ESPN College GameDay crew examines impressive culture Jim Larranaga has built at Miami

ESPN’s College GameDay crew is on hand for the Final Four in Houston, and they have a boatload of praise for the Miami Hurricanes.

The job Jim Larranaga has done, keeping his team focused on one singular goal amid the NIL drama that’s followed the Hurricanes around, is nothing short of impeccable, at least Seth Greenberg thinks so.

“Jim Larranaga’s a great communicator. Jim Larranaga is a guy that he doesn’t enable players, he empowers players,” began Greenberg. “He has real relationships with his guys, you see him interact and that’s great. Now one thing I want to see once this season is over, what we’re seeing all over the country, … these agents will try to monetize their players. That’s just what’s happening.

“The job that Jim did in terms of keeping this team 100% on the same page, doing one thing, trusting each other, loving each other and playing to win, not everyone can do it the way Jim Larranaga does it. He has a gift, and an ability to connect with players.”

While Rece Davis prefaced the conversation with the possibility that other Miami players may get jealous over certain NIL deals, like the one Miami gave Nijel Pack to come and join their squad, Jay Bilas pushed back on that, explaining that jealousy has always been prevalent in one way or another.

“He did that before as well,” pointed out Bilas, speaking of Larranaga’s coaching ability. “The only thing I disagree with you Rece is the jealousy point. When Nijel Pack transferred to Miami, and the reports were he received a certain amount of money, and the reports were that Isaiah Wong said wait a minute, I want more. That’s business, that’s not jealousy. That’s just business. They handled it. From what I was told, Miami said no, we made a deal with you and we’re sticking with it, and he decided to stay. Everything’s fine.

“I hear the same stuff from players now that you did five years ago. How much they love each other, and they play as a team, playing for something bigger than themselves and all that, so how do we square Miami as this quote-unquote NIL team? All of them are. All of them are doing it, and they’re doing it to the level that they can. Before NIL, there was jealousy over roles, ‘He’s getting more shots, he’s getting more minutes,’ all that stuff. All this stuff has always existed. We all have agents, how did we crack the code? It’s just not that hard. It’s business. And really, the players are only in this business on a limited basis, they still don’t have full economic rights yet, and they’re going to.”

Nevertheless, LaPhonso Ellis believes that Larranaga deserves a lion-share of the credit due to the types of players he recruits, and that’s led to Miami’s phenomenal culture.

“I think we also have to give Jim Larranaga a lot of credit for the types of guys that he goes and gets,” added Ellis. “Nijel Pack, we were kind of joking off air knowing what went on during the off-season, but much of his lack of effectiveness early on was he didn’t know where his shots were going to be coming from. They needed him to be able to shoot it. … The point is, you’ve got to give Jim Larranaga a lot of credit for the types of guys that he goes into the transfer portal and goes and gets.”

Jim Larranaga and Miami are on a tremendous ride, and they want to end it hoisting the trophy at the end of it. They have two more teams to get through to get to that point, and the first is the Connecticut Huskies, who they’ll battle at 8:49 p.m. ET on CBS on Saturday night.