Alex Steen has shown he’s willing to be physical in the post. That bruiser mindset has extended to a legal battle to continue his college basketball career.
Steen had planned to play pro basketball in Europe after his fourth college season wrapped up in March. But an NCAA ruling allowing five years to play five seasons in college applied to athletes moving forward without grandfathering in prospects that signed in the class of 2022.
That’s been the point of numerous lawsuits across the country. Steen’s case is in the appeal stage in a Leon County Court.
“He’s the type of kid that you want to build with,” FSU coach Luke Loucks said. “He gives everything he has to the program, to the community. He's a leader on and off the court. He's about the right stuff, and he helps you win games.
“When he's on the bench, he's like a kid at Christmas cheering for his teammates. I can't say enough positive things about Alex.”
Loucks also wanted to clear up some items from the judge’s prior ruling and lay out his questions on Monday after FSU’s first official preseason practice.
Steen is enrolled in classes at FSU and has been working out with the Seminoles throughout the summer (including Monday). FSU has a roster spot available for Steen. Loucks insists he set aside some of his revenue sharing allotment for Steen, if he’s ultimately declared eligible. Steen isn’t taking money that had been allocated for any of FSU’s current 15 players. And Loucks emphasized it’s Steen who is paying his lawyer, not FSU.
“I have an undergrad and a master's degree, so I do know how to read, but I am no lawyer,” Loucks said. “I'm trying to read these legal documents and sort through, what it means, what he's going after, the denial ... But part of the denial was that he's going to displace someone and he's going to take someone's rev share, which is absolutely not correct. So I was a little frustrated to see that.”
Steen played three seasons at Florida Southern before jumping to FSU, where he averaged 6.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and shot 63.2 percent from the floor. He’s 6-foot-9 and 230 pounds, undersized for a center, but Steen often played that spot and defended opposing centers in 2025-26.
Loucks sees Steen as a veteran who can help 7-foot, 285-pound freshman Marcis Ponder develop.
“Marcis Ponder is going to be a heck of a player,” Loucks said. “I'm really excited about him, but he's also got a lot of room to grow. And to have someone like Steen in that same position that can help him along and help him develop is huge for our program and huge for Marcis.”
For Steen to have a chance to help Ponder, or play for the Seminoles in 2026-27, is to win an appeal. His argument is similar to many fifth-year players, including Tommy Castellanos. The former FSU quarterback won his appeal and is now playing at Texas Tech.
“The whole crew before this group has had the opportunity to play five years with COVID,” Loucks said. “Basically, since 2020-2021, all those kids got an extra year. Now we have this one point of time where they don't, and then everyone moving forward gets five years. That makes no sense to me. And I'm not trying to go against NCAA, go against our university, go against the ACC.”
Loucks asked FSU’s grad assistants and team managers to research opponents’ rosters. They found a large number of teams do have fifth-year players that won their court appeals.
“We have somewhere between 13 and 15 teams we'll play this year that will have someone like Alex Steen on their roster that's either already approved or currently in court that hasn't been denied,” Loucks said, underscoring that’s approximately half of FSU’s schedule this season. “Just look around the country. The inconsistency of what's going on is wild to me. No. 1. But, No. 2, you're putting schools that you deny these certain cases that get approved elsewhere. You're putting them at a complete competitive disadvantage.”
Injury updates
Loucks had some encouraging updates on newcomers who had been battling injuries this summer. Colorado transfer Sebastian Rancik is “back to full speed” after battling tendinitis, and Ponder is working on his conditioning in 5-on-5 portions of practice after missing time due to an offseason shoulder procedure.
Forward Shon Abaev, a transfer from Cincinnati, has what is thought to be a wrist sprain, Loucks said. The injury could sideline him anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks, but that’s encouraging considering FSU’s exhibition games are roughly three weeks away.
Junior AJ Swinton and freshman Collin Paul are working their way back from ACL surgeries. There’s no timeline yet for them to return to the court.
Coming up
FSU practiced this summer in limited windows due to NCAA rules, but Monday began the start of preseason practice.
The Seminoles play Mississippi State on Oct. 10 in Pensacola, travel to Birmingham to face Auburn on Oct. 14 and play host to LSU on Oct. 24. For tickets to see FSU at the Tucker Center, go to seminoles.com.
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