Florida State basketball concluded its season as one of the hottest teams nationally, with advanced metrics indicating that they were playing like a top-25 team. It was one of the more impressive coaching jobs nationally, especially for a first-year head coach who had never coached in college. FSU took Duke to the brink in a one-point loss in the ACC Tournament Semifinals and beat the likes of NCAA Tournament teams like SMU, Miami, and Clemson in the second half of the season.
The only problem is that Luke Loucks will have to rebuild nearly the entire roster, as last year’s roster consisted mostly of transfer portal players with one year of eligibility remaining. He has a solid foundation to build upon with some key players enrolling from the No. 8 recruiting class nationally.
However, Loucks can’t depend on a handful of freshmen to win many games in his second season with the program. He pointed out one of the positives to deciding not to play in the NIT was getting a head start on scouting and evaluating potential targets who could be in the transfer portal.
The transfer portal opens on Tuesday, and Luke Loucks sent this social media post to let everyone know he’s primed and ready to rebuild the FSU roster: Â
Productive weekend at the Final 4.
— Luke Loucks (@lukeloucks) April 5, 2026
Excited to rebuild @FSUHoops starting this week.
Motivated and hungry. Let’s go!! pic.twitter.com/e8tbSUe6lH
Luke Loucks should have a much better idea of what he’s doing in year two. He already has a staff in place, more time, and likely a better idea of who to target to make his system work. He also likely has a few more resources to work with compared to a year ago.
Florida State was one of the more fun teams to watch last year. They play an uptempo style that should attract shooters, but they also figured out they had to give more attention to the defensive side about halfway through the year. It’ll be interesting to see who FSU can attract.