Damon Stoudamire, a former NBA player and experienced college coach, will join Coach Will Wade’s staff at LSU for the 2026-27 basketball season, according to an April 13 announcement.
Stoudamire brings a background that includes playing thirteen seasons in the NBA and holding head coaching positions at two universities. His addition is expected to add valuable experience and perspective to the LSU coaching team.
Most recently, Stoudamire served as head coach of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets from 2023 to 2026. Before that, he was head coach at Pacific from 2016 to 2021 and received the Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year award in 2020. “We are happy to welcome Damon Stoudamire to the LSU Basketball family,” said Coach Wade. “His NBA success and his years of college basketball coaching experience brings a perspective to our coaching staff that will be very useful as we move forward.”
Stoudamire played college basketball at Arizona between 1991 and 1995, helping his team win two Pac-10 Conference championships and reach the NCAA Final Four in 1994. He was named a consensus All-American First Team pick in 1994 and Pac-10 Player of the Year in his senior season. He finished his collegiate career ranked fifth on Arizona’s all-time scoring list with notable achievements including setting records for assists and three-point field goals.
In his professional career, Stoudamire was selected seventh overall by Toronto in the 1995 NBA Draft. He averaged over thirteen points per game during thirteen seasons with Toronto, Portland, Memphis, and San Antonio. In his rookie year he earned both NBA Rookie of the Year honors and MVP of the Rookie All-Star Game.
After retiring as a player, Stoudamire began coaching at Rice University before moving on to assistant roles at Memphis University (twice) and Arizona (his alma mater), where he contributed during back-to-back thirty-win seasons for Arizona’s program.
Looking ahead, this appointment marks Stoudamire’s first year with LSU as assistant coach after extensive experience across collegiate programs and professional teams.
