When the announcement came that Leonard Hamilton was stepping aside and retiring a lot of questions came out about who the next head coach of Florida State men’s basketball team would be. Would they go after a mid-major head coach that had a semi-proven track record or go with a former player that has coaching experience but not necessarily head coaching experience? 

The Florida State Administration landed on former player and current NBA assistant coach Luke Loucks. Loucks spent time with the Golden State Warriors and was part of the staff during the Warriors back-to-back championships. In his time in the NBA, he won assistant coach of the year twice and was regarded as one of the top assistants in the game.

Loucks was hired late in the FSU offseason and didn’t have a lot of time to build a roster that saw 10 guys either graduate or transfer. He had a few recruits most notably Tomas Bassong from France who is a talented player but raw in form and Cam Miles a talented guard who can set teammates up and score when needed.

Loucks with a small NIL budget (last in the ACC) went out and got players that had been around the block and were seen as last resorts in some eyes. Guys like Robert McCray, Martin Somerville, LaJae Jones, Alex Stein, and Chauncey Wiggins rounded out a lineup picked to finish last in the ACC by media members.

Not much was expected from this team with a new head coach and roster that was thrown together in quick fashion. The season started out hot with FSU beating up on teams they should have with a close loss mixed in on the road to the defending champion Florida Gators. Then life came out them fast and hard as the schedule picked up in a big way with games against teams with a pulse like Georgia, Houston, and Texas A&M.

Acc play started and FSU was gifted no favors by the conference with their first conference game against Duke who FSU played welled but fell in a close game. Then rock bottom came with a 44-point home loss to NC State in a game where FSU looked like they could care less about being on the court anymore. FSU and coach Loucks were at a crossroads in the season.

This is where I think this season’s success started and hopefully will carry on into next season. FSU, having a 0-5 record in ACC play, went on the road to play rival Miami. They played with poise, confidence, and desire to be on the court. Everything had changed with this team right in front of our eyes. No more 40+ three-point field goal attempts, no more up and down NBA pace with little defense and high-octane offense.

Loucks changed everything about this team and they bought in. That was the first thing I noticed that I liked about Loucks as the coach. His willingness to change when things aren’t working. The team responded in a big way, which was the second thing I liked. Loucks can connect to the players and they listen.

The team rattled off a 10-3 ACC record to end the season including winning 5 straight ACC road games. For a team picked to finish last they finished in 8^th place and was the hottest team in the ACC not named Duke. At seasons end there was actual talk FSU could make a run at a NCAA tournament berth which is wild to think of where the program was two months before.

Loucks has a way with these kids and reaches them when he talks. He is an outstanding recruiter given the top recruiting class he is bringing in next year with very little NIL money at his expense. The way this team finished and the way Loucks was able to pivot midseason and change everything when everything was going wrong has me and a lot of other FSU fans excited about the future.

I was listening to an FSU radio talk show, and they were talking about what constitutes a successful season now in college basketball with the playing of players. Does putting millions of dollars into a roster, getting to the NCAA tournament, but getting bounced in the first weekend make it a successful season in the eyes of those fans? To me what Loucks was able to do with the way the season was going and with a roster not a lot of people were keen on, was a massive success. You can see he is building something and I think FSU turns a lot of heads going forward. There’s excitement in Tallahassee around this basketball program and rightfully so.