Bucky McMillan, the head coach of Samford men’s basketball, played a pivotal role in student attendance by marketing both the Men’s Basketball team and Step Sing. He provided students with Step Sing based incentives, much like his prior events throughout the season, such as giveaways and other promotions to obtain better seating for games.
According to Samford Activities, nearly 1,500 students participated and attended Step Sing in 2025, marking the 75th anniversary of Samford’s beloved step show.
While Step Sing has historically done well in number(s), these promotions helped encourage students to get involved in Samford sports.
“I have seen the marketing team enhance student engagement in a multitude of ways, whether it’s media content, funny videos or even on campus posters.” Said shooting guard Owen LaRocca. “At the end of the day, if all it takes is a few small gifts and few chances at winning something, then I don’t see why we wouldn’t want to continue to provide that for fans.”
According to McMillan, there’s few times in which students are able to enjoy experiences where everyone can rally together. This technique in marketing aimed to simultaneously increase attendance in both Step Sing and Men’s basketball games.
“Every time a student comes to the basketball game, they’re taking a part of this commercial to the whole world about how awesome our university is and how united we are.” said Bucky McMillan. “This Step Sing marketing for basketball games makes people come and want to be a part of our atmosphere.”
Some of the incentives used included free merchandise giveaways, food and even monetary prizes. The marketing team for Samford’s Men’s Basketball team made sure to stress the importance of attending for personal enjoyment, with fun marketing posts and questionnaires that gauged interest.
According to Bucky McMillan, the Basketball team needs every inch of support they can get, especially from the student section. There are three more home games before the season ends.
“Our last games are going to come down to the wire, since we’re trying to win the conference championship. We just really want to see everyone come out and not just support the team but also have fun,” said McMillan.
On the other hand, some students feel as if this marketing caused chaos within participants of Step Sing, often filling up their busy schedules.
“I think the whole situation was a little bit ridiculous because students already have busy schedules with class and to lobby basketball seems to take away from what limited free time we already have,” said Morgan Curtis, a former Independent Lady participant.
Both events have done extremely well in student attendance this year. McMillan stresses the importance of having a high attendance overall for the morale of players.
“We want to thank everyone who comes out to our games and has a blast. We have some truly loyal fans, and the student body deserves to have something exciting and upbeat at every game,” said McMillan.
The next will be against Chattanooga this Wednesday Feb. 12 at 6:30 p.m.
Staff Writer
