Florida State hires Seminole alum Luke Loucks as new head basketball trainer, succeeding Leonard Hamilton

Luke Loucks is returning to Florida State because the Seminoles’ new males’s basketball head trainer, 15 years after his taking part in occupation led to Tallahassee.Loucks, 34, has been an assistant within the NBA for the previous 11 seasons, the closing 5 with the Sacramento Kings. He was once at the workforce for the Golden State Warriors’ back-to-back NBA championship groups in 2017 and 2018.He’s going to be successful Leonard Hamilton, who introduced in February that he would step down following the 2024-25 season. The Seminoles completed 8-12 general and 2-8 within the ACC, the fourth consecutive season all over which the crew completed .500 or beneath in convention play.The hiring was once formally introduced via Florida State on Sunday afternoon. Loucks shall be presented in Tallahassee on Monday.”Luke’s outstanding training talent, profound management talents, and intensive basketball wisdom make him the easiest have compatibility to steer our program,” faculty president Richard McCullough mentioned in a commentary.”As a former Seminole, he understands the values and traditions that outline FSU basketball,” he added. “I’m assured that beneath his steerage, Florida State will proceed to succeed in nice luck and uphold the proud legacy of Seminole basketball.”New Florida State head trainer Luke Loucks performed 4 seasons for outgoing trainer Leonard Hamilton from 2008-12. (Photograph via Kevin C. Cox/Getty Pictures)Loucks performed 4 seasons at Florida State for Hamilton from 2008-12. The Seminoles certified for the NCAA event in every of the ones seasons, the primary time at school historical past that the boys’s basketball crew had earned 4 consecutive NCAA berths. When Loucks completed his occupation in Tallahassee, he was once the college’s all-time chief in video games performed at 136. (He is now tied for fourth.)After 3 seasons as a qualified in Latvia, Cyprus and Belgium, Loucks performed two years within the NBA G League ahead of going into training. With the Warriors, he labored in video coordination and participant construction. He joined the Kings as an assistant in 2022 and become the crew’s defensive coordinator in 2024.As soon as his taking part in occupation ended, Hamilton requested Loucks if he had ever regarded as training, in keeping with ESPN’s Andrea Adelson. After Mike Brown employed him for his workforce in Sacramento, he advised Loucks that it was once just a subject of time ahead of he become a head trainer.”With my loss of revel in, there are going to be query marks,” Loucks advised Adelson. “However the fact is, I perceive Florida State, I perceive the dynamics. I perceive what is going into successful at Florida State. I have now not handiest noticed it, however I have skilled it, and I have lived it.”In 23 seasons at Florida State, Hamilton completed with a 460-295 file, 8 NCAA event bids, one ACC event identify and one common season convention championship.Florida State is one among 4 ACC males’s basketball program to make a training trade all over the 2024-25 season, becoming a member of Virginia, Miami and NC State.