Ryan Griffen is one of the key transfers to join the Texas A&M men’s basketball team this offseason. The 6’6″ guard is expected to add another dynamic scorer and ball-handler to the program.
However, his sketchy past is assumed to threaten head coach Bucky McMillan’s plans for SEC dominance. Here’s what one basketball analyst says about the Aggies’ 2025 roster.
Bucky McMillan’s Unique Brand of Basketball Lands in College Station
Griffen’s former home, the Kansas Jayhawks, went from being one of the best teams in the country to losing as a No. 7 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
The program had an unexpectedly rough season. Before Griffen entered his name into the transfer portal, the player’s season didn’t go as expected, even though he was considered a key addition.
Andy Patton and sports commentator Isaac Schade on the Locked On The College Basketball podcast discussed how Griffen’s transfer to Texas A&M could fit in to new coach Bucky McMillan’s coaching style.
The host stated he is more interested and expected to see Griffen’s Alabama version than how he played last year for Kansas. While comparing the Texas’ new addition’s stats in his last two college teams, Patton said, “I am interested to see which kind of version of Griffin shows up for Bucky Ball at A&M.
Patton continued, “I think that’s one of the many fun and interesting questions about this team heading into next year.”
Schade replies, “What’s really intriguing to me is when you think about it, when you look at it, and it’s like, ‘oh, good grief, Chris McDermott is literally the only player coming back who you know we talked about scored nine points per game last year.”
“But in this day and age, I think the problem is people are still learning to retrain that thinking and flip that paradigm.” The analyst also believes that “maybe that’s a blessing.”
Schade said that for a head coach like Bucky, “who has a very specific type of player, he needs, or wants to be able to play Bucky Ball.” Schade can be something in favor of the head coach, who had great success in high school at Birmingham and Stanford, and now it is to be seen if he can continue that success at the SEC level.
He also discarded the thought of not believing in him and thinking he couldn’t continue to be successful as “winning coaches win in this era,” and because “they are great coaches.”
It remains to be seen how Griffen adapts at Texas and how well Macmillan uses the 6-foot-6 rising senior guard who spent his first two college seasons at Alabama. He was a starter on the Crimson Tide team and led the program to the Final Four in 2023.
College Sports Network has you covered with the latest news, analysis, insights, and trending stories in college football, men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball, and college baseball!
