Seimone Augustus on returning to LSU as a coach: 'It's home'

LSU made a major move last week when it hired former superstar Seimone Augustus as a member of Kim Mulkey‘s basketball coaching staff, a move that will carry serious sway with recruits.

Augustus was one of the best during her time in college, then she parlayed that success into a fruitful WNBA career.

Now she’s ready to sink her teeth into coaching.

“Why not? I mean it’s home,” Augustus said. “I’ve been away for over 20 years. Obviously just coming in and out whenever I had time throughout the seasons or whatever breaks that I had. But it was mostly about the opportunity.”

Augustus, now 40, will have the chance to work her way through the coaching ranks. It’s not her first opportunity to do so, but it might be her best.

Mulkey has the LSU program running as well as any in the nation, with the Tigers one year removed from a national championship. LSU figures to be in the thick of things as long as Mulkey is around.

That will give Augustus the chance to work with some elite players and build her own profile, something she has felt called to do.

“Coaching has continued to come back to me over time,” Seimone Augustus said. “I coached two years with the Sparks and it was in more of an observation role, like I’m just kind of learning and growing but not necessarily knowing if this was something that I wanted to do. I had two other opportunities with another sports league, Athletes Unlimited, that was a more players-driven league. But you’re ‘coaching,’ not coaching.”

It took a little push for Augustus to make the leap head over heels.

“I just remember having some conversations with some respected people in the coaching world, and I’m like, ‘I think I want to do it, but I want to take some classes,'” Seimone Augustus said. “Or, you know, you kind of want to feel your way into it and they were like, ‘The only way to do it is to do it.'”

In other words, it’s no holds barred now for the former LSU superstar. Augustus was a part of three straight Final Four runs with the Tigers, and the program would love to see that kind of success return.

With Seimone Augustus’ help it just might.

And there’s something in it for her, too.

“This opportunity presented the best opportunity for me to just gain experience,” she said. “To go out here, to learn, to grow, to fail, to succeed. And that’s what coaches do. Coach Mulkey sits on the hot seat every day. I’m not on the hot seat, but getting to see how it goes every day and see a team work together to accomplish a goal.”