Luke Loucks’ first offseason leading the Florida State men’s basketball program has been a whirlwind.
Hiring a staff, flipping the roster and fundraising, all while learning the ins and outs of being a first-time
college coach have made for a hectic offseason.
And yet, Loucks has been incredibly open in terms of media access throughout the offseason, letting us come observe practice basically whenever we want.
Matt Minnick and Curt Weiler took advantage of that opportunity last Monday, watching a full practice and then catching up with Loucks after for an exclusive interview.
In the continuation of Hoops Week at TN, here’s Part 2 of our talk with Loucks, discussing his staff, his FSU ties, the roster he’s assembled for his first season and more.
With Terance Mann as the assistant general manager and former players Derwin Kitchen and Justin Lindner on staff, the representation of former FSU basketball players is significant on your first staff. What’s it been like working with those guys and why was it important to have such Seminole representation on staff to you as an alum?
Loucks: Going back to being connected, that’s in all parts of this organization. The way we play within our roster, in terms of our staff and the way we connect with our team and in terms of the community. One thing I’ve always said is if I ever had the opportunity to be a head coach, I would have a lot of former players on staff and around the program. I just think it’s good to have coaches that know how to teach and obviously know how to prepare and know how to do all those things tactically and with strategy. But it’s also good to have former players that your current players trust and rely on. Not only you’ve done it and you’ve done it beyond these walls at a professional level, but also now, as you teach me through these drills, you can actually show me. That, to me, always resonated at the highest level. In the NBA, there’s always a couple former players on staff. It just just so happened that multiple guys on staff have been at Florida State. They know what it’s like to win at Florida State. All of those players won here. It’s not just they were here, they won here. Even (assistant coach) Chris Kent was a GA during those teams. I think we have five or six guys that either graduated and were on staff around the team or played here, and all won here. They know what we’re up against and they know what it looks like when we get it right. To me, that was super important. They’re all doing a great job.
What about the numerous former Seminoles who aren’t on your staff? What’s your reception been like amongst former players here this offseason?
Loucks: It’s been great. That’s one of the things that Terance has really helped me with, and the guys that are in house. Obviously Kitchen, Lindner and Chris Kent, all those guys are very close, relationally, to former players as am I. Between all of us, I think they understand now that, hey, this is not just an open door. We need you guys around the team. We had multiple guys come back in the offseason, work out with our guys, Trent Forrest, Jonathan Isaac, Pat Williams, all these guys came back and they had a great time doing it. I think that’s only going to grow. We put on a little event during the NBA Summer League. We had a nice dinner in Vegas and I think we had, between coaches, former players, current players still playing professionally, I think we had close to 30 people there. That was in year one, and I think it’s only going to grow. We need those guys around the program. What we’re selling is to turn this into a pipeline to the NBA. We need our guys that have made it to come back and invest in these guys, and I think they understand the importance of that.
You only brought in one transfer from the high-major level. Is there something to be said for so many of the transfers being guys who have played a lot at lower levels of college basketball helping build chemistry on a team with so many new faces and a new coaching staff?
Loucks: Those high-major transfers were just very, very pricey this round and very costly. But I actually really like the construction of our team. I tell our guys all the time, I’m in the same boat as them, right? Everyone’s picking us to finish last in the league. That’s for a few reasons. One, because you guys are all mid-major guys that no one believes in. And two, I’m a first-time, young head coach and (it’s my) first time coaching in college. The collection of that is no one’s going to believe in what we’re doing until they see it, until there’s proof of concept. All of us collectively have a chip on our shoulder that we want to go out, but we want to do it together. To me, those are the best teams. Those are always the hardest teams. It’s not necessarily the most talented on paper. It’s the group and the chemistry, and that’s why our theme is connected. We are connected. No one’s going to believe in what we’re doing until we go show them and prove it. I think that’s our roster. It’s a bunch of mid-major guys that haven’t proven themselves, and it’s a young, first-time head coach. All of us are excited to go out and do it together.
Are you embracing and using the bulletin board material that lack of attention provides with your team?
Loucks: 1,000%. Every time one of these preseason polls comes out, I don’t run from this stuff. And you shouldn’t feel bad about it. (Jon) Rothstein and KenPom (picked FSU to finish) 18th (and last in the ACC. KenPon has us as the lowest team period in Power Four which, again, I hit the guys between their eyes. This is what’s being said about you, and this is why we’re pushing you so hard. But ultimately, none of that matters until we go perform. There’s a lot of unknowns in this building, and I love it. To me, it wakes me up and motivates me, and it should motivate them, too.
We just watched a pretty uptempo practice from your team. After you said you want your team to be the fastest in the country, are you there yet?
Loucks: We’re pushing them to be there. I don’t think we’re there yet. I think a lot of it comes from just conditioning. We’re playing a style on both sides of the ball that is frenetic, it’s nonstop and it’s an all-out attack. That has to come with building your conditioning level to be able to do that for 40 minutes a night. Some of that, our depth will help us, but some of that is just straight-up being in basketball shape, but being in the best basketball shape that they’ve ever been in. Because no one plays like this, right? It’s a combination. Obviously, people think playing fast, it’s all transition. It’s not just transition. It’s playing fast in transition. It’s playing fast in the halfcourt with your decision-making, your cuts, all those things, spacing. And it’s playing fast on defense to create an urgency and a disruption on defense that it’s literally nonstop for the opponent. We should look at every single game like a track meet and we’re just gonna outlast you. We’re going to outwork you.
When you played at Florida State, you were a part of the Junkyard Dog defense. Is there an animal that you would call your defense back here as a coach?
Loucks: I haven’t come up with any tricky, fun theme yet. We don’t have any animals for our defense yet. Maybe we’ll come up with one. That’s a good question.
Finish this sentence: This season is a success if…
Loucks: If we can build our foundation and build a brand of basketball that, when you play Florida State, you know it’s going to be a tough, tough team to play. They compete, they play a style that’s really tough to guard and defensively, they play a style that’s going to disrupt you. I’m never one to get ahead of, like, we have to win this many games. I told you guys when I took the job, I want to compete for championships every year. So you guys know where I stand on that. I’m never going to come in and be like, “If we go above .500, we’re going to be (good).” No, no, no. I’m here to win and I’m here to compete for championships, but there are certain stepping stones that you have to install and implement in your guys. The roster is going to change. You guys know the roster turnover, but as long as I coach here, we’re gonna be a really tough team to beat.
We’ll have basketball stories every day this week leading up to Sunday’s 4 p.m. exhibition vs. Florida A&M.
