Jai Lucas explains why he left Duke during season to start at Miami

Duke will enter the ACC Tournament as a one-seed and likely receive the same designation on Selection Sunday. Jon Scheyer has a legitimate national championship contender and even so, he has already lost a member of his coaching staff. Jai Lucas left the program on Sunday, taking over in Coral Gables with the Miami Hurricanes.

Not a move we see much in college basketball, Lucas explained his reasoning behind leaving Duke before the season was officially over. He pointed to the modern times of the sport and Miami needs to hit the ground running. With Miami’s season already over, staying with Duke for another month would have cost valuable time.

“The times have changed,” Lucas said. “This is the first year teams didn’t qualify for the ACC Tournament. So the season here was over. I felt like it was my responsibility as quick as I could and we got started on the right foot and got the program going. That was really important to me.”

Lucas was named to Scheyer’s initial coaching staff back in 2022. He left Kentucky for Duke and for three seasons, Lucas has been a part of an ACC Tournament championship followed by an Elite Eight run before winning the regular season title this year.

Given roster cycles in college basketball, Lucas recruited most of the current Duke roster. Those are relationships he had to leave behind for Miami. It’s something Lucas was not an easy decision, especially with the success many believe the Blue Devils are about to have over the next month.

“It was extremely hard,” Lucas said. “It was extremely hard to leave. Just off the relationships you’ve built there. I was there from the beginning there with Jon, three years ago when we started his program at Duke. This year, we finally had a team that could win it all. You recruited those kids and we had returning kids that’s been there three years and you build your relationship with them. That was the hardest part.”

As Lucas mentioned, Miami’s season is already over. Conference expansion meant some teams were left out of the ACC Tournament this year and the Hurricanes were one, joined by Boston College and NC State.

The offseason has already begun and Lucas has a roster to remake. He will be able to cheer his former team on from afar but remaining with the program only delays the next stage of life.