Luke Loucks details adjustments in first season with Florida State: 'We want to play like the New York Knicks'

Luke Loucks returned to Florida State, his alma mater, last year and had to make adjustments in what was ultimately a solid first season as basketball head coach. Going 18-15 on paper may look like a decent record, falling a little shy of the NCAA Tournament, but it took a big shift in the middle of the season.

A former NBA assistant coach, Loucks took that mentality to college basketball, where he’s never coached until last season. He wanted to model the Seminoles after the New York Knicks and funny enough, the Knicks are about to tip off in the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs Wednesday.

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But not everyone can be the Knicks, so how did Loucks get his Florida State squad on the right track? It took an epiphany halfway through the season.

“I want to play a certain style, right? I want to play a pace that analytically supports like the best teams play fast, because you attack a set defense. New York’s doing it right now,” Loucks said on Pardon My Take. “I want to play like the New York Knicks, like they play fast, they share the ball, there’s constant movement, there’s constant cutting, and then you create high-level shots a lot at the rim, but a lot of kick out threes, and then you get out of the way of your stars, and you let them work, right? You’re not going to handcuff Brunson, you’re not going to handcuff KAT. 

“But even before play style, I was teaching and coaching these guys like I was used to, and I’m used to coaching adults. By the time you get to the NBA, you weed out all the guys that don’t know how to play, you weed out all the guys that don’t understand the game of basketball at a certain, I shouldn’t say all, but most of them, you get to that level, you can tell those guys, even role players, you take a guy like, like Trey Lyles, you tell Trey Lyles one one time and he’s like, ‘all right, I got it, I understand what you’re saying, I can go implement that.’ You get to college and it’s no disrespect, it’s just where they’re at in their development, they’re very talented, but they don’t understand on like an intellectual level of like what you’re saying, you have to teach, which I love teaching. But I didn’t realize, like, not only do you have to teach it, if you don’t touch on it in two days, they forget it.”

Luke Loucks adjusting to college basketball, ready for Year 2

A 113-69 loss at home to NC State on January 10th, dropping Florida State to 7-0 changed things for Luke Loucks and crew. While it didn’t get fixed right away (FSU was 8-12 before winning 10 of their last 13), Loucks and his staff made the biggest adjustment all year.

“I want to play a certain style, but if it’s not working, we got to change, right? I love the three ball, I love playing fast, but we got to attack the rim, we got to get to the free throw line a little bit more, and through that, because we did that, our defense got a lot better, because now it’s not you’re launching threes and long rebounds,” Loucks said. “We lost at home by 44 to NC State, and I felt like it was a layup line for them, just nonstop layups, because we were missing all these long shots and our defense couldn’t get set. 

“And I think in that moment that’s where it flipped. We went after that game, we went back to my office, and I don’t recommend this. I’m not like be in the office all night, but I’m like, this is a crisis like we need to figure this out.”

Florida State became like the Knicks under Luke Loucks

So here’s where the Knicks comparison came in for Luke Loucks and Florida State. The adjustments they made to tinker with offense and defense led to way more efficient play. The Seminoles’ season came to an end in the ACC Tournament with an 80-79 loss to Duke, but the pieces are in place.

“And so we stayed in my office until almost 5am and we cracked a couple of beers, watched every clip of the NC State game. I’m like, we’re not leaving here until we have a plan to fix this season,” Loucks said. “At that point, I think we had lost like eight out of 10, right, and we stayed up all night, and we basically came back: all right, we need to focus on on defense, our compete level, we gotta stop this transition defense, but then offensively, like, we have to be in attack mode of getting to the hoop. 

“And I really don’t care if we shoot zero threes, right, and our staff was so good about taking that and implement, we still shot a lot of threes, but we got way better ones, because their mindset was like, no, no, we’re getting to the hoop, we’re trying to score, and now if the help comes, it’s a kick out three. It’s exactly what the New York Knicks are doing, like, if you watch them, if you load up and help, they’re gonna get a kick out three, and if you don’t, you let your stars work, give them space.”