COLLEGE STATION — It’s not often stories about practice draw disbelief, but that was the case Wednesday at Reed Arena.
Texas A&M basketball guard Marcus Hill said that Aggies newcomer Ruben Dominguez went 80-for-85 from 3-point range in the team’s first practice of the season.
Dominguez, a 6-foot-6, 213-pound guard from Puerto Real, Spain, came to College Station to be a key player in new head coach Bucky McMillan‘s “Bucky Ball.” But Hill’s observation felt almost too ridiculous to be real.
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“Everybody’s watching him,” Hill said Wednesday. “His shot just looked pure. Everybody was like, ‘Did you see it?’ We just watched it, and we’re supposed to have workouts, but we stopped our workouts to watch him work out.”
The NCAA granted him two years of eligibility. He comes to the Aggies after playing a season in Spain’s top professional division with Surne Bilbao Basket.
Domínguez averaged 13 points on a 42.3% shooting percentage in 35 career appearances for Spain. That skillset could be a boost for a team that finished 15th in the SEC in 2024, shooting 30.7% from 3-point range.
“When I was a kid, I already had something (that felt) natural,” Dominguez said. “I was working a lot on my shooting, and from there it just like came super easy for me.”
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MADRID, SPAIN Р2023/01/29: Player Ruben Dominguez of Movistar Estudiantes seen in action during the Spanish league, Liga LEB Oro, basketball match between Movistar Estudiantes and ICG For̤a Lleida at Wizink Center pavilion. Final scores; Movistar Estudiantes 94-75 ICG For̤a Lleida. (Photo by Atilano Garcia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett
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Bucky McMillan: Dominguez is ‘one of the best shooters in the world.’
“Bucky Ball” is known for its aggressive style, centered on suffocating defense, an up-tempo pace and an abundance of three-point shooting.
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In the 2023-2024 season, the Bulldogs ranked fifth in the nation in scoring, averaging 86.1 points per game. The team also ranked in the top 10 nationally in 3-point percentage (fifth – 39.5), fast break points per game (seventh – 15.20), and effective field goal percentage (eighth – 58.1).
Inserting 22-year-old Dominguez feels like a perfect fit for this new style of Aggies basketball.
“Ruben is known as one of the best shooters in Spain,” McMillan said. “He’s one of the best shooters in the world. We knew about him, but he needed to find a place that fit the way he plays, and (McMillan’s team have) always been a top-10 team in the country in 3-point attempts.”
Over his last two international tournaments, Dominguez made 41% of his 3-point attempts. Playing for Bilbao Basket, Domínguez averaged 7.6 points and 1.8 rebounds in 16 minutes per game.
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For the past six years, Dominguez has played for Spain’s under-16 and under-20 teams. He was part of the Spanish squads that won gold medals at the U16 Euro Championship in 2019 and the U20 tournament in 2022. In 2019, he was named the tournament’s MVP.
New shooter among a slew of fresh Aggies faces
Dominguez is among 14 new players joining the A&M basketball team after 14 players transferred or graduated. Forward Chris McDermott was the only holdover from the previous regime.
McMillan was hired relatively late in the calendar, starting his first day in College Station on April 5. Still, McMillan and his staff managed to assemble the 20th-ranked transfer portal class in the months after, according to 247Sports. Seven of those players came from Power Four programs, one came from Samford with McMillan and the rest from midmajors or other levels of basketball.
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With additions like Hill, who comes from North Carolina State, and Mackenzie Mgbako, the highest-rated prospect to ever join A&M after his time at Indiana, Dominguez seems to be impressing early on.
The question is, will that hotshot continue when the season opens Nov. 3 against Northwestern State?
The tales of Dominguez’s precision may seem like folklore, but his coach gave more context to his hot shooting.
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“He made 74 3’s in a row,” McMillan said. “Then the next day comes out and makes 73 in a row. That’s impressive. We’re not playing horse, but if we we’re playing horse, we’d be really good.”
Reach Texas A&M beat reporter Tony Catalina via email at Anthony.Catalina@statesman.com. Follow the American-Statesman on Facebook and X for more. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Access all of our best content with this tremendous offer.