The Samford Bulldogs are Southern Conference basketball from Birmingham — a program with back-to-back March memories and a modern renaissance. Under Jimmy Tillette, the Bulldogs won the SoCon tournament in 1999 and 2000, earning consecutive NCAA tournament berths. For a small school in Birmingham, those banners were everything.
The modern era brought Bucky McMillan's “Bucky Ball” — a frenetic, full-throttle pressing style borrowed from his Alabama high school dynasty — and the Bulldogs roared back to relevance. The 2023-24 team set the school record with 29 wins, won the SoCon tournament, and drew Kansas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, pushing the Jayhawks to the wire in a 93-89 thriller that announced Samford's return to the national stage.
Then the architect left. McMillan took the Texas A&M job, and Samford turned to Lennie Acuff — who built Alabama-Huntsville into a Division II powerhouse over two decades — to keep the momentum going. Year one delivered: 18-14 overall, 11-7 in SoCon play, and the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament. The system changed hands without missing a beat.
Year two is a rebuild of the rotation. Samford returns 11 players but only two starters — Cade Norris and Isaiah Campbell-Finch — and must replace its top three scorers, including two First Team All-SoCon performers. That's the kind of turnover that sinks most mid-majors. The Bulldogs' answer is depth: there isn't a star to replace, there's a roster to empower.
The veteran core starts with the seniors: Keaton Norris, Jadin Booth, DaJion Humphrey, Joshua Hughes, and Jaxon Pollard bring experience and physicality. Sophomore Will Shaver — 6-foot-10, 265 pounds of Birmingham-bred post presence — gives the Bulldogs a true low-post anchor. Junior Dylan Faulkner and sophomores Corey Brown, Zach Lamey, Kam Martin, Judson Bjornstad, and Zion Wilburn fill out a rotation that runs ten deep, while freshmen Cooper Davenport, JD Gossett, and Caleb Harrison add new blood.
The schedule is ambitious. The Bulldogs open November 2 against Berry College at the Pete Hanna Center, then hit the road for UNLV, USC Upstate, and Georgia Tech. Wright State, UNC Asheville, and Point visit Birmingham before the December 2 crosstown trip to UAB. Southern Conference play opens December 5 at Tennessee Tech — the league's newcomer — with the SoCon home opener against Wofford on December 19. Then the headliner: December 29 at Alabama.
January and February are the SoCon grind: defending champion ETSU visits the Pete on January 2; Furman, Western Carolina, Chattanooga, Tennessee Tech, and Mercer all come to Birmingham in February; the regular season closes February 27 at ETSU before the SoCon Tournament. Sixteen of 32 games at home — the Pete Hanna Center has to be a fortress.
The Pete Hanna Center in Homewood is a modern mid-major home, and when the Bulldogs are humming, it's one of the SoCon's most entertaining watches. The identity Acuff inherits is chaos by design: 40 minutes of pressure, pace, and threes — the ultimate disruptor in a one-bid league, built to ruin March brackets.
Acuff's task is evolution, not revolution: keep the pace and the pressure that made Samford must-watch, while installing the half-court discipline of a coach who won for two decades at the Division II level. The roster's depth — 11 returners — gives him options most second-year coaches don't have.
The 2024 Kansas game remains the program's national signature: a 13-seed toe-to-toe with the Jayhawks, one or two possessions from becoming the story of the tournament's first weekend. That 29-win season also delivered the school's first SoCon title in 24 years. The standard is set — and this group knows exactly what it looks like.
The SoCon is never easy — Furman, Chattanooga, Wofford, and ETSU all recruit to win it — but Samford has the deepest roster in the league and a home schedule built for a run. The goal is simple: get back to the SoCon Tournament's final weekend in March and cut down the nets. In Birmingham, the Bulldogs are coming — fast.
Birmingham basketball culture runs through this program's veins. The December 2 trip to UAB is more than a non-conference game — it's a crosstown battle for the city, the kind of night that fills message boards for weeks. And the December 29 date at Alabama is the measuring stick: a chance to test the rebuild against a national power in front of a statewide audience. Win one of those, and the resume has a signature before league play even heats up.
Acuff's résumé says he knows how to build. Two decades at Alabama-Huntsville produced a Division II powerhouse with deep tournament runs and a reputation for player development — the same qualities Samford needs as it retools around depth rather than stars. The Bulldogs don't need a savior; they need a system, and the roster's 11 returners give Acuff the raw material to install one. In a one-bid league, the team that improves the most between November and March usually cuts the nets. Bet on the Bulldogs being that team.