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From the FSU Website, seminoles.com. FLORIDA STATE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
COACH SUE SEMRAU ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT. March 21, 2022
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Sue Semrau, the longest-tenured head coach in the ACC
and Florida State's all-time winningest coach, announced Monday that she is
retiring as head women's basketball coach at Florida State University. The
Associated Press, WBCA and ESPNW National Coach of the Year in 2015, Semrau
guided the Seminoles to 16 NCAA Tournaments, Elite Eight appearances in
2010, 2015 and 2017, and was voted ACC Coach of the Year four times over
her 24 seasons. "It's been a joy and a privilege to be the head coach at
Florida State University," Semrau said. "Thank you to the amazing players
and the talented and diligent members of our staff, you have given me
millions of moments to cherish, and friendships for a lifetime. The
countless supportive and hard-working administrators, faculty and staff
have enriched my life. "Our precious fans embrace us, fight with us and
represent this great university with passion. The excellent camaraderie of
the coaches I worked with at FSU shaped me. I still remember on my
interview Coach Bowden sitting with me and telling me that we could do
this; and that he would help me. And he did. More than I could have
imagined. "I walk away eternally blessed by the life I lived while being
the head coach of Florida State. I am Nole Blooded and am proud to be a
Seminole forever." Over her last 10 years of coaching alone, FSU
averaged nearly 25 wins per season and 10 players were selected in the WNBA
draft and another 12 played professionally overseas. Under Semrau, 20
players have been drafted, signed or have played for a WNBA team since the
league began in 1997. Semrau's record at FSU was 470-271 and she led the
Noles to 14 20-win seasons, including a string of eight straight from 2012
to 2020. She was elected president of the Women's Basketball Coaches
Association in 2013 and served until 2015. "It is hard to put into a few
words just what Sue Semrau has meant to our athletics program, our
university and the women she has inspired over her career," said FSU Vice
President and Director of Athletics Michael Alford. "I know I speak for the
FSU athletic directors who had the opportunity to work with her over her
long career in saying that you couldn't find a better representative of
Seminole athletics or women's basketball than Sue. "She instilled in her
student-athletes the qualities that allowed them to be successful on the
court, in the classroom and in life. She was also a tremendous mentor not
only to the assistant coaches who served under her but to both head and
assistant coaches in our other sports. "Sue has represented Florida
State masterfully for the last 25 years and we will always be grateful."
Full Biography
- CAREER RECORD: 470-271 (.634)
- Associated Press, WBCA and ESPNW National Coach of the Year (2015)
- Four-Time ACC Coach of the Year (2001, 2005, 2009, 2015)
- Women's
Basketball Coaches Association President (2013-15)
- Guided FSU to 16
NCAA Tournament appearances, including 15 in her previous 16 years (Does
not include 2020 shortened season due to COVID-19)
- Five NCAA Sweet 16s,
three NCAA Elite Eights and two ACC co-regular season titles
- 52 AP Top
25 victories at Florida State
- All-Time Winningest Coach in FSU History
- 2013 Kay Yow Heart of a Coach Award Recipient
- 2018 Barefoot Coach
of the Year
- 8 consecutive 20-win seasons from 2012-20; 14 total 20-win
seasons at Florida State
- The longest active head coach at Florida State
University when she retired
HONORS
- Florida State
Women's Basketball head coach Sue Semrau wrapped up her 24th season with
the Seminoles in 2021-22, guiding Florida State to its ninth consecutive
NCAA Tournament appearance.
- For Semrau, her journey at FSU has been an
enormous success since beginning her tenure in 1997. She is coming off a
2020-21 season in which she took a single-year leave of absence to assist
in her mother's fight against cancer back in her hometown of Seattle,
Washington.
- A four-time winner of the ACC Coach of the Year award and
Florida State's all-time leader in wins, Semrau has earned a reputation as
a coach that not only keeps her team in the national rankings by leading
her players to victory but also one that helps foster the personal and
professional growth of the student-athletes.
- "Coach Sue" has guided the
Seminoles to 16 NCAA Tournaments, including three Elite Eight appearances
in 2010, 2015 and 2017, five NCAA Sweet 16s in 2007, 2010, 2015. 2016 and
2017, won a pair of gold medals with USA Basketball and has seen 43 ACC
All-Academic honors under her watch. Semrau's 2019-20 team that finished
24-8 overall would have been the 16th team she led to the Big Dance until
the NCAA post-season was cancelled due to COVID-19.
- Recently, Semrau
was a court coach for the USA Basketball Women's National Team from Sept.
30-Oct. 2, 2017, in Santa Barbara, Calif., to add to her years of
experience with the nation's governing body of basketball.
- Over her
last 10 years coached, Florida State has averaged nearly 25 wins per season
and had 22 players sign professional contracts either in the WNBA or with
an overseas club team. Ten Seminoles have been selected in the WNBA Draft
since 2009, most recently Kiah Gillespie who was selected in the third
round of the 2020 WNBA Draft by the Chicago Sky. FSU once had a stretch of
three consecutive WNBA first-round Draft picks in Adut Bulgak (12th in
2016), Natasha Howard (fifth in 2014) and Jacinta Monroe (sixth in 2010).
Under Semrau, there have been 20 players who have been drafted, signed or
have played for a WNBA team since the league began in 1997.
- Semrau is
so respected among her peers in the coaching community that she was named
president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association in summer 2013
after serving as the vice president since 2010. Semrau finished up her
tenure as WBCA President following the 2014-15 season.
- She owns 14
20-win seasons as head coach of Florida State, including eight straight
from 2012-20.
HER MOST RECENT SEASON (2021-22)
- Guided the Seminoles to their ninth consecutive NCAA Tournament
appearance, one of just eight programs to enjoy a current streak that long.
- Helped FSU achieve its seventh straight season of earning double-digit
ACC wins, going 10-8 (does not include 2020-21 season where several games
were canceled).
- Navigated a season where injuries forced Coach Sue to
use 12 different starting lineups.
- Helped Morgan Jones earn All-ACC
First Team honors for the second consecutive season.
MOLDING TRUE
STUDENT-ATHLETES
- As successful as Florida State has been
on the court, Semrau's commitment to community service is just as important
to her program's identity.
- Once again in 2019-20, Semrau partnered the
Seminoles with Samaritan's Feet, a non-profit organization dedicated to
changing lives through shoe distributions around the world. Semrau annually
coaches a game barefoot to raise money, and the Seminoles took a break from
the 2010 Junkanoo Jam in the Bahamas to give back on Thanksgiving. FSU has
hosted 10 Samaritan's Feet games at the Tucker Center.
- In summer 2017,
Florida State went to Bainbridge, Ga., to participate in a Samaritan's Feet
washing where coaches, student-athletes and support staff made a monumental
impact on everyone involved. FSU repeated that effort in 2018 in
Tallahassee.
- FSU was also able to spread its message of hope and
inspiration to the U.S. Virgin Islands around Thanksgiving in 2016, doing
another shoe distribution overseas to an area middle school.
- The
2016-17 Seminoles once again fulfilled their duties of giving back to the
community and making strong connections within the Big Bend area. FSU
influenced both children and adults by visiting schools, playgrounds and
other locations that allowed it to positively impact and connect with the
community. The sight of FSU Women's Basketball coaches and student-athletes
performing good deeds around the community is not an uncommon one.
- Additionally, the Seminoles have been known to extend a helping hand
when on the road, making visits to the Boys and Girls Club at the Coalition
for the Homeless in Orlando and elementary schools in Milwaukee, Harlem,
West Chester and Wadsworth, Ohio and Martinsville, Ind., as well as the
Duke Hospital in Durham, N.C
- In August 2013, Semrau and the Seminoles
held a basketball clinic for youth in Dakar, Senegal, in addition to
visiting an orphanage during the team's 2013 Foreign Tour.
- These
efforts have molded countless Seminoles into superstars in the game of life
following their hoops careers. Current associate head coach Brooke Wyckoff
(Class of 2001) and Christian Hunnicutt (Class of 2011) each earned
prestigious ACC Postgraduate Scholarships, while Vanessa Fuchs (Class of
2001) served as Interim Athletics Director at Florida State and is
currently the Florida State Athletics' Senior Women's Administrator.
- For the third straight year in 2018, FSU tied or led the ACC with four
All-ACC Academic Team members. In 2020, Morgan Jones and River Baldwin
added themselves to the list as well.
RECENT SUCCESS
- The 2009-10 season served as the perfect example of just how strong the
Florida State's women's basketball program has become under Semrau. The
Seminoles captured their second consecutive regular-season ACC
Co-Championship and made it to the Elite Eight of the annual NCAA
Tournament as a then-program-best No. 3 seed for the second straight
season.
- Along the way, FSU set the school record for most wins in a
season with 29, most conference triumphs ever with 12 and the highest
national ranking ever at No. 9. Those three school marks were all broken by
the 2014-15 team.
- After the 2009-10 season was complete, star forward
Jacinta Monroe was taken sixth overall in the 2010 WNBA Draft by the
Washington Mystics; a draft slot that was the highest ever for an FSU
women's basketball player before Natasha Howard's selection as the fifth
pick by the Indiana Fever in 2014.
- During a 24-8 campaign in 2010-11,
the Seminoles extended their NCAA Tournament streak to seven consecutive
years, nabbing another No. 3 seed. Along the way, forward Cierra Bravard
nabbed honorable mention All-America honors and teamed with point guard
Courtney Ward to capture All-ACC accolades.
- Overall, Semrau has guided
11 different players to All-America honors in her 23 years - most recently
Ekhomu and Gillespie in 2020.
- It could be argued that Semrau's best
coaching job occurred in the 2014-15 record-setting year where new
accomplishments were being made seemingly every game. Florida State
finished with a 32-5 overall record, shattering the school record for wins
while also setting new records for ACC wins (14), Top 25 wins (6, since
broken by the 2016-17 team) and regular-season victories (27). For the
first time, the Seminoles finished undefeated at the Donald L. Tucker
Center, going 16-0.
- FSU highlighted its 2014-15 year by earning a 66-65
win over No. 3 seed Arizona State in the NCAA Sweet 16 in Greensboro, N.C.,
reaching its second Elite Eight appearance in program history. The Noles
finished second in the ACC regular season with a 14-2 record, reached the
ACC Tournament title game for the first time and garnered a program-best
No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament before taking down Alabama State (91-49)
and 20th-ranked FGCU (65-47) in the first two rounds at the Tucker Center.
- Semrau earned several national and conference coaching honors in 2015
after FSU was predicted to finish fifth in the ACC and ultimately
steam-rolled most of its competition. She was named the ACC Coach of the
Year by the Blue Ribbon Panel and the ACC coaches. Semrau was also named
the ESPNW National Coach of the Year, the WBCA Coach of the Year and the
Associated Press Coach of the Year.
- Many college basketball fans, media
and other personnel took notice of the way Coach Sue was able to blend a
team with six new players and create one of the most collective,
team-oriented and entertaining groups in the sport.
- Semrau's fourth ACC
Coach of the Year honor gives her the distinction of having the most among
active ACC coaches.
- The fact that the 2014-15 team became the first in
program history to average five double-figure scorers proves how well a new
cast of faces played together under Semrau's system. Offensively, the Noles
averaged 75.5 points which was their highest in the previous 24 years.
- In 2014-15, FSU also set the single-season record for 3-point field
goals made (216), offensive rebounds (625), defensive rebounds (986) and
total rebounds (1,611). One of its most impressive feats was being the only
Division I basketball team - men's or women's - to out-rebound every
opponent during the regular season. Overall, FSU out-rebounded 36 of its 37
opponents.
- Florida State became one of just seven NCAA Division I
programs to make the Elite Eight in two of the last three years in 2016-17,
finishing with a 28-7 overall record. The Seminoles defeated a
school-record nine AP Top 25 teams, including eighth-ranked and
second-seeded Oregon State in the NCAA Sweet 16 in Stockton, Calif.
- FSU
finished second in the ACC with a 13-3 conference record and tied its
highest end-of-season ranking in the USA Today Poll at seventh. The 28 wins
tied for the third-most in program history, with 10 of those victories
coming against RPI Top 50 opponents.
- Once again, there was no shortage
of individual accolades for the Seminoles. Junior forward Shakayla Thomas
became FSU's first ACC Player of the Year, while senior point guard Leticia
Romero became the program's first three-time All-American. Both standouts
were named Associated Press and WBCA All-Americans while being
all-conference performers.
- Junior center Chatrice White was honored as
the ACC Sixth Player of the Year, the third straight for FSU, and senior
Brittany Brown was named to the ACC All-Defensive Team for the second
straight season.
- The 2017-18 Noles recorded 25+ wins for the fourth
straight season, finished with a 26-7 overall record.
- Florida State
clinched a double-bye in the ACC Tournament for the fourth consecutive
year, finishing third in the conference with a 12-4 record.
- FSU won its
15th consecutive NCAA First Round game, defeating Little Rock - a streak
that dates back to 1991. FSU added to that with a first-round win over
Bucknell in 2019.
- The Seminoles averaged the second-most points in a
season in program history with 81.0 points per game. It was also just the
second time FSU averaged 80+ in a season.
- FSU finished the Associated
Press Poll ranked 11th, securing a Top-15 finish for four straight seasons
to join just seven other schools (UConn, Notre Dame, South Carolina,
Baylor, Louisville, Oregon State and Stanford) during that span.
- The
2018-19 team generated the program's seventh straight 20-win season,
finishing 24-9 overall and 10-6 in the ACC. It was the only team in the AP
Top 25 who had to replace their entire starting five from a season ago and
finished 25th in the AP Poll and 23rd in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll.
- Despite there being no NCAA postseason in 2020 due to COVID-19, the
2019-20 Seminoles defeated six AP Top 25 teams, including three Top 10
teams. The six ranked wins are the second-most in program history (2016-17
team leads with nine ranked wins). FSU finished 24-8 overall and 11-7 in
the ACC, ended at 19th in the final Associated Press Poll and reached the
ACC Championship game.
CHANGED CULTURE
- Semrau's
470 career win total with the Seminoles more than triples the second-most
victories by an FSU coach (Marynell Meadors, 132), and her tenure has
accounted for 16 of FSU's 20 all-time NCAA Tournament appearances.
- Semrau basically built the Seminoles from scratch, as she inherited a
program coming off a 5-22 record in 1996-97 and hadn't reached double
figures in wins in four years. She has accumulated 52 AP Top 25 wins in her
24 seasons. When she arrived in Tallahassee, FSU had not won vs. a
nationally-ranked team in the previous four seasons.
- By her fourth
year, Semrau had completely turned the program around, capturing a 19-12
record and the first NCAA Tournament appearance in a decade. The 2000-01
season served as the jumpstart for unprecedented success.
- FSU had only
four 20-win seasons before Semrau guided the Noles to six 20-win seasons
over seven years beginning in 2004-05. She has now led the Noles to 14
20-win campaigns through 24 seasons, including a 32-win season in 2014-15.
A RESPECTED AND SEASONED COACH
- Before coming to
Florida State, Semrau served three years as an assistant coach and
recruiting coordinator at the University of Wisconsin under Jane Albright.
While in Madison, she contributed to the Badgers' three-straight winning
seasons and two NCAA Tournament appearances, including the program's
first-ever back-to-back 20-win seasons.
- Semrau first joined Albright at
Northern Illinois in 1991 where she assisted in leading NIU to three
consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
- Before her hiring at Northern
Illinois, Semrau served as head women's basketball coach and assistant
athletic director at Occidental College in Los Angeles for four years where
she compiled a 51-47 overall record.
- She also coached soccer for two
seasons and was responsible for the administrative duties of fundraising
and promotions at the Division III institution.
- Semrau also worked as
the public relations and promotions director for the L.A. Heat professional
soccer team from 1986-87, and as the public relations director for the
Seattle Storm soccer team in the previous year.
- A native of Seattle,
Wash., Semrau is a graduate of Shorecrest High School. She went on to
attend the University of Puget Sound for two years. Semrau transferred to
the University of California-San Diego in 1984 where she was a team
co-captain and Co-MVP.
- She graduated in 1985 with a bachelor's degree
in communications and received her master's degree in athletic
administration from the University of Southern California in 1988.
- Coach Sue is the Godmother of associate head coach Brooke Wyckoff's
daughter, Avery (8.5).
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