Seimone Augustus has returned to LSU to join the women’s basketball staff as an assistant coach, Coach Kim Mulkey announced Monday.
“It is an exciting day for the LSU Women’s Basketball program to bring Seimone Augustus back to join our staff,” Coach Mulkey said. “As a player at LSU, Seimone helped transform the program as the best player in the nation. She brought LSU to national prominence. She will be a tremendous member on our staff as someone with great experience who has excelled at every level of the game from high school in Baton Rouge to college to the WNBA to the Olympics. Her expertise in the game will benefit our team and allow our players the opportunity to learn from a Hall of Famer who has exhibited great class throughout her entire career.
“Competing against Seimone and watching her play professionally and internationally I was always impressed with her leadership and basketball IQ. Those are the intangibles I’m excited about her bringing to our program. She has experiences at the highest level of success that will allow her to be an outstanding mentor to our student-athletes.”
Augustus helped transform the LSU Women’s Basketball program to a national power during her playing days and in joining Coach Mulkey’s staff, will look to continue to enhance the program on a national level. As a player at LSU, Augustus led the Tigers to their first three Final Four appearances (2004, 2005, 2006) before going on to star in the WNBA and on the world stage. After finishing her WNBA career in Los Angeles, Augustus was an assistant coach for one season with the Sparks. Augustus joins the LSU staff to fill the vacancy left after Johnny Derrick retirement.
“Life always guides you to where you belong,” Augustus said. “Thus, my path has led me home. Gracing me with an opportunity to further my coaching career within a program that I hold dearly. They say experience is the greatest teacher, I am truly excited about the knowledge and wisdom I will gain working alongside of legendary Coach Mulkey and reconnecting with my former coach, Coach Bob Starkey. A Fighting Tiger once more, I look forward to pouring into this generation of Lady Tigers. Once A Tiger, Always A Tiger. A new chapter begins. See you at the PMAC.”
The Baton Rouge native Augustus, who became the first former female student-athlete at LSU to receive a statue in her honor in 2023, was recently inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and is set to be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in the next six months.
“From coaching Seimone to watching her play professionally you could not help but be impressed with her basketball IQ,” associate head coach Bob Starkey said who was on staff at LSU during Augustus’ playing career. “I’ve always enjoyed our talks about basketball through the years and knew she’d be an outstanding coach. Now I’m so thankful our program and players will be able to benefit from her knowledge.”
Former LSU Athletics Director Skip Bertman called her “the single most important recruit in the history of LSU Athletics.” The date was April 30, 2002. The nation’s top high school prospect, 18-year-old Seimone Augustus of Capitol High School in Baton Rouge, pledged her commitment to the LSU Tigers. It would forever change the landscape of LSU women’s basketball as the ensuing four years would forever put the Tigers on the national scene as Augustus would establish herself as one of the greatest players in NCAA history.
In her first season as a Tiger, Augustus brought the Tigers to the Elite Eight and became just the second player in school history to be named National Freshman of the Year. One year later, LSU broke through to the Final Four to start a string of five straight Final Four appearances for the Tigers. Augustus had back-to-back 29-point games against Texas and Georgia.
As a junior Augustus had one of the finest seasons in LSU history. She won the State Farm Wade Trophy, the Naismith Award and the John R. Wooden Award as the nation’s top player, a first for any LSU player. She became the 23rd player in school history to reach 1,000 career points and the eighth to accomplish the feat in two seasons or less as LSU reached another Final Four.
Augustus continued to improve going into her senior season where she won even more National Player of the Year honors en route to another Final Four. She earned the Wade Trophy, Naismith Award and John Wooden Award again, and she was recognized as the Associated Press National Player of the Year in 2006. She closed her career as a starter in 140 games, a school record at LSU. She also led the nation in points per game with 22.7.
In each of her four years, Augustus received All-America honors. Today, she is still the only player in school history to earn State Farm Coaches Association All-America honors three times.
Augustus ended her career with 2,702 points — second most in school history – and she became just the fourth player and first since 1995 to reach the 2,000-point plateau. She rewrote the record books at LSU as she scored in double figures in a school-record 97 straight games. Augustus reached double digits in 132 of 140 career games, the most in NCAA history.
Beyond the statistics, was the bond she built with the fans, the community, the coaching staff and her teammates. On Feb. 23, 2003, LSU would play before a crowd of 15,217 against Tennessee, a record at the time. By the time her career was over, all of LSU’s top-five crowds came during her time at LSU; attendance numbers that were not touched until the previous two seasons where LSU’s brand has soared under Coach Mulkey, catapulted by the 2023 National Championship.
Nearly eight years after her signing day, Augustus became the first woman in school history to have her jersey retired. On Jan. 24, 2010, her No. 33 jersey was unveiled in the Maravich Center rafters hanging proudly next to the likes of Pete Maravich and Shaquille O’Neal. And then on January 15, 2023, Augustus became the first LSU female student athlete to be honored with her own statue with Maravich, O’Neal and Bob Pettit’s in LSU’s Plaza of Legacy.
The No. 1 pick of the Minnesota Lynx in the 2006 WNBA Draft, Augustus took her game to even further heights as a professional, quickly winning WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2006. She won four WNBA Championships and was named MVP of the 2011 WNBA Finals. Augustus earned All-WNBA first team honors in 2012 and was a second team selection five times. She was an eight-time All-Star. In 391 regular-season WNBA games, Augustus scored over 6,000 points and ranks among the league’s Top 10 all-time scorers.
Augustus and her former teammate Sylvia Fowles became the first United States Olympians in LSU women’s basketball history as the two helped the Americans claim gold in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016. The 2016 Olympics were played as Baton Rouge suffered from catastrophic flooding.
“I’m just filled with joy that I was able to do something to make my family, my friends and everyone who has been effected by the flooding proud,” Augustus said at the press conference following her third Gold Medal victory. “To be here three times is more than enough for me; one time was enough. To be there in Beijing was more than enough, but to be here and share this moment with great players, great people, it means a lot and Baton Rouge, this is for you.”
https://lsusports.net/news/2024/05/20/seimone-augustus-to-join-lsu-womens-basketball-staff/
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