FSU hires former Seminoles guard Luke Loucks as basketball coach

Joey Knight, Tampa Bay Times on Mar 9, 2025

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Florida State formally announced the hiring of former Seminoles guard Luke Loucks as its men’s basketball coach Sunday afternoon.

Loucks will be introduced Monday morning on campus. He replaces the man for whom he played at FSU, 76-year-old Leonard Hamilton, who announced in early February he would step down at season’s end after 23 years.

“I am incredibly honored and excited for the opportunity to become the head coach for (FSU),” Loucks said in a statement released by the university.

“FSU has a rich basketball tradition, and I look forward to building on the legacy of our previous coaches, especially Coach Hamilton. ... I’m eager to build our coaching staff with the best and brightest basketball coaches in America. They will have characteristics that support and push me while helping me build and develop a competitive team year after year.

“We will have a standard that we stick to on and off the court that will help build a championship-level culture. I am privileged to have seen firsthand what winning feels like at Florida State, and I am hungry for more.”

A father of three married to a former Seminoles swimmer (the former Stevi Steinhauer), Loucks has no collegiate coaching experience, but has spent the past nine seasons serving in various capacities on NBA staffs at Golden State (2016-21), Phoenix (2021-22) and Sacramento (2022-present). He was a two-way player development coach for the Warriors teams that won consecutive world titles in 2017 and 2018.

At Sacramento, he worked with the Kings' offense his first two seasons, watching the 2022-23 squad establish an NBA single-season offensive efficiency rating record (119.4) that was a full point better than the previous mark. That team finished 48-34 for the franchise’s most victories in 18 years, and made the playoffs for the time since 2006.

He also coached the Nigerian National Team, helping it defeat Team USA in an exhibition prior to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“Throughout basketball at both the professional and collegiate levels, Luke has earned a reputation as one of the rising stars in coaching,” FSU athletic director Michael Alford said in the school news release. “Having been a key part of some of the best of what FSU basketball has been as a player, he also brings proven ability to develop players at the highest level of the sport.”

As a Seminoles player, Loucks' teams reached the NCAA Tournament four consecutive years for the first time in program history. He was named to the all-ACC tournament team in 2012 after leading FSU to its first ACC tourney crown, capped by an 85-82 triumph against top-seeded North Carolina in the final. Loucks had 13 assists in that contest, tying the program single-game record versus an ACC foe.

“Luke was an exceptional Seminole player who played a key role in leading Florida State to its first ACC Championship. I’m very proud to see him return as head coach of a program he helped elevate to such great heights,” Hamilton said.

“Luke and Stevi embody what it means to be a Seminole — wearing the garnet and gold isn’t just part of their past; it’s part of who they are. They are family, and it’s special to have a Florida State basketball coach who truly understands that.”

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