LSU women’s basketball head coach Kim Mulkey introduced new assistant coach and former LSU basketball player Seimone Augustus at a press conference today.
Augustus is widely regarded as the best player in LSU’s history and has now made it back home to Baton Rouge after winning four WNBA championships. She spent the last couple seasons on the sidelines for the Los Angeles Sparks in what she called an “observational” role. She revealed during the press conference that this wasn’t the first time she had the chance at a homecoming.
Augustus said when Mulkey was first putting together her staff at LSU in 2021, she reached out to her and asked if she’d like to return to her alma mater as a coach. Augusts said she didn’t feel like she was ready for that step in her career yet though.
“I know without a doubt that she needed a staff that was ready to go because expectations were extremely high. So I respectfully declined, not knowing if this would ever come back around,” Augustus said.
After longtime assistant coach Johnny Derrick retired this offseason, the opportunity to represent the purple and gold and walk past her own statue every day on the way to work was too good to pass up. Mulkey telling her it was he last chance to accept the job helped her make up her mind too.
“I’m a strong believer in what is for you will not pass you. What are the chances that Johnny (Derrick) ended up retiring and the first thing the staff says is go get ‘Money,’” Augustus said. “She made it a choice to come back and revisit. But she also told me if you don’t accept this time, I wasn’t coming back a third. I’m definitely thankful that it did come back around and I was in the right space and time to accept.”
Augustus said she hopes to use the opportunity to grow and find out what kind of coach she wants to be. Her end goal is to eventually be a head coach somewhere, but she said she’s just taking things one day at a time right now.
“I’m trying to figure out my voice. If you know me, I don’t talk loud, don’t talk often. Who is ‘Coach Money,’?” Augustus said. “I think this presents a great opportunity for me to do that alongside a legendary coach. I’ve seen the ways these great coaches and these great minds and how they’re able to instruct these young ladies and help them accomplish their goals.”
Augustus will be working with the guards this season at LSU and said her main goal will be helping the players on the team improve on the mental side of the game.
“It’s just a mindset of how you want to approach the game, how you want to be able to attack and utilize your gifts that you have and then sharpen the tools that need to be sharpened,” Augustus said. “That’s what I’m here to do.”
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