A&M rains 12 threes, gets 65 bench points, and flashes the defense McMillan has demanded all season.
Texas A&M didn't just beat Jacksonville on Sunday night at Reed Arena; it put the Dolphins in a blender, hit puree, and kept the lid on for 40 minutes.
The Aggies rolled 112-75 in a game that looked like a tune-up on the schedule but ended up reading like a warning label for anyone who thought A&M's ceiling was capped.
Afterward, coach Bucky McMillan didn't pretend the Aggies had arrived.
He did, however, sound like a guy who finally recognizes what he's been trying to build. "Looking more like it's supposed to," McMillan said, emphasizing that ball movement and pace are the fuel for what A&M does best: bury teams from three and make them chase until they crack.
That's exactly what happened.
A&M shot 59 percent from the floor and drilled 12 three-pointers on 25 attempts, turning clean looks into points and clean points into a runaway.
The Aggies also lived at the line, shooting 16-of-23, and the scoreboard filled up from everywhere with 65 points from the bench, 54 in the paint, and 21 off second chances.
When you're scoring in every way possible, defenses don't adjust; they negotiate with the clock.
The loudest individual pop came from senior guard Rylan Griffen, who treated 17 minutes like a personal heater session.
Griffen scored 19 points while going 7-for-8 from the field and splashing five threes. McMillan summed it up simply ... Griffen brought real energy, and when a shooter is that locked in, the rest of the offense suddenly looks smarter, faster, and a whole lot meaner.
A&M’s depth also showed up like a flex.
Six Aggies finished in double figures, including forwards Mackenzie Mgbako and Jamie Vinson, plus guards Marcus Hill, Ruben Dominguez, Ali Dibba, and Griffen.
McMillan singled out efficiency as the separator, and the box score backed him up. Hill put together a complete line, shooting 5-for-7 while stacking five rebounds and five assists.
Vinson was perfect from the floor too, scoring 14 points on 6-for-6 shooting. That’s not empty production; that's the kind of "next guy in" quality that makes coaches sleep better in February.
And while the offense stole the headlines, the defense quietly did the dirty work that makes shooting nights explode.
Jacksonville coughed it up 19 times, and A&M turned those mistakes into 20 points. McMillan has been hammering defensive focus in practice, and he pointed to transfer big man Federiko Federiko as a difference maker on that end, not necessarily as a lock-down on-ball guy, but as someone who brings the right positioning, attention, and mindset when he’s on the floor.
A&M is trending toward the version of itself that McMillan has been demanding, with faster decisions, better passing, bench production that punishes tired legs, and defense that feeds the shooters.
Jacksonville just happened to be the latest team to find out what that looks like when it's finally clicking.