WNBA and LSU women's basketball legend Seimone Augustus joins Kim Mulkey's coaching staff
She's home.
LSU women's basketball legend and Baton Rouge native Seimone Augustus has agreed to join Kim Mulkey's coaching staff at her alma mater.
The team announced her hiring as an assistant for the Tigers Monday morning.
"It is an exciting day for the LSU women’s basketball program to bring Seimone Augustus back to join our staff," Mulkey said in a school release. "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."
Augustus replaces Johnny Derrick, who recently retired after coaching alongside Mulkey at Baylor and LSU the past 20 years. This will be Augustus' first coaching job at the college level and she takes it at a place where a statue of her stands tall outside the basketball practice facility, a monument of her accomplishments in an LSU uniform that was erected and unveiled back in January of 2023.
Previously, Augustus took an assistant position with the Los Angles Sparks in the WNBA after she retired as a player in 2021. She coached in LA for two seasons.
At LSU, Augustus was a two-time National Player of the year and a two-time SEC Player of the Year while helping guide the Tigers to three Final Four appearances. The "most influential recruit of Louisiana State University history," as former athletics director and baseball coach Skip Bertman called her at the time as a recruit coming out of nearby Capitol High School, Augustus averaged 19.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and two assists for her career with the Tigers.
She's had her No. 33 jersey retired at LSU and with the Minnesota Lynx, where she played her pro ball.
With the Lynx, Augustus won four WNBA titles and was an eight-time WNBA All-Star.
Augustus was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame last month and will be inducted as part of the Naismith Hall of Fame 2024 Class. The ceremony for Augustus and the rest of her Hall of Fame is slated to be inducted August 16-17.
"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."
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on X: @ByCoryDiaz.