The Florida State men’s basketball team had an interesting 2025-2026 season after being picked to finish 15th in the ACC to start the season. The Seminoles exceeded preseason prognostications and would go on to finish 18-15 and 8th in the ACC with a 10-8 record. Winning 10 ACC games is no easy task, especially with a first-time head coach and a roster full of players from the transfer portal.

If Robert McCray IV makes the shot against Duke in the ACC tournament, the tone of the season wrap-up stories would be different. Maybe this team could be preparing for the first round of the NCAA tournament. Maybe.

But the fact that first year head coach and FSU alumni player Luke Loucks was able to get this team to a winning record and 10 ACC wins is a good sign for the direction of the basketball program.

Despite the loss to the Blue Devils in the ACC Tournament, the NIT was looming as a potential postseason destination if FSU chose to participate. After speculation about whether the Seminoles would accept an invitation to the NIT, a statement was released that the basketball team would not be participating, thus ending the season.

Loucks admitted that schools typically lose money playing in the NIT. But he underscored that the cost to play in the NIT, and likely to host a game, was not a factor in the decision-making.

“If it was completely my decision, we would have played in the NIT,” Loucks said. “I wanted to play in the NIT, I love competing and I think any chance you get in life to compete for a championship you should go do it. The other reality is, I have to do what’s best for the program. Ultimately, I could have forced them to play, but I don’t think that would have been to anyone's benefit.”

After the loss to Duke, the players, coaches and fans were obviously disappointed and the NIT can be seen as a consolation prize to the real thing of competing in March Madness. After giving the players some time to think on whether they wanted to play in the NIT, they made the decision to not participate. It’s understandable that the team didn’t want to participate given the way they had been playing down the stretch.

This team didn’t want to just play in the NIT just to play, that’s how teams get blown out, guys get hurt and positive seasons turn sour. This team had given everything they had and were playing through injuries just to fight for their tournament lives, only to come within one point of beating the best team in the country. It was quite the bounce-back from an 0-5 start in ACC play, but the practices and games wore on the players, Loucks said.

He outlined some of the pros to playing in the NIT.

"There are a lot of pros in terms of, obviously you get to keep competing," Loucks said. "This is why we do this — to compete to represent this university. You get to fight for a championship. You get to leave your legacy, not only in this run we've made, but now it's like we can win the NIT. All of these things, you can hopefully improve your draft stock. A lot of eyes on you."

But he also outlined the cons.

"You got to show up and keep pounding, and you got to show up and be ready to fight. To me, that's not a con. That's part of what we do and what we sign up for. But it's going to take a lot out of you, because I'm not taking my foot off the gas, and you guys have to be totally 1,000% invested. You six seniors, plus our rotation, which is really at this point, only two underclassmen, you guys got to be ready to win more games."

Despite the invitation to the NIT being declined, many Seminole fans were surprised. Some fans took to social media to voice their frustrations and sent direct messages to Loucks. He read them.

“I’m half joking, but half serious, I do like the intensity of our fans,” Loucks said. “It shows me that we’re building something that actually matters. We’re building something that people want to cheer for so I do appreciate your messages, even the bad ones that had some foul language and some of the ones that were sent to my wife. I did also get a lot of messages from Miami and Florida fans reminding me that they’re in the tournament and we’re not.”

There is plenty of fuel and fire going into next season as Loucks now pivots to the offseason with a full schedule of fundraising, recruiting and waiting for the portal to open up in early April. At this time last year, Loucks was having to throw a coaching staff together in a short period of time and trying to find guys in the transfer portal with limited resources, among the smallest for any power conference men's basketball program.

What transpired next over the course of the season was a team that seemed to figure out Loucks' system and pace. This team was beginning to peak in March, which as a basketball team, is where you want to start playing your best basketball. What Loucks is building is beginning to look special and despite the season ending the way it did, just know that this program is on the rise and this team could be a problem within the next two seasons.

“Just be aware of the bears you wanna poke,” Loucks said. “We’re coming, and I don’t care if you like it or not.”

Look for more from Loucks’ interview with the media later in the week on the Osceola