27d ago basketball Edit

LSU legend Seimone Augustus joins Kim Mulkey's staff as assistant coach

Tina Howell • Death Valley Insider

Writer

Tina joined Rivals covering the LSU Tigers in April 2024. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of Canal Street Chronicles covering the Saints and an events writer and photographer for Newsbreak.

Baton Rouge native and LSU legend Seimone Augustus is coming home. LSU announced earlier today that Augustus will be joining Kim Mulkey's staff as an assistant coach for the Lady Tigers.

Mulkey said, "It is an exciting day for the LSU Women’s Basketball program to bring Seimone Augustus back to join our staff. 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.

In her freshman year with the Tigers, Augustus helped lead them to the Elite Eight and was named National Freshman of the Year. From 2004-2006, she helped lead the Tigers to 3 consecutive Final Four appearances and was named Associated Press National Player of the Year in 2006. She also won the State Farm Wade Trophy, Naismith Award and John R. Wooden Award in 2005 and 2006.

Augustus' uniform number (33) was retired by LSU in 2010, which made her the first female athlete in the school's history to receive that honor. In 2023, Augustus also became the first former LSU female student-athlete to receive a statue in her honor.

After graduating from LSU, Augustus was drafted #1 overall by the Minnesota Lynx in the 2006 WNBA Draft. During her time with Minnesota, she was named WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2006, won four WNBA Championships and was named MVP of the 2011 WNBA Finals. Augustus and her former teammate Sylvia Fowles became the first United States Olympians in LSU women’s basketball history, where they helped the American team win gold medals in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Last month, Augustus was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and next month, she will be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. In October, she will become the first LSU women's basketball player enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Augustus said of returning to LSU, "Life always guides you to where you belong, 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.”