Florida State basketball’s first season under Luke Loucks did not turn around because of one lineup change or a single breakthrough victory. Speaking on the James Cameron Show, Loucks recalled the aftermath of Florida State’s 113-69 home loss to NC State, a defeat that left the Seminoles searching for answers and led to a late-night staff meeting that lasted until nearly 4 a.m.
NC State came into the Donald L. Tucker Center on Jan. 10 and overwhelmed FSU. The 44-point defeat dropped the Seminoles to 7-9 overall and 0-3 in ACC play. After completing his postgame responsibilities, Loucks gathered his staff upstairs.
“We sat in my office until almost 4 a.m.,” Loucks recently recalled. “First of all, that is not healthy. We all have young families at home. I would not recommend that.”
The mood eventually became productive. Loucks said the staff watched every possession from the loss, got on the whiteboard, and confronted what was not working.
“We hashed some stuff out as a staff in terms of, listen, this is not working,” Loucks said. “We are going to find a solution. It doesn’t have to be tonight, but we’re at least going to lay down some blueprint right now because I’m not going to continue to get my teeth kicked in in front of my home crowd.”
The results were not immediate. FSU lost its next two games to Syracuse and Wake Forest, falling to 7-11, and eventually sat at 8-12 after a road loss to SMU.
Behind the scenes, however, Loucks had already begun changing the tone of practice.
He said the Seminoles turned practices into “basically an all-out war,” emphasizing one-on-one defense and what the program calls “war rebounding.” There would be fewer places for players to hide if they were unwilling to compete.
“We were playing soft. We couldn’t guard anyone,” Loucks said. “You can’t let a team put 113 on you at home.”
That approach eventually translated to the court.
What followed was one of the sharpest in-season turnarounds in the ACC. Florida State transformed from a team searching for answers in January into one that played its best basketball down the stretch, winning 10 of its final 12 before a one-point loss to top-seeded Duke ended its run in the ACC Tournament.
For Loucks, the turnaround was about establishing the competitive standard he wants attached to the program.
“If you don’t have the competitive spirit,” Loucks said, “you’re just not going to play.”
The 113-point night against NC State represented the low point. The hours that followed helped Loucks and his staff begin figuring out how they wanted Florida State basketball to look — and by the end of the season, the Seminoles looked considerably different.
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This article originally appeared on FSU Wire: Luke Loucks reveals the moment that changed FSU’s season