BATON ROUGE - Seimone Augustus, an LSU basketball legend and the first female athlete to be honored with a statue on campus, is joining the women's basketball coaching staff. 

"Life always guides you to where you belong," Augustus told LSU Monday. "Thus, my path has led me home."

When Augustus played for the Tigers in the early 2000s, she led the team to their first Final Four appearance - and then again - and again, in 2004, 2005, and 2006. She was the first female athlete to have her jersey number retired and to be honored with a statue on campus. She has also been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. 

Augustus joins the women's basketball coaching staff to fill the vacancy left by Johnny Derrick. 

“It is an exciting day for the LSU Women’s Basketball program to bring Seimone Augustus back to join our staff,” Coach Mulkey said. “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. Her expertise in the game will benefit our team and allow our players the opportunity to learn from a Hall of Famer who has exhibited great class throughout her entire career."