BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Seimone Augustus, who led LSU to three straight NCAA Final Fours from 2004-06 and won three Olympic gold medals, will return to the Tigers as an assistant, coach Kim Mulkey announced Monday.

The 40-year-old Augustus in 2023 became the first LSU female athlete to have a statue built in her honor, and she will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in October. She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame last month.

“It is an exciting day for the LSU Women’s Basketball program to bring Seimone Augustus back to join our staff,” Mulkey said in a statement. “As a player at LSU, Seimone helped transform the program as the best player in the nation. She brought LSU to national prominence. She will be a tremendous member on our staff as someone with great experience who has excelled at every level of the game from high school in Baton Rouge to college to the WNBA to the Olympics."

Augustus was 2006 WNBA rookie of the year after being the No. 1 overall draft pick by the Minnesota Lynx. She won four WNBA championships and was named MVP of the 2011 WNBA Finals and was an eight-time All-Star. She retired as a player following the 2020 season.

Augustus, an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Sparks in 2021, will fill the vacancy created by Johnny Derrick's retirement.

“Life always guides you to where you belong,” Augustus said. “Thus, my path has led me home."

Augustus was The Associated Press national player of the year in 2006 and left LSU as the school's No. 2 career scorer.

She won her Olympic gold medals in 2008, 2012 and 2016.

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This story has been corrected to show that the Naismith Hall of Fame induction this year is in October, not August.

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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball