Florida State coach Brooke Wyckoff embracing new women's college basketball landscape

In the age of the vibrant transfer portal and COVID-19 impacting eligibility, Brooke Wyckoff knew she needed to move quickly.

So after being officially named as the Florida State women’s basketball head coach Tuesday, Wyckoff searched for answers. The West Chester, Ohio, native assessed the current state of the roster and addressed her players and recruits to see who still wants to be part of the team.

Wyckoff’s introductory press conference – which included a Warchant welcome from the Seminole Sound and celebration of her 42nd birthday – came Wednesday. But her true introduction came when meeting with her players for the first time since being elevated from associate head coach.

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“We have some in the transfer portal right now, but I feel really good about the ones that we have here. They are committed to being here,” Wyckoff said. “The group that we have here has let me know that they are all in.”

What the Seminole roster exactly looks like next season remains to be seen. Every player besides St. John’s transfer Tiana England has at least one season of collegiate eligibility remaining. So far, guards Kourtney Weber, Amaya Brown and Izabela Nicoletti have publicly indicated that they intend to spend the rest of theirs elsewhere.

FSU plans to add multiple players from the portal this offseason, Wyckoff said.

“It takes a lot of work. It happens a mile a minute. Things are changing,” Wyckoff said. “But I’m excited about the potential of bringing in a few new people to this coming team that will help complement the players we already have and push us forward.”

Recently speaking with five-star signee Ta’Niya Latson offered Wyckoff encouragement about her status. The top-ranked shooting guard signed with the Seminoles last November and would be a critical piece for their future.

Latson tallied 15 points in the McDonald’s All-American game Tuesday.

“All signs are pointing to that she’s committed and still wants to come,” Wyckoff said. “We’ve been excited about her. She’s going to help us in huge ways on both ends of the floor. She brings immediate energy. She cares about defense as well as offense. And she’s just a winner. She has won everywhere she goes.”

For Latson to win at FSU, Wyckoff will need to build upon the storied legacy of Sue Semrau. In her 24 seasons as head coach, Semrau helped lift the Seminoles from irrelevant to perennially successful.

FSU joined Baylor, Louisville, Maryland, UConn, South Carolina, Tennessee and Stanford as the only programs to make each of the last nine NCAA Women’s Tournaments. The Seminoles also appeared in 15 of the last 16 while advancing to three Elite Eights (2010, 2015 and 2017) and five Sweet 16s (2007, 2010 and 2015-17).

Wyckoff learned under Semrau as a 2001 All-American for FSU, as a coach under her for the last 11 seasons and as an interim head coach for the 2020-21 season.

“I’m excited that she is still going to be around in Tallahassee, and she’s always going to be someone that I lean on,” Wyckoff said about Semrau. “But she wants this for me. And that is why I feel just so blessed that she wants me to take it over. It’s not about her. It’s never about coach Sue, is it? She always wants it to be about everyone else.”

Sue Semrau supports Wyckoff hire

One of the reasons Semrau retired is the same rationale she used when suggesting why Wyckoff will succeed as her successor.

“The direction this profession is going is very different from when I started,” the 60-year-old Semrau said. “And not in a bad way. Just different. I believe that you can peak at a certain intelligence level for a certain thing, and then you’ve got to jump on the next curve – whatever that might be.

“I think it’s for the younger. I really do. I want to shut off my social media. You can’t do that.

“The fact that Brooke is getting to lead this charge, I just feel great about the direction.”

After returning from her one-year sabbatical last fall, Semrau experienced a few unfamiliar challenges. She mostly hired a new coaching staff. She also needed to adjust to the challenges presented by COVID-19 like testing, players missing time and games being postponed.

Not to mention women’s college basketball continued to change at a rapid pace.

“The transfer portal, the Name Image and Likeness – and they are good things,” Semrau said. “Every sport has had the transfer portal. I just think it’s being glorified right now, and I worry about that. The NCAA governance isn’t there anymore. It’s going away.

“So I know what people are doing already and not getting caught. I don’t want to compete with that. You compete with people who are doing things that you know are not right. So I’d rather not be in that.”

Semrau turning the program over to Wyckoff gives the Seminoles a chance to be rejuvenated.

“Change sometimes can be really good,” Semrau said. “I really wanted the best for the program. So I was really excited that (athletic director) Michael (Alford) was like, ‘Let’s look nationally.’ So for him to look nationally and say, ‘Oh yeah, she’s the one,’ that’s when I was absolutely thrilled and even more at peace.”

Wyckoff benefiting from interim head coach experience

Leading FSU on an interim head coaching basis for the 2020-21 season provided Wyckoff valuable experience that could prepare her for what’s next.

“I’m so blessed that I had that year just to be able to stand up, coach, be on the sidelines and understand what it feels like to be in that in-game,” Wyckoff said. “The experience was an amazing opportunity for me. It gave me a taste of what it really is to be a head coach, which is not just being out there on the sidelines and calling plays.

“It is so much more than that – managing staff, dealing with whatever is going on with the team, all of those things that come up externally with the administration and all of the things that come up in managing a program. It gave me an opportunity to experience those things.”

Wyckoff managed to guide the Seminoles to a fourth-place finish in the ACC and an NCAA Women’s Tournament berth as a nine seed despite having 15 schedule changes and losing 65% of the team’s scoring heading into that season.

That Wyckoff found some success in those tough circumstances shows that she could be capable of navigating the current landscape.

“Coach Sue taking that leave of absence, it was a great thing. But it threw us for a loop a little bit in terms of having to figure it out on the fly,” Wyckoff said. “And then her coming back in, she was great. We had a ton of energy. And we were able to do a lot of really good things toward the end of the season and get to the tournament.

“But that being said, we want to continue moving forward and get back to the momentum that we had. We are looking to get to Sweet Sixteens, Elite Eights and beyond. That’s the ultimate goal.

“So it will be good to have some stability. Covid is still around. It’s not over. But just to be able to get back to a normal schedule, our set team, staff and all of that moving forward.”

Reach Carter Karels at ckarels@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @CarterKarels.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU coach Wyckoff ready to take women's college basketball in new direction