It is lunchtime somewhere. So, welcome back to the lunch hour read of the Meat & Three. Every weekday I dive into a big picture topic and three things to get you through a quarantine spring. 

Today we dive into a fascinating hire for Samford, rare preps to pros announcement, a pivot in our stream of the day and the Stan Johnson pic of the day.

THE MEAT: WELCOME TO BUCKY BALL, THE NCAA VERSION

Talk to anyone who knows Bucky McMillan and they’ll tell you he’s a risk-taker. After thinking things through, he’ll challenge the norm and try something different. 

Perhaps that is why he’s had the kind of success he’s had at Mountain Brook High School in metro Birmingham. He’s coached the program for 12 seasons, winning five state titles. 

The 36-year-old head coach will make the move, just 12 minutes away, from the prep level to Division I hoops. Bucky Ball is something to behold. He’s one of the best young coaches in the game. McMillan was a walk-on at Birmingham Southern and finished as a scholarship player. McMillan played for defensive coaching legend Duane Reboul and installed the press the minute he became a head coach.

McMillan has been a head coach at every spot in his career path. He’s never been an assistant. Some have likened him to John Beilein. 

Perhaps the hire draws on the type of program that Rick Byrd built at Belmont - a culture and system that plugs in players that buy in and perform. McMillan coached five-star guys like Trendon Watford and guys who have gone on to the NAIA level. 

Talent matters, yes, but getting that talent to buy-in is the key. McMillan did that at Mountain Brook and beat the brakes off of some of the best programs in the nation. The system is built off of what McMillan learned under Reboul at Birmingham Southern. That relentless pressure confounded some terrific teams and players at the prep level. 

Did Samford buck a traditional system of hiring a proven college head coach, a former star player or an exciting rising assistant coach? They sure did. 

And, at least in my opinion, they took the right risk - if you even want to call it that. 

THE NOTE

Something rare has happened on this beautiful spring Monday morning. We have a high school player entering the NBA Draft. 

Durham, North Carolina native Josh Hall has announced he will test the NBA Draft waters. The 6-foot-8 wing forward is committed to NC State but announced on Instagram that he will see what that pro life looks like. 

Hall is a fifth-year player at Moravian Prep. He was on Oak Hill’s “second team” in 2018-19 and before that he was at Southern Durham High School. 

Hall is a top 50 composite ranked player, according to 247 Sports, checking in at No. 36 in the composite rankings. 

We have him at No. 17 overall in our class of 2020 national rankings, and he could be going up in our upcoming final rankings. Hall is grossly underhanded by the national rankers. We think he’s one of the most intriguing pro level prospects in the class. 

Hall was one of the three best players we saw on our HoopSeen circuit in 2019. And it wasn’t even close. He’s the prototypical pro-level prosecute coming out of the high school ranks. 

The feedback from the pro-level teams will be interesting. 

THE STREAM 

Let’s pivot from video to audio for the Stream of the Day this week. If you’re not a podcast listener, now is the perfect time to become one. This week’s streams are a run back of some of my most favorite listens over the years. 

I’d strongly urge you to subscribe to the Book of Basketball 2.0 from Bill Simmons. I love the history of the game and Bill does a great job of bringing those great stories from the past back to the forefront. 

Perhaps one of the best pods I heard in the post-Kobe Bryant passing was from Bill. It is worth a listen today. 

THE STAN JOHNSON PHOTO OF THE DAY 

I asked our guy Stan Johnson to send me some of his favorite shots from the 2019 season on our HoopSeen platform. We begin his gallery today in the Meat & Three.