Will Wade announces promotion for assistant Tasmin Mitchell
Will Wade announced Wednesday that former LSU basketball star Tasmin Mitchell will be elevated to an assistant on his staff.
Mitchell takes the open position following Tony Benford’s departure for TCU.
Mitchell finished last season as Director of Student-Athlete Development. With that move, assistant Greg Heair will become associate head coach.
From Mitchell’s LSU bio
Tasmin Mitchell, who starred in an NCAA Final Four and on two SEC Championship teams at LSU, returns for his second year on Coach Will Wade’s staff.
Prior to taking this position, the native of Denham Springs, Louisiana, played professionally in the NBA G-League and overseas with stops in France, Russia and Israel since his LSU playing career ended in 2010. He returned to the area in the fall of 2016 to Denham Springs after the major floods in the region affected his family.
Mitchell said the opportunity to “give back to my University that gave me so much” made it an easy decision to accept the offer to join the staff prior to the 2017-18 season.
Mitchell remains one of the top scorers and rebounders in LSU history, still third all-time in points at 1,989, a 14.5 points per game average for 137 career games. He averaged 11.4 points in 2006 when as a freshman he was a member of LSU’s last NCAA Final Four team when he teamed with Baton Rouge products Tyrus Thomas, Glen Davis and Garrett Temple along with St. Martinsville’s Darrel Mitchell in a great storyline of players that had been on the court together since they were youngsters.
Mitchell is behind only Pete Maravich and Durand “Rudy” Macklin on LSU’s scoring chart. His 950 rebounds remains sixth all-time and he stands behind five top names of LSU basketball history – Macklin, Shaquille O’Neal, Al Sanders, Bob Pettit and Ned Clark.
He is one of just three players in LSU history to record 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 200 assists and 100 steals in a career (with Clarence Ceasar and Jerry Reynolds). His 4,692 minutes played is a school record as is his 137 games played and 136 starts.
Besides the NCAA Final Four year, he was also one of the players to capture multiple Southeastern Conference titles as part of the 2009 championship team. He was honored in March of 2017 as the SEC Legend representing LSU at the league basketball tournament.
He was a McDonald’s All-American during his outstanding prep career at Denham Spring High School and is a member of the Denham Springs High School Hall of Fame. He was the school’s only four-time Class 5A All-State basketball player and was named Louisiana’s Mr. Basketball in 2005.
Mitchell, born on June 25, 1986 and a 2010 graduate of LSU, has for the past several years given back to the youth of Denham Springs through the T-Mitch Free Basketball Camp which he has organized and sponsored.