Luke Loucks is Florida State’s new head basketball coach. At the age of 34, the former FSU point guard (2008-12) brings seven years' of NBA coaching experience with the Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings but none at the collegiate level or as a head coach.
Here’s three reasons why Athletic Director Michael Alford believes Loucks is the right guy to make it work.
Basketball is important
“We are going to be looking to increase (resources) as basketball is important to us,” Alford said. “We want to make sure we're supporting basketball, giving it the proper resources to be competing against our peers in the ACC and in the country. It's an important sport.”
Make no mistake, football is the cash cow at FSU and most other schools but basketball is second in revenue-generating potential. And now, with the implementation of the ACC’s success and viewership incentives, there’s the potential to generate even more.
Just as ACC football teams can generate money with success, the opportunity is there for FSU and Loucks to generate more basketball money for FSU by increasing viewership and making the NCAA tournament field. While FSU football’s ACC viewership has ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in weighted football viewership over the past five years (average viewership 15.9 percent), the Seminole basketball team has ranked between 6th and 8th in ACC viewership – (average 4.5 percent of ACC viewership), well behind Duke and North Carolina and slightly behind 3 to 5 others over those five years.
Loucks is a relationship builder
Alford is counting on the energy and enthusiasm of Loucks to help him raise funds to invest in operations, Name Image and License funds to attract a talented team, and to enhance season ticket sales and student attendance.
“You met him, he's going to help us go out and raise some dollars for sure,” Alford said. “He’s got a great personality. He fits what we're about here at Florida State. And I'm really excited to work and partner with him, like I do all my head coaches, in going out trying to obtain the very best resources.”
Hiring young, enthusiastic relationship builders is a family tradition at Florida State basketball as Loucks is the fourth head coach named before their 35th birthday.
Don Loucks, FSU’s first head coach and no kin to Luke, was 34 when hired. Hugh Durham was just 29 when he took over from Bud Kennedy after seven years as an assistant. And Pat Kennedy was 33.
Durham and Kennedy guided two teams each to NCAA Regionals: Kennedy with Sweet 16 (1992) and Elite Eight (1993) teams and Durham with FSU’s only Final Four and championship game team (1972).
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Loucks understands the program and the challenge
Having played on Leonard Hamilton’s teams from 2008-12, Alford believes Loucks walks into the challenge with his eyes wide open.
“It probably helped that he kind of had a lay of land,” Alford said. “He understood what he was walking into because he stayed connected to the program over recent years.”
A Seminole legacy, Loucks, and his wife, Stevi, who was a swimming sprinter, were heavily involved on campus as students and as athletes, which is handy when talking to prospects and parents and donors about what makes Florida State special.
While Loucks appreciates the bounty of the NBA resources enjoyed at Golden State and Sacramento, he knows he’ll have fewer resources at the collegiate level to develop players, at least initially.
“In his evaluation of the program, he's going to help me with what is needed,” Alford said. “But we want to give him full support, everything we can do to provide those resources for him to be successful, we want to do.”
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