Luke Loucks describes the emotions of debut game at Florida State

Florida State opened its tenure under Luke Loucks with a 32-point win on Tuesday night. It was the result of an offseason’s worth of work since his hire, with a lot more to hopefully go for him as the head coach of the Seminoles.

Loucks reacted to his head coaching debut during the postgame press conference after a 108-76 win for FSU over Alcorn State. Loucks admitted there was a lot of emotion in the game, as the team’s first-ever one together.

“Yeah, a lot of emotions – not just for me but for our staff coming into this game,” Loucks said. “We’ve been working so hard for these last few months getting these guys ready to play. There’s still so much room to grow.”

Asked again later if he ever had a moment to take that in, Loucks said no. Again, it was an emotional moment, especially with all of his family in attendance to get to see him back at his alma mater, but he wants the focus to be on his team rather than on their coach.

“Not really,” Loucks said. “It was fun being back on the sidelines. Obviously, it’s very meaningful for me to lead this program. I said before the game, I never want any of this to be about me and I don’t want the focus to be on me. I know it will be, because it’s a part of the job, but I want the focus to be on our players and our team and their success. I’m just here, and our staff is just here, to help them out.

“But, yeah, obviously, there were some emotions, playing here and coming back. Having my family at the game, my parents, my wife’s parents. Those are the things, obviously, for them to experience, and my kids to be up in the stands? It’s pretty cool, and I want them to understand how cool and important this place is, athletically and the meaning behind it, because I had that as a kid growing up cheering for Florida State.”

In Loucks’ first-ever game as a head coach, Florida State put on an offensive clinic with 108 points, which was its most in a game since 2019. The ‘Noles, as a team, shot 55.7% from the field and made 13 three-pointers at a clip of 43.4%. Robert McCray V facilitated that effort with a new school record of 17 assists. He was also one of five players to score in double-figures for FSU, including a career-high of 22 points from Chauncey Wiggins in his own debut in Tallahassee.

Loucks’ first game couldn’t have gone much better this week. He’ll now look for that to continue as his first season goes on, with game two coming tomorrow night, at FSU.

“This isn’t about me or me coaching or me running the team,” Loucks said. “This is about our guys, hopefully their improvement, as individuals and as a team. And, the thing that would make me most happy is to bring a winning brand of basketball back to Florida State.”