Luke Loucks knew he needed to get creative.
The now-second-year head coach determined Sebastian Rancik would be one of his top transfer portal priorities.
Even though the Florida State big men a season ago gave everything they had to the program, Rancik’s body type, a 6-11 stretch-four that can play multiple positions, would give Loucks a shiny club he did not possess in his bag last year. But he needed to think outside the box, because there was one issue with getting Rancik to Florida State.
Money.
Rancik’s ability attracted blue bloods from around the country with deeper pockets than FSU and more resources at their disposal. As Rancik’s recruitment went on, Kentucky seemed to be the other frontrunner and head coach Mark Pope was able to get the big to Lexington.
“Because he’s a good player, we were going up against some heavy hitters, “ Loucks said during a press conference with local media. “We were going against some of the best teams, historically, in college basketball. Kentucky, Indiana, BYU and UNC got in…There was a laundry list of some of the best teams throwing crazy money at him and rightfully so, because that is his value.”
Loucks has never lied to himself or the public about the Seminoles’ purse strings compared to those of the top spenders in college basketball. At the same time, his attitude has been resolute: he will build a winner in Tallahassee and will do whatever it takes to do so. The head coach backed up those words during his first season, when he paid for 500 beers for Florida State students as a way to pack the Tucker Center.
Now, with a top portal target in reach but lacking the dollars to close the deal, once again, he needed to reach into his bag of tricks.
“We Zoomed with (Rancik’s) mom, and I’m sitting there in a Leonard Hamilton moment of ‘how can I compete with these teams?’ (FSU general manager Michael Fly) said ‘I know what you can do, you can go hop on a plane and go hang out with the mom.’”
Fly, Loucks said, “conveniently” had an expired passport, so that thrust assistant head coach Jim Moran, who had a connection to Rancik’s father, to be Loucks’ wingman on a flight around the world.
“Jim Moran hopped on a flight, a 16-hour one-way trip across the pond in two economy middle seat,” he said. “We sweat on each other for about 16-straight hours…At the drop of a hat, he did whatever it took to get the guys.”
Almost a full day later, Loucks and Moran stepped out into the Slovakian capital of Bratislava, a city with around half a million people, sitting on the Danube River that borders Austria and Hungary, to spend time with Rancik’s entire family.
“It was awesome to get to know his mom. His mom is the president of a bank. She showed us around town. We landed around 10 a.m., and until 2:30 a.m. that night, we spent almost every hour (together), outside of about two hours, where we had to split off and go take a nap to catch up on some sleep. She showed us around town, took us out to eat. His aunt has a winery. For that whole period, we really got to know Sebastian’s family.”
After the trip, Loucks found out his outside-the-box idea worked out, with Rancik committing to Florida State as the highest-rated transfer portal pickup in FSU’s class according to On3.
“This is one guy we identified very early in the process as a special player. At 6-11, he can do a little bit of everything,” he said. ”To me, he is an NBA player with still a lot of room for growth.“
The numbers back that up: Rancik averaged 12.3 points per game at CU in 2025-26, with 5.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists, and posted 40/33/86 splits from the field, suggesting there may be untapped potential in his outside shooting.
But the head coach’s trip paid off in more ways than one. He feels that by going overseas, he will become a more improved coach for Rancik by connecting with him on a personal level rather than maintaining a transactional relationship.
“I think it’s going to make me a better coach for him by knowing his background, getting to meet his mom and sister. All of those things, to me, help me build a real relationship with our players. In turn, I can coach like a real human, instead of just a coach and a player, when there’s no substance to it.”
If there were any questions about Loucks’ beliefs and what he is willing to do to bring FSU back to the NCAA tournament for the first time this decade, he answered them with his trip to Slovakia. By jumping on that jet to Eastern Europe, Loucks proved to the rest of the top teams in the country and his own group that Florida State basketball is on the rise, and they will do whatever it takes to be in the mix.
