The Hurricanes’ next head coach will be the Blue Devil assistant
Jai Lucas, an assistant coach at Duke basketball, will be the new head coach of Miami men’s basketball. In 2023, Lucas and Chris Carrawell were elevated to associate head coach, and he is currently in his third season on the Duke basketball staff.
The Hurricanes’ season has been as bad as it could have been; after being selected sixth in this year’s ACC preseason poll, the team is currently 6-20 overall and has the poorest conference record in the ACC at 2-13.
When Larranaga retired, he remarked, “I’m tired.” “I’ve tried every which way to keep this going.” Miami assistant head coach Bill Courtney was appointed head coach of the program for the rest of the season after the 75-year-old coach announced his resignation, but a search for a new head coach was still ongoing.
Lucas served as a college basketball assistant for multiple promiment programs until Miami signed with Duke’s associate head coach. Before joining Jon Scheyer’s staff as the Blue Devils’ next head coach after Mike Krzyzewski retired, Lucas worked as an assistant for four years at his alma mater, the University of Texas, and then for two years at Kentucky.
The Blue Devils have acquired a number of high-profile pledges in recent years, including Cooper Flagg and the Boozer brothers, thanks in large part to Lucas.
In this new recruitment and NIL era, the 36-year-old will be the next youthful head coach to enter the collegiate basketball scene. With only one 4-star prospect in Matthew Able, Miami’s recruiting effort for the 2025 class hasn’t been very successful. In order to perhaps establish a connection with the players in this new era of college basketball, Miami has now brought in a seasoned recruiter with a different perspective.
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