Luke Loucks Returns to the Seminoles
Leonard Hamilton's replacement is no stranger to Seminoles culture.
Luke Loucks is the second NBA assistant this month to accept a college head coaching position, the first being Mavericks assistant coach Alex Jensen accepting the Utah Utes position.
Loucks has spent the last 3 seasons as an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings under Mike Brown and interim head coach Doug Christie.
In this article, you’ll learn about Coach Loucks, his coaching career, and what he’s bringing back to the Seminoles. For more informative content like this, please consider subscribing to Behind the Coaching for weekly articles about coaches, teachers, and mentors in our sports.
Before Coaching
Luke Loucks was born on April 1, 1990. He played basketball at Clearwater High School and later attended Florida State to play college basketball for the Seminoles under Leonard Hamilton.
In his 4 years with Florida State, Loucks played in 136 games including 35 games as a starter in his senior year, where he averaged 4.4 points, 2.9 assists, and 2.2 rebounds. Florida State had an overall record of 95-41 during Loucks’s tenure. The Seminoles appeared in the NCAA Tournament in each season he was there.
Afterwards, Loucks then went on to play professionally for four seasons. He also played in the NBA G-League and made stops in Latvia, Cyprus, and Belgium.
Golden State Warriors (2016-2021)
Loucks joined the Warriors organization in the summer of 2016 as a paid intern. He He served as a film and player development intern for the upcoming the 2016–17 season. The Warriors later won the championship in 2017 and 2018.
In 2017, Loucks was appointed the Warriors' two-way player development coach, where he also served as an assistant for the Santa Cruz Warriors. He was promoted to a player development coach with the main Warriors team in 2019 and served in that role until 2021.
Loucks was mentored by veteran coaches Steve Kerr, Mike Brown, and Ron Adams.
Notably on those Warriors squads were: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, Zaza Pachulia, David West, Kevon Looney, JaVale McGee, Nick Young, DeMarcus Cousins, Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, Kelly Oubre Jr, James Wiseman, and Gary Payton II.
Nigerian National Team (2020-2021)
Loucks served as an assistant and player development coach for the Nigerian men’s basketball team in 2020 under Mike Brown. He served on the Olympic staff in July and August 2021.
Phoenix Suns (2021-2022)
Loucks briefly was a basketball strategist for Monty Williams for the Phoenix Suns.
Sacramento Kings (2022-2025)
Coach Loucks followed Mike Brown to Sacramento, joining his staff as an assistant coach in 2022. He was promoted to front the bench and defensive coordinator in 2024, after the departure of lead assistant Jordi Fernández.
In their first season, the Kings reached the playoffs for the first time since 2003, but were eliminated by the Golden State Warriors, Loucks’ and Brown’s former employer. The Kings were also ranked the 7th best defense in the league.
Former Kings Star De’Aaron Fox praised Loucks and worked closely with him before he would be traded in 2025. Loucks also notably coached Domantas Sabonis, Harrison Barnes, Malik Monk, Keegan Murray, Davion Mitchell, Demar DeRozan, Kevin Hurter, Zach LaVine, and Jonas Valančiūnas.
Florida State (2025-)
Loucks was hired to succeed his former head coach, Leonard Hamilton as the head coach of the Seminoles on March 9, 2025.
"I think that's one of his dream jobs," Fox stated, "obviously, every coach that's on the bench that's important wants to be a head coach, regardless of if that's in the NBA or in college. That's a high major program, he played there, he's from Florida, his wife's from Florida, all of their family is there. So, I'll have to work out a little bit in Florida. I'm happy for him, someone like that always deserves an opportunity, and I think he'll make the most of it." - De’Aaron Fox on the hiring
The Seminoles finished with a 17-14 record in their regular season.