With six seconds left in the ACC tournament quarterfinals, third-team All-ACC guard Robert McCray V ran down the court with his team down one against Duke, the No. 1 team in the country and the tournament.
After opening the game as 16.5-point underdogs and then finding themselves within a single point after trailing by nine, the Seminoles had a chance to shock the world and make a legitimate argument to sneak into the NCAA Tournament.
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McCray crossed his defender, a mismatch with a big on him, stepped back and took a pretty decent look from three for the win.
The Seminoles’ chances of surprising and performing a miracle at the dance faded.
With his jersey over his eyes, McCray could barely lift his head through the handshake line, devastated that he couldn’t piece together one last magical moment for the Seminoles. Although FSU did not come away with the victory, most importantly, what was evident was that in the game and in the performances put forth during the final stretch of the season that he and the rest of this 2025-26 Florida State basketball team embodied was the culture that Luke Loucks has built in Tallahassee.
“I don’t believe much in moral victories, but I do believe in doing the right thing,” he said after the game. “To me, our team did the right thing. I’m not talking about tonight’s game. I’m talking about this season. I think right now they’re defeated. They’re hurt. I feel bad. I felt like we obviously played well enough to have a chance to win and have a chance to win at the last second. I’m sure I’ll beat myself up for the mistakes I made throughout the game, like they are currently doing.”
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The turnaround Florida State has undergone over the past two months is proof of concept that, even with a roster cobbled together from transfers and a budget that pales in comparison to most power conferences, the future is bright for the program.
The Seminoles started ACC play 0-5, last in the conference. Loucks’ press conferences, always honest, echoed with words like “embarrassing” and constant threats that he would find five guys who played hard. The low point came on Jan. 10, when NC State entered the Donald L. Tucker Center and emerged with a 113-69 victory, a program record for points allowed at home. FSU suffered two consecutive five-game losing streaks and yet they stuck together.
The numbers tell the story of what changed. In FSU’s first five ACC games, the Seminoles allowed more than 90 points three times. In the next five, only SMU topped 80. By early February, their adjusted defensive efficiency had improved from 111.1 to 96.7 over a five-game span, their two-point defense had adjusted from 62% allowed inside the arc to 49%, and their turnover rate had fallen from 18.2% to 12%, all while forcing turnovers on more than 15% of opponent possessions in each of their four previous victories. Through January, FSU ranked 101st in the country in T-Rank, a measure of overall team quality based on offensive and defensive efficiency per possession, adjusted for opponent strength. They finished the season ranked 58th overall, ranking 26th over the past two months.
It is a credit to the players, but credit must also go to the coach, since he is unlikely to claim it. Loucks changed every part of his program during that low point, from his basketball philosophy to his practice drills. In the road win at Miami, the catalyst for the turnaround, Loucks drastically reduced his team’s three-point attempts and shifted to an inside-out offensive approach, attacking areas that opponents had been protecting with perimeter pressure. If the program leader is willing to look in the mirror, admit his mistakes, receive feedback, and change for the good of the group (not his ego), everyone else falls into line.
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“I’m very proud of these guys, the way they fought during this game, but more importantly, the way they fought during the second half of this season, in a season where these guys could have easily retired,” he said. “They came to work every day and tried to find solutions.”
The change of course had faces. McCray, who committed 11 turnovers in Wake Forest’s loss that dropped FSU to 0-5, finished the season averaging a team-leading 16.3 points and 6.1 assists per game, the third-most in the ACC and the most by a Seminole since 1996-97. He scored 25 against Duke after dropping 30 the night before against Cal. Lajae Jones, who had his playing time reduced after struggling early in the season, responded to adversity and was arguably the player of the game against Duke, scoring 28 points. Chauncey Wiggins, whom Loucks publicly criticized after a three-point performance in 17 minutes against UMass, scored in double figures in each of FSU’s last six wins.
In addition to understanding the type of player and attitude it takes to build and maintain a culture, Loucks hit home runs on his starting staff. With a not-so-ideal budget, the first-year manager hired several former head coaches for his staff, knowing he needed to insulate himself with people more experienced than him. He also hired the right people with the right connections, such as Michael Fly, assistant coach and general manager, who was instrumental in bringing McCray to Tallahassee; the same McCray who, in the first game of the season, broke a 54-year-old school attendance record with 17 dimes against Alcorn State, surpassing a mark Loucks himself had set as a player in the 2012 ACC Tournament.
One of the underrated parts of Loucks’ leadership style is his willingness to put people before himself. After hiring Amorrow Morgan from Cal, Tennessee poached the FSU assistant just weeks after his arrival in Tallahassee. Instead of belittling the situation, Loucks said he encouraged Morgan, a Tennessee native, to go, telling reporters that “they offered him a lot more money” than he was currently making at Florida State.
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Loucks also used the media to highlight several members of the staff throughout the season, highlighting graduate assistants for their scouting reports and FSU’s two video coaches, Ryan Schnider and Michael Rubin, who took the nation by storm with their handshakes and success. As a former Florida State star, Loucks understands that it will take more than just him to elevate the program to new heights.
“(My staff getting credit) is probably what brings me the most joy as a head coach,” he said. “And I know I’m in my first year, so I can’t have a ton of experiences. But when your staff gets credit, because we get a lot of credit and a lot of blame. That’s why they pay us what they pay us to be out here on the front lines and answer to them. But any time your staff gets credit, and I think we have one of the best employees in America, they work hard. They have great attitudes. No job is too small for them.”
The rookie head coach put his vision into action and delivered a proof of concept in a season that can typically take several years to build, fostering a culture that replaces who comes in and out of this year’s roster, an increasingly difficult task in the era of the transfer portals.
Now begins the hard part for Loucks: finding a way to build on the success of the first year, starting first and foremost with a recruiting class that ranks No. 8 in the country with five four-star commitments. An NIT invitation is still possible, which would give this group one last chance to make the postseason.
No one can predict what the future holds for Florida State basketball. But after taking over a program torn down to the ground, the foundation is laid.