This is an opinion column.

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Samford basketball and coach Bucky McMillan created significant buzz in the NCAA Tournament based on the responses to my column about the Bulldogs’ controversial loss to Kansas. Some Kansas fans even reached out with their thoughts on how the game ended. Let’s get it to.

Samford was down by 22 in the second half but rallied to within one point with under a minute to play. That’s when Kansas was gifted with two free throws off a questionable foul call. The Jayhawks won 93-89 but Samford is still cashing in on the national buzz created by the school’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 24 years.

No one could have predicted a mid-week Samford hoops mailbag, but here we are. Will lead it off with a question about the future of Samford basketball under the leadership of McMillan.

Jerry Armor writes …

I believe you know more about Samford and Coach McMillan than any journalist out there, so I want to ask your opinion on something that is on the minds of many in the Samford family. Do you think Samford is going to be able to keep Bucky for the foreseeable future? I’m concerned that some larger programs with greater resources may come calling. I was hoping Bucky might settle in and try to build a national brand at Samford, much like we see at Gonzaga.

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Furman shook its fists in hopeless rage when Samford announced the latest contract extension for McMillan. The news came down on Tuesday. The longer Samford took to make its announcement, then the more fans were going to worry that a high-major team would swoop down to Homewood and steal away the Bulldogs’ talented young coach. That said, I was almost certain that McMillan would be at Samford next season after the Bulldogs’ impressive effort in the NCAA Tournament.

A fire is growing on Lakeshore Drive, and I expect the glowing heat of Bucky Ball to grow into a full-on conflagration next season. It’s a great local story, and the only thing that could make it better is if Samford and UAB agree to play each other in basketball.

Birmingham is missing out on this matchup and basketball in the city will never reach its full potential with the two teams avoiding each other. I’ve heard that Samford is actually ducking UAB. Is Bucky scared? What gives? OK, provocative sidebar over.

McMillan should have another contender next season in the SoCon, but Samford’s ability to secure McMillan long term is another matter. It’s not impossible, though. Those close to McMillan tell me that he loves coaching college basketball more than he could have imagined. McMillan could have coached high school at Mountain Brook for his entire career and been happy, but now he believes he can build a consistent collegiate winner on the national level.

Is Samford ready to fund that pursuit? We’ll see. Let’s be real, though. It’s going to take cash to compete with the high-majors. Let’s not forget that Gonzaga was an established program before coach Mark Few transformed the Zags into the juggernaut of the West Coast Conference. Few was an assistant at Gonzaga for 10 years before taking over as the head coach. In an interesting twist, recently fired Long Beach State coach Dan Monson was the coach at Gonzaga before Few. Monson got his start in Birmingham as an assistant coach for Gene Bartow!

OK, I kinda went down another rabbit hole there. The mailbag flies off in crazy directions. The point of the story is that Few didn’t start from scratch at Gonzaga like McMillan did at Samford. Bucky Ball won six games in Year One. Monson took Gonzaga to the Elite Eight before leaving for Minnesota and handing the Zags off to good friend Few. Few then took Gonzaga to the Sweet 16 in his first season as head coach and the rest is history.

McMillan will have a chance to leave Samford for a bigger school in the near future, but I’d love to see him stay and build Samford into a Gonzaga-type story. Let’s not forget that McMillan has plenty of connections in Mountain Brook. Maybe it’s time to shake a few trees.

MaryAnn Moon writes …

Thank you for traveling to Salt Lake City for the tournament and your coverage of Samford basketball. You are making a difference for a bunch of Samford athletes who love the game and represent their university well. Go Dogs!

John Ricks of Gulf Shores writes …

This was a good read. I’ve never really followed Samford but I’ll look a little closer now.

Frank Dunlevy of Washington, D.C., writes …

The blatant bias displayed by almost all the NCAA Tournament Refs against upset-minded lesser known and lower ranked Teams is a National Scandal. The Refs know what drives Ratings “Duke vs Kentucky” , “UCLA vs Texas” and they do what they can to make it happen. Check out the “goal-tending” call on the last play of the game in the first round with SMU up by one on UCLA several years back. Ball was not even in the same zip code as the “basket cylinder”. I am almost over it.

Steve Rains writes …

I do agree that the call at the end of the game against Samford and Kansas was not a good call. But I saw so many different screw ups against KU and Samford throughout the entire game. So don’t say one call makes the whole difference where there were other calls that killed KU a number times, horrible calls. Why don’t you come to Kansas and tell us all the crap you normally write!!!! Stay the hell where you are because you’re an idiot!!

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Dear friend, what does Kansas have to offer that I can’t already find in Alabama? There are already plenty of people in my home state who tell me to pack up and leave every day.

SOUND OFF

Got a question about the changing landscape of college football, spring practice or March Madness? Want to get something off your chest? Send Joe a question about what’s on your mind for the weekly mailbag. Let your voice be heard. Ask him anything.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the most controversial sports book ever written, “We Want Bama”.