Thomas Bassong was a retention priority for Florida State basketball coach Luke Loucks coming off his first season.
The breakout freshman inserted himself in the lineup in non-conference play and established himself as one of the Seminoles’ best on-ball defenders.
He wasn’t a huge scoring threat (5.9 points per game) but flashed his potential with three ACC games where he tallied double-digit points.
This was likely going to be a big offseason of development before a potential 2026-27 season breakout.
Loucks seemed to identify that, telling local media members that Bassong’s contract was the first his staff extended this offseason. Bassong agreed to it, even talking in a media availability with local reporters after it was announced he was returning.
But on the last day of the transfer portal window, the buzz that Bassong was entering the portal gradually grew until the reports were confirmed.
He wound up at Mississippi State in what seems to be a ending place for the saga where neither team wanted this to finish.
“I’m not going to go into all the details. We wanted Thomas back. He wanted to be back. He had the first contract we put out in this cycle,” Loucks said this week. “They had it for almost a month, over three weeks, and there was a lot of red lines, a lot of back-and-forth, two years, one year, multiple iterations of the contract. Eventually, I had to put a deadline on it, because I’ve got to build a team and financially, obviously, Thomas, you know, there’s a market, and his agent did his job the best he felt like he was doing.
“I have no disrespect for anyone in the process. It was just unfortunate the way it played out, because Thomas wanted to be here, and I wanted him back, and everyone wanted him back, but that’s way it played out, and the deadline was the deadline, and we didn’t get the deal done.”
Bassong didn’t really discredit any of what Loucks said in a since-deleted pair of posts he made on his X account.
“I’ve never wanted to leave fsu. Fsu was home to me. I had my friends, my place to stay and all figured out. I don’t think I’ve ever liked a coaching (staff) like that before,” Bassong’s post said. “There was a contract I had to sign that I couldn’t sign because my agent my family and I didn’t think it was fair for me. They offered me another contract and gave me a deadline to sign it. I’ve overpassed the deadline so they told me to (go) in the portal. It wasn’t my decision.”
In the first time Loucks has had to handle a situation like this, he seemed to have handled it perfectly. Or, at the very least, completely opposite of how Mike Norvell has been criticized for how he’s handled similar situations on the football side.
How many times has an FSU football player gone into the portal and come back with a likely larger chunk of FSU’s roster budget? It probably can’t be counted on both of my hands.
Loucks did not play that. Even for a player who likely could have really helped his team this season.
“I told our staff, it’s similar to having children and telling them their bedtime is at nine, and then you let them stay up till 9:15 and 9:30 and next thing you know, they’ll midnight every night. It’s just not the way to run a program,” Loucks said. “So to me, we had a deadline. It was very clear. Couldn’t get the deal on the deadline, and we had to collectively and separately, move our separate ways, which obviously stung for both sides. But again, I’m not going to not keep my word when we lay things out.”
And Loucks didn’t just not engage in those games. He quickly moved onto Plan B, quickly flipping Elisee Assui from George Washington. The Italian prospect who has professional experience in Europe likely won’t be the player Bassong could have become as a sophomore. But his tape shows he should at least be capable of filling the defensive void left by Bassong’s departure.
It’s a credit to how Loucks managed this. And, one can hope, a message to agents going forward that he won’t be engaging in those money games.
“I wish Thomas the best. He’s a great kid. He developed so great. He helped us win a lot of games this year. I think he’s going to continue to develop. We’re going to continue to follow him and cheer him on at Mississippi State. We’re really excited to see him play in the SEC next year. But it was just one of those things. It was a little bit unfortunate the way it played out,” Loucks said.
“But again, we’re super excited with (Elisee Assui) coming in, that that defensive presence that Thomas brought. We feel like we have someone that can they can plug that in a little bit.”
