{"id":127762,"date":"2025-03-10T10:30:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T14:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=127762"},"modified":"2025-03-10T10:30:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T14:30:18","slug":"luke-louck-fsu-grade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/10\/luke-louck-fsu-grade\/","title":{"rendered":"Grading FSU’s Hiring of Luke Loucks as Head Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida State waited no time to hire their new head coach. Their season isn’t even over. However, with Leonard Hamilton stepping down<\/a> at the end of the season, Florida State had time to look for a hire. They came to an interesting choice: alumnus Luke Loucks. In the new era of college basketball<\/a>, Florida State chose the faster, more sentimental route. With increased focus on the transfer portal, Loucks will be in place to make those decisions once the portal opens. But what is Luke Loucks’ hire grade? Does FSU receive the same grade as Miami did for Jai Lucas<\/a>? Is this the move that will return Florida State to its pre-COVID success? Or will this hire set Florida State back like previous ACC coaching hires have for good programs? Let’s dive into FSU hiring Loucks and grade this move.<\/p>\n

Grading FSU’s Hiring of Luke Loucks as Head Coach<\/h2>\n

Background on Loucks<\/h3>\n

Unlike the elite assistant Jai Lucas, Loucks needs a lot more introduction. He played for the Seminoles from 2009-2012, averaging 7.1 points, 4.3 assists, and 3.3 rebounds per game in his increased role during his senior season. Loucks was never a superstar, but FSU made the tournament every season during his career. He was even named to the All-ACC Tournament Team<\/a> following FSU’s ACC Tournament title in 2012.<\/p>\n

Following a brief career in Europe, he began coaching in the NBA. He worked with stars like Steph Curry<\/a> and Kevin Durant<\/a> in Golden State. Loucks won two championships there as a staffer and became an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings in 2022. He worked with the offense in his first couple of seasons leading to their potent offense. This season, he helped improve their often inept defense to a respectable number as their de facto defensive coordinator. Loucks’ NBA experience is certainly a plus. While Loucks is certainly not a name brand, he has put together a strong assistant-coaching career.<\/p>\n

Pros of Luke Louck’s Hire<\/h3>\n

He is young, which often leads to better results in the recruiting world. Loucks’ NBA coaching presence is what boosts the grade the most. Sacramento thrived with him as an offensive assistant and quickly turned around their defense under his leadership. NBA talent leads to wins, but only good coaches can get the most out of stars in the NBA. He has been in a system that makes great players play well. There likely won’t be a coaching issue with Luke Loucks at the helm. It also helps that he is returning to his alma mater. His experience on campus will certainly help in the recruiting world.<\/p>\n

Cons<\/h3>\n

The grade relies heavily on two factors: coaching and recruiting. While Loucks has a proven track record as an assistant, he has never been a head coach before. He hasn’t even been an assistant in college basketball before. He was recruited years ago by Leonard Hamilton. However, Loucks has never been part of a true recruiting cycle. His first offseason will speak volumes about how far he will go. Recruiting, especially now the transfer portal, is the staple of college basketball. You must be able to coach the talent, but getting the talent is often quite the commitment that some people just don’t have the knack for. This seems like a better hire than Adrian Autry<\/a>, but I couldn’t help but be reminded of that situation here.<\/p>\n

Grading Louck’s Hiring<\/h3>\n

Luke Loucks has the potential to coach great teams. I think he even has some pitches for recruiting that are fairly enticing. However, it will all come down to whether he has the skill to bring in the guys who can lead this program back to the NCAA Tournament conversation. It is crazy to think that only five years ago, Florida State was a pandemic away from being a one-seed and a national championship contender. FSU’s hiring of Loucks does bring about that kind of potential, but with a coach who’s never been in college before (outside of his playing career), Loucks will have to check the boxes quickly in his first offseason to change my mind.<\/p>\n

Grade: B-<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida State waited no time to hire their new head coach. Their season isn’t even over. However, with Leonard Hamilton stepping down at the end of the season, Florida State had time to look for a hire. They came to an interesting choice: alumnus Luke Loucks. In the new era of college basketball, Florida State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5370,"featured_media":127775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773],"tags":[3120,847],"class_list":["post-127762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","tag-acc-basketball","tag-florida-state-seminoles"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127762"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127777,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127762\/revisions\/127777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}