After former WSU Assistant Coach Lou Gudino accepted an assistant coaching position at Ball State earlier today, Head Coach Isaac Brown moved quickly to find his replacement.

Butch Pierre is set to join the Shocker coaching staff, according to multiple reports. Pierre would bring over 30 years of coaching experience to the coaching staff, as a head coach and assistant. During his time at the Division-I level, Pierre’s coaching has resulted in nine conference championships, 12 NCAA Tournaments, including a Sweet 16, Elite 8 and Final 4 appearance, and three NIT appearances.

Pierre served as an assistant coach at multiple Power-Five schools, including Oklahoma State (2008-16), LSU (1997-2008) and NC State (2016-17). He’s also served as the director of player personnel at Memphis during the 2017-18 and was the head coach for Northwest Florida State College for two seasons.

While at Oklahoma State, four Cowboys were drafted to the NBA – James Anderson (20^th pick, 2010), Markel Brown (44^th pick, 2014), Juwan Evans (39^th pick, 2017) and Marcus Smart (6^th pick, 2014). Pierre also helped land OSU two top-10 recruiting classes.

During his time in Baton Rouge, LSU advanced to four NCAA Tournaments (2000, 2003, 2005, 2006), including appearances in the 2006 Final 4 and 2000 Sweet 16. Pierre’s recruiting efforts led to a 1998 top-three class and 2003 No. 1 recruiting class in the nation. LSU also had a 2007 top-five class, two top-10 classes (1999, 2005), a trio top-15 classes (2000, 2002, 2004) and a top-20 class (2001).  Pierre served as LSU’s interim head coach in 2008 for 10 games.

Pierre joins assistant coaches Tyson Waterman and Billy Kennedy for the 2022-23 season.