The Samford men’s basketball team goes into Valentine’s Day with a program record for wins.

Welcome to the fully realized college edition of basketball by coach Bucky McMillan, who transformed Mountain Brook into a national power at the high school level and is well on his way to doing the same thing at Samford.

Hate to say I told you so, but I did.

Again.

And again.

Based on the buzz I’m hearing for McMillan at the national coaching level, people were listening. It’s time for everyone to take notice and give credit where it’s due. McMillan, who is going to be the SoCon’s coach of the year three years in a row, is the country’s best young coach and he’s only getting better.

Samford is 22-3 overall and 11-1 in the Southern Conference. The 22 victories are a regular-season record for the Bulldogs and the team continues to surge higher and higher in the NET rankings. Last week, Samford’s NET was in the 80s. This week it began at 63. For perspective, UAB’s NET stands at 116 and the Blazers are having a great season in the American Athletic Conference.

At this point, it’s fair to start wondering if an at-large bid to March Madness is out of the question if Samford continues winning but loses in the SoCon tournament. It’s doubtful, but Samford is forcing everyone to take notice. For those wanting to catch a Samford home game before the conference tournament, there are four more chances. Samford takes on Western Carolina (17-8) at the Pete Hanna Center at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

People will want to lump Samford’s rise with other basketball teams across the state. These are fun times for hoops in Alabama, but Samford stands alone for its remarkable success and deserves its own spotlight. There isn’t a smarter coach in the country than McMillan, who is building a mid-major powerhouse in a suburb of college-football-loving Birmingham at a time when it’s hard to imagine such a thing could even be possible.

McMillan was hired at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and his four seasons in Homewood have coincided with the new NIL era. If I’m being completely honest, I was a little worried that the combination of those things could negatively impact the beginning of McMillan’s college career.

Nope. Bucky Ball is inevitable. This is Samford’s third season in a row to reach 20-straight wins and the Bulldogs are records are about to fall. The program mark for wins in a season is 24, and still has six games remaining until the conference tournament.

What makes McMillan such a great coach? I’ll make this really easy for everyone to understand.

Regardless of sport, McMillan is the coach in Alabama most similar in style to Nick Saban. That might surprise some people unfamiliar with college basketball, but McMillan is beginning to show signs of being that good.

I’m not saying McMillan is the next Saban. After all, I’m already on record saying that McMillan reminds me of a young Mike Krzyzewski. Like Saban and Krzyzewski, McMillan is brilliant, adaptable, innovative and, most importantly, players love him and swear by his ability to transform individual pieces into a team.

The proof is in the stats. Samford is fourth in the country in points per game (88.0), but it’s the balance of the offense that’s most impressive. Going into Wednesday’s game against Western Carolina, four players are averaging double figures in scoring and another five are scoring between nine and five points per game. The Bulldogs are fifth in the country in bench points per game (35.6) and fifth in fast-break points (16.5).

It’s more than the numbers, though. Bucky Ball is built for the modern age of college coaching.

McMillan spoke recently at the Birmingham Tip-Off Club. Something important stood out.

“If you’re not on the forefront of NIL, you’re getting fired,” McMillan said.

If Samford is at the forefront of NIL, then McMillan might already be the best college basketball coach in the country.

I could see McMillan coaching at a major college program in the future, but he has the chops to one day be a head coach in the NBA. I’ve covered some of the best to ever do it throughout my career and McMillan fits the profile. What’s truly special is that McMillan is transforming his second hometown basketball team into an unlikely power.

“This is the first year that I’ve had all of my players,” McMillan said. “This is the first year that every single one of the players on the team is a player I recruited. And we have winners, and this is a very enjoyable team to coach.

“They remind me a lot of my Mountain Brook teams. A lot of winners. I could put them together to start a business and it would probably be pretty successful because they’re all winners.

McMillan is a Birmingham treasure and I can’t say that loud enough. There will always be haters, but that’s just the nature of hometown envy. No matter where his career takes him — and maybe he stays in Homewood forever — McMillan will always have his time at Mountain Brook and Samford. He won five state championships for the Spartans, which made him a future Hall of Famer before the age of 36. At Samford, he’s proving that his Mountain Brook magic was no trick or gimmick.

What’s Bucky Ball in one sentence? I asked McMillan that question last week.

“Fun,” he said. “It’s really fun and it’s unique. It makes you want to fight harder because it’s right here. You don’t want to fail your hometown.”

That’s not possible. The only question now is what’s next? I’ll answer that one. Hopefully a trip to the NCAA Tournament in about a month. It’s the next step for Samford and McMillan. Don’t doubt the Bulldogs. Last year’s SoCon representative, Furman, upset Virginia in the first round. Meanwhile, former Chattanooga coach Lamont Paris is doing big things at South Carolina.

People will say no one saw McMillan and Samford coming. Birmingham knows the truth.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the signature book about Nick Saban’s reign at Alabama, “We Want Bama”.