BATON ROUGE - Just days after Kim Mulkey hired a former Tennessee assistant coach to her staff, Gabe Lazo was announced as the new head coach at UCF.

Sunshine State native coming home ????

Welcome to UCF, @CoachGabeLazo pic.twitter.com/EoivmvZf93

— UCF Women's Hoops (@UCF_WBB) April 4, 2026

Coach Mulkey told The Advocate that she's happy for Lazo after he accepted the gig in his home state.

Lazo, a Miami native, spent the past two seasons in Knoxville and was hired at LSU to fill the void of Gary Redus. Redus left Baton Rouge just before the NCAA Tournament to accept the head coaching job at Rutgers. Fellow LSU assistant Daphne Mitchell joined Redus' staff at Rutgers.

Mulkey will now continue her search in hiring two assistant coaches for the 2026-2027 basketball season.