FSU basketball head coach Leonard Hamilton will not return to FSU after the 2024-25 season concludes, and the praise for what he has accomplished in his career has already started on social media.
However, what he accomplished at Florida State in the past 23 years shouldn’t be underestimated. He took a football school like FSU and made it competitive in the ACC when it was the premier basketball conference nationally.
One of the players who played on the FSU team who finally broke through and made noise by winning the ACC Tournament in 2011-12 was Luke Loucks. A senior, Loucks averaged seven points and four rebounds that season before graduating and heading overseas to play professionally for the next few seasons.
Loucks got into coaching as an assistant with Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors from 2016-21. He’s been with the Sacramento Kings since 2022 and is thought to be one of the rising stars among young coaches.
There are rumors he will be in the mix to replace Leonard Hamilton when he steps down at the end of the 2024-25 season.
Loucks took the time to acknowledge Leonard Hamilton on his social media account a few hours after the news broke that Hamilton would step down after the season.
Loucks would be an interesting choice to replace Hamilton. Obviously, he’s an FSU alum and played four years at FSU. However, he doesn’t have college coaching experience, and it’s a different ballgame now with the transfer portal and NIL. Louck will turn 35 years old in a couple of months and has been around some great coaches in the NBA.
Would he be a good fit for the Noles? Our own Taylor Devers mentioned another FSU alum, Sam Cassell as a potential replacement. Then there’s a former assistant coach under Leonard Hamilton, Dennis Gates. Gates would be a long shot since he’s the head coach at Missouri and doing excellent work.
FSU has nine games remaining and likely will not play in any type of postseason games, so it will likely only be a few weeks before we know he’ll lead FSU basketball in the future.
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