Jim Larranaga explains why he chose to suddenly step down at Miami

After a career with the Miami Hurricanes that spanned 14 seasons with the program, men’s basketball coach Jim Larranaga is stepping down from his role with the Hurricanes. The news was reported early on Thursday, with confirmation coming from the school later.

In the 2022 and 2023 NCAA Tournaments, Larranaga led Miami to the Elite Eight and the Final Four respectively. However, after finishing the 2023-24 season on a 10-game losing streak, he’s opened the 2024-25 season 4-8. That includes a loss to Mount St. Mary’s in their last game.

In the wake of his decision to step down from the men’s basketball program, Miami held a press conference where Larranaga explained his decision.

“It’s really hard to put into words why I’ve decided to do this,” Jim Larranaga said. “But it’s because of my love of basketball. I love the game. I’ve loved coaching it. I love practice every day. I love working with the players. But because I love the game and I love the university that much, I felt like there’s one thing you’ve got to constantly ask yourself. Are you going to give everything you have the commitment that it deserves? 100 percent of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Quite frankly, I’ve tried to do that throughout my life and throughout my time here, but I’m exhausted.”

Larranaga, who is now 75 years old, ends his time at Miami with a record of 274-174. That has included six appearances in the NCAA Tournament, two regular season conference championships, and an ACC Tournament Championship.

“I’ve tried every which way to keep this going and I know I’m going to be asked a lot of questions but I want to answer them before I’m even asked, what shocked me beyond belief was after we made it to the Final Four, just 18 months ago, the very first time I met with the players, eight of them decided they were going to put their name in the portal and leave,” Larranaga recalled. “I said, ‘Don’t you like it here?’ ‘No, I love it. I love Miami. It’s great.’ But the opportunity to make money someplace else created a situation that you need to begin to ask yourself as a coach, what is this all about? The answer is it’s become professional.

“It’s been my philosophy and the way I’ve approached this game is about teaching. Coaching, developing relationships with young kids and trying to help them develop, and prepare them for life when they’re no longer playing basketball.”

Prior to his time at Miami, Larranaga was the head coach at George Mason, Bowling Green, and American International. Over the course of his time in those roles, he won 744 games and made it to the Final Four twice. He was also an assistant at Davidson and Virginia and had been in college coaching since 1971. He was also twice named the CAA Coach of the Year and twice named the ACC Coach of the Year.

It was previously reported that Miami was expected to replace Larranaga with Bill Courtney in an interim role to manage the Hurricanes throughout the remainder of the season. He joined the staff in 2019 and has been Miami’s associate head coach since 2022. He also has head coaching experience, having led Cornell from 2010 through the 2016 season.

The Miami Hurricanes, now 4-8 for the season and 0-1 in the ACC. Their next game is going to be on New Year’s Day against the Boston College Eagles.