggies was always an albatross when it came time to compare resumes.

This is a step in the right direction on that front for the Ags. This game will take place on Black Friday, according to a report by Jon Rothstein, which will no doubt put it only hours before the Aggies’ football game against Texas later that day.

Texas A&M basketball schedules series against Florida State Seminoles

FSU finished out last year ranked 90th in the NET— so if that’s where they are come next year, it should be a game that will look good as a win for the Aggies should that be the outcome, but not too terrible of a loss for a tournament team if things go the other way.

Of course, that’s assuming that “tournament team” is the realistic goal to which this squad is aspiring. With the way that McMillan has put the personnel together here, this could be a team that challenges for a dark-horse conference championship run.

That’s far off, and we still more than anything need to see how the team gels. As of right now, though, they will have an early-season spot on their schedule to impress fans, who will no doubt be waiting around for the final regular-season football game of the year.