Florida State and Luke Loucks suffer major loss with Jamir Watkins update

From the moment Luke Loucks was hired as the new Florida State basketball coach, everyone knew he was going to have to get to work immediately in retaining Seminoles playmakers. He was able to do so with Alier Maluk, which was fantastic.

However, the same can't be said for leading scorer Jamir Watkins. On Wednesday, the breaking news came in that the sharpshooter has decided to enter the transfer portal. Not only that, but according to Pete Nakos, he's done so with the 'do not contact' tag. It looks like another announcement will be coming any moment. While we don't know which team he'll suit up for in 2025-26, we do know that it won't be Florida State:

Standout Florida State guard Jamir Watkins has entered the transfer portal

Shortly after the Watkins news dropped, he took to social media to announce that he'll also be declaring for the NBA Draft. It looks like he'll be testing the draft waters, while also keeping his college eligibility in mind.

While it was a down year for the Seminoles in 2024-25, Watkins sure was fun to watch with the ball in his hands. The 6-7, 210-pounder from New Jersey appeared in 32 games, averaging a team-high 18.4 points per contest. He added 5.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists per showing too.

Watkins spent the first three years of his college career at VCU before joining the Seminoles ahead of the 2023-24 campaign. He has one more year of college ball left available after a torn ACL took away his 2021-22 season. Watkins entered the portal last offseason too, but he withdrew his name and ended up staying in Tallahassee.

Should he end up returning to the college ranks, we'll find out soon enough where he'll be playing next. However, there's a chance we end up seeing Watkins take his game to the NBA. Things are a bit unknown there. Now, Loucks and his staff will have to look at the portal themselves to try and find a quality shooter to take Watkins' spot on the roster.