Gabe Lazo to be UCF head coach instead of assistant under Kim Mulkey

Gabe Lazo will not be joining Kim Mulkey’s staff at LSU.

The former Tennessee assistant coach is going home.

UCF has hired Lazo to be the next head coach of its women’s basketball program, the Knights announced Saturday, April 4. This will be the first collegiate head coaching job for Lazo, who spent the last few seasons as an assistant in the SEC.

"He’s a proven competitor at every level of the game, with deep Florida roots, an elite ability to connect with people, and a track record of developing student-athletes on and off the court," UCF athletic director Terry Mohajir said of Lazo in a statement. "He has consistently helped elevated every program he’s been part of as a head coach and assistant. His vision for UCF, his love for the state, combined with his energy and ability to connect, make him the right leader at the right time in today’s college landscape.

The move to UCF concludes an eventful past two weeks for Lazo, a native of Miami, Florida. For the past two seasons, he had been an assistant at Tennessee under head coach Kim Caldwell and spearheaded the recruiting push for the Lady Vols, helping them land multiple McDonald’s All-Americans and top-level talent out of the transfer portal.

Tennessee’s tumultuous season ended with eight consecutive losses and was capped off by a first-round NCAA Tournament defeat to NC State on March 20. Seven days later, Lazo resigned from his position in Knoxville. On March 31, LSU announced that Lazo was joining Mulkey’s staff to fill the position left open by Gary Redus, who became the head coach at Rutgers .

In a statement, Mulkey said Lazo had an "unbelievable ability to teach the game and recruit the best players in the country."

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Tessa Johnson #5 of the South Carolina Gamecocks shoots the ball against Sarah Strong #21 of the UConn Huskies during the third quarter in the Final Four of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at Mortgage Matchup Center on April 03, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma bring intensity to SC‑UConn. See photos

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Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma bring intensity to SC‑UConn. See photos

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Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma bring intensity to SC‑UConn. See photos

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Women’s Final Four showcases top-ranked teams going head-to-head

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Women’s Final Four showcases top-ranked teams going head-to-head

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Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma bring intensity to SC‑UConn. See photos

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Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma bring intensity to SC‑UConn. See photos

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Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma bring intensity to SC‑UConn. See photos

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Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma bring intensity to SC‑UConn. See photos

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But the day before his hiring was announced by LSU, UCF finally decided to fire head coach Sytia Messer after four seasons. UCF lost to Kansas by 21 points in its first game of the Big 12 Tournament on March 4, bringing Messer’s fourth disappointing season to an end.

The UCF job is one that Lazo has long coveted, specifically because of his heritage and ties to Florida. When the job came open and the Knights called, he had to consider it and had to have a conversation with Mulkey.

"This is a special place with tremendous potential," Lazo said in a statement from UCF. "As a Florida native, this opportunity means a great deal to me. I look forward to building meaningful relationships with our student-athletes, competing at a high level in the Big 12, and making Knight Nation proud."

Lazo, 39, played college basketball at FIU and Division II Barry College after starring at Miami Senior High. He then became the head coach of the Miami Suns in the AAU circuit and led the squad to the Nike Nationals. Lazo was also the head coach of Ferguson High School Falcons from 2012 to 2017 and earned Miami-Dade County Coach of the Year three times.

His collegiate coaching journey began where his playing days started, at FIU. He then worked under Caroline McCombs as an assistant coach at Stony Brook and George Washington. In 2022, he joined Sam Purcell’s inaugural staff at Mississippi State. In 2023, he helped the Bulldogs land the third-ranked transfer portal class in the country and Purcell gave Lazo much of the credit for Mississippi State’s upset of No. 6 Creighton in the NCAA Tournament, making the Bulldogs the first team to advance to the second round out of the First Four. Purcell added back then that Lazo’s "work ethic is unmatched" and he’s an "elite" player developer.

"He can relate to a lot of kids. And he has a passion and energy for life that sets him apart from other people," Purcell told the Knoxville News Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network . "He's just an absolute workhorse. He gets after it, and when you got those ingredients, it makes for a special person, and that's why he's doing a special job."

In 10 total seasons seasons as an assistant coach, Lazo had helped five teams make the postseason. In the past four seasons in the SEC, he's signed 11 players ranked inside ESPN's top 100 recruits.

Lazo joined Caldwell’s inaugural staff at Tennessee in 2024 when the Lady Vols hired her away from Marshall after one season to succeed Kellie Harper. Over the past two years, he played a significant role in recruiting some of the best players to the Lady Vols. All five of Tennessee’s freshmen this past season – including three McDonald’s All-Americans – credited Lazo as their lead recruiter. The group Lazo signed was Tennessee's highest-ranked high school signing class since 2017. Oliviyah Edwards, tabbed as the second-best recruit in the country in the 2026 class by ESPN, has also said that Lazo is a big reason why she committed to Tennessee.

Now, Lazo takes over a UCF program that struggled mightily under Messer, who was unable to sustain the success that Katie Abrahamson-Henderson had in Orlando before leaving for the Georgia Bulldogs. Abrahamson-Henderson’s teams went to NCAA Tournaments in three of her last four seasons, but Messer’s squads never won more than four conference games in a single season.

Lazo, who is Cuban, takes over a women’s basketball program at a university with a student enrollment that is 31% Hispanic. He is also on the board for the Latino Association of Basketball Coaches.

He’ll try to rally the fanbase in Orlando by putting a winning product on the floor. The transfer portal for women’s basketball opens on Monday. Lazo will likely start there in his rebuilding journey.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: UCF hires Gabe Lazo as women’s basketball head coach