Former Arizona star Damon Stoudamire hired as assistant at LSU

ATLANTA, GA - MARCH 04: Georgia Tech head coach Damon Stoudamire reacts during the college basketball game between the California Golden Bears and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on March 4th, 2026 at Hank McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta, GA. (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

In his second stint at LSU, Will Wade has assembled a staff full of former college head coaches. Joining that group is ex-Arizona star Damon Stoudamire.

Fresh off a 3-year stint as head coach at Georgia Tech, Stoudamire will be a college assistant for the first time since the 2015-16 season at Memphis. That was under fellow former UA player Josh Pastner, which came after two seasons on Sean Miller’s staff at Arizona from 2013-15.

Stoudamire was also head coach at Pacific from 2016-21 and has a 112-132 record in his coaching career.

Wade, who returned to LSU after one season at North Carolina State, was previously at the school from 2017-22 before getting fired in the wake of the same FBI bribery scandal that Arizona was involved in (and which led to former UA assistant Book Richardson spending time in prison). Wade was head coach at McNeese State for two seasons after LSU fired him.

Stoudamire is the third former college head coach to join LSU’s staff, along with Rick Stansbury and Johnny Jones. Stansbury was at Mississippi State from 1998-2012 and Western Kentucky form 2016-23, while Jones coached at LSU from 2012-17 and was also head coach at North Texas (2001-12) and Texas Southern (2018-26).