Inside Miami’s Bold Decision to Hire Jai Lucas as its new Basketball Coach

On face value, the hiring of Duke assistant Jai Lucas doesn’t make sense for Miami, a program that was in the Final Four two years ago.

Lucas has never been a head coach. He has a strong pedigree, basketball has been his family business from the time he was a toddler. But he has never been fully in charge of a major college program at any level, a key qualification that when it has been ignored by Miami in the past has generally not worked out very well short of the quick and short fix of Larry Coker in football.

Miami is a coveted ACC job. The pool of candidates interested would likely have grown exponentially in the coming days as teams concluded their seasons. In the normal scope of business, a search firm would have been doing the preliminary screening. A final round of interviews would be taking place next week and a new coach hired in time for the opening of the transfer portal March 24 when as much as an entire roster will need to be replaced.

But from the time that Jim Larranaga retired the day after Christmas, this has never been about just hiring a new basketball coach for the Hurricanes. The master plan has been about immediately reviving a stunningly dead program that will be back to square one when the regular season ends. The new coach had to be well-positioned to facilitate that and not over several years either when you consider the amount of money that is and will continue to be invested in players and a new coaching staff.

So the path to hiring Lucas was not a traditional search at all. No search firm was hired. A couple other candidates were considered, most notably New Mexico’s Richard Pitino and former Miami Heat assistant and New York Knicks Coach David Fizdale. George Washington’s Chris Caputo, Larranaga’s lead assistant for most of his time at Miami, was always there capable of being pursued.

But Lucas became the focus candidate around February 21.

Lucas literally barged through the door of opportunity and sold UM on his potential and plan to accommodate that glaring need from a new coach. According to multiple sources, moments after Larranaga resigned, Lucas reached out to Miami Columbus High basketball coach Andrew Moran, who helped develop the famed Boozer twins, who in turn were recruited to Duke by Lucas.

Sources told CaneSport the conversation went something like this: “Is this our job?”

Moran, who is now expected to join Lucas’ staff at Miami, had tried to get Larranaga to hire him at Miami a couple years ago. He has been the coach at Columbus for six years after a one-year stint at Miami Christian. The Explorers are about to win their fourth straight state title behind the sons of former NBA player Carlos Boozer. Moran also founded Miami Hoop School, a player development program.

Most significantly, as the coach at Columbus, he had a direct wire to many of the key influencers at Miami who also attended that high school, most notably key booster Jose Mas. Football Coach Mario Cristobal is also a Columbus graduate.

Word was sent to Miami that Lucas wanted the job. He was appealing because he spent the past five seasons recruiting the top players in the country to Kentucky and Duke, many of whom could be candidates to enter the transfer portal when it opens. Lucas already has relationships in place around the country which is a big head start in recruiting the portal.

It took several weeks, but Lucas rose to the status as the “focus candidate” in the search around February 21, two weeks before he would be hired. He and Miami declared their mutual interest in working toward a deal and Lucas made it clear he would take the job if it were offered.

Then there was a leak from somewhere within the chain that Lucas would be “hired” for the job. The news went viral, putting a whole new tone, pressure and urgency on the discussions.

Lucas, as the assistant head coach at Duke, was a key member of a staff with a loaded team trying to win the national title. Maybe he was telling the truth, maybe not, but Duke Coach Jon Scheyer instantly expressed surprise at the news.

“Any report or anything that’s out there, I’m just getting wind of it now,” Scheyer said at first. “We’ll cross that bridge and figure it out. Absolutely he’s a head coach, no question about it. It’s part of why I hired him. The job he’s done for us has been incredible…He’s been great for these guys. We’ll continue to move forward together and figure all that out. But he’s terrific, man. All across the board, he’s great.”

A day later, Scheyer seemed a tad more annoyed.

“Clearly this wasn’t thought out well enough,” he said. “He’s a terrific coach, terrific person. But there’s more that’s involved than just Jai and I. You think about the Miami’s staff and the job they are trying to do, the Miami players. Obviously our players and what we’re trying to do. Our thing is to try and block it out and stay in the moment until anything becomes final, if and when that happens. But it’s not ideal by any means. I don’t think it’s fair to their players, but Jai is the standup guy.”

So now the question became whether Lucas would finish the season at Duke if he did reach an agreement at Miami and whether any Duke players or recruits would go to Miami with him.

“The day and age we’re in, I don’t know about the timing and how that’s going to operate but the portal is different now,” Scheyer said. “This is a little bit of a different world. I have a lot of thoughts, but I do know Jai Lucas is the ultimate pro, a class act. He’ll do everything to handle this situation the best way possible starting with doing his job coaching for Duke.”

For better or worse, the leak that Lucas was the top target of Miami’s search didn’t change the timeline that was planned all along. An actual contract had to be negotiated, with every aspect addressed from what Lucas would be paid to how much money would be allocated to the NIL budget. Then a transition plan had to be worked out including Lucas’ exit from Duke.

There was a lot of tension in the building on the night of February 25 when Duke came to town to play the current Hurricanes team.

Nobody was denying that Lucas was in serious talks to become Miami’s next coach. The Duke side had clearly gone into damage mode with Scheyer politely talking about an assistant that he called one of his best friends and also complimenting Lucas as a coach.

But when questions about Lucas went beyond that, Scheyer and Duke administrators quickly shut them down. Players were not allowed to discuss the impending departure of the coach who had recruited many of them and helped develop them over three years.

There was sufficient reason for the tension. Speculation had already started running through basketball circles that those famed Boozer twins might consider playing for a Miami team coached by Lucas and their high school coach instead. Miami and Duke battled to land their commitments before the duo chose their dad Carlos’ Alma mater, Duke. Time will tell on that.

“You are talking about the best player in the country,” one NBA scout told CaneSport of Cameron Boozer.

Further rumors began catching fire about coaches who might join Lucas in Miami if he landed the job.

Those included Moran and three others:

• James “Bruiser” Flint. the former head coach at Drexel who is currently on the staff at Arkansas. He was on John Calipari’s staff at Kentucky three years ago with Lucas before Lucas moved to Duke. Flint was Calipari’s successor at Massachusetts after being on his staff for seven years. Flint spent the 2020-21 season as a Kentucky assistant before becoming associate to the head coach and later moving to Arkansas with Calipari.
  
• Kellen Buffington who is in his second season as the Texas Tech men’s basketball General Manager. One of the most respected grassroots basketball organizers in the country, Buffington arrived at Tech after founding and operating TheTB5Reports in Dallas and helped the Red Raiders advance to the 2024 NCAA Tournament in his first season.
  
• Rachel Baker who was hired to the newly-created position of general manager for Duke basketball in June 2022. She helps players enhance their personal and professional skill sets, capitalize on strategic partnerships, including NIL opportunities, and works to support players.

Next week we will begin finding out if any of the three will actually join Lucas in Miami.

But if you really want to understand how this all came together, you have to go back three seasons, two calendar years ago, when Miami made the Final Four.

Larranaga was 72 at the time. As we know now with certainty, the likelihood of him coaching many more seasons was not high.

But nobody thought of coming up with a succession plan at that time that would have allowed Larranaga to retire on a high. That plan could have included Caputo who was cutting his head coaching chops at George Washington. GW won 20 games this past season. Caputo is on a good track.

Instead, Larranaga was given a contract extension. The 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons turned into disasters and Larranaga threw up his hands and quit on the day after Christmas. There will soon be a banner raised in his honor in the Watsco Center. But this was no way for Larranaga’s storied coaching career to end.

Up at Duke, Lucas wanted this to become his breakthrough opportunity. In can be tough for assistant coaches to make their chance, to find an opportunity that primes them for success and the riches that come with that. They typically have to cut their teeth as head coaches at mid-major or even lower-level programs.

Miami offered the opportunity to skip that step and land one of the top ACC jobs. Lucas has built a reputation as a defensive wizard. He has helped the Duke team rank in the top-5 of several defensive categories this season.

Lucas also is considered one of the best assistant coach recruiters in the country. You have to acknowledge that Duke does in a large part recruit itself, but Lucas’ role in it is undeniable. Lucas knows what the top basketball programs in the country are supposed to look like.

Duke thought so highly of him that he was promoted to associate head coach in June 2023. Lucas aided in the development of Duke’s backcourt while primarily serving as the team’s defensive coordinator. In his first season in Durham, the 2022-23 Blue Devils ranked among the nation’s best defensive teams allowing 63.6 points per game, a .406 field goal percentage and .305 three-point percentage – each top 30 nationally and each top two in the ACC, and captured the program’s conference record 22nd ACC Tournament championship after going 27-9 overall and 14-6 in the ACC. In 2023-24, Duke’s defense held opponents to 66.3 points per game, which ranked 28th nationally and second in the ACC, while the team posted records of 27-9 overall and 15-5 in conference to advance to the NCAA Elite Eight.

Prior to Duke, Lucas was on staff at Kentucky for two seasons, joining the Wildcats as recruiting coordinator in August 2020 before a promotion to assistant coach/recruiting coordinator for the 2020-21 season. In two seasons with UK, he helped the program sign five players who played in either the McDonald’s All-American or Jordan Brand Classic games. He was instrumental in landing three student-athletes ranked in ESPN 100’s class of 2021 rankings and recruited two top-100 prospects that had signed with Kentucky for the 2022-23 campaign.

Lucas began his coaching career at Texas, his alma mater, where he spent seven seasons on staff. The Houston native began as a special assistant with the program from 2013-15 before serving as director of basketball operations in the 2015-16 season. He was promoted to assistant coach in June of 2016 and in his first year helped the Longhorns win 20 games and earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

In his first two recruiting cycles as an assistant coach, Lucas helped the Longhorns ink two top-10 ranked signing classes. The 2017 class was rated No. 5 nationally by Rivals while the 2018 class was tapped No. 8 in the country by ESPN and 247Sports. Lucas followed that with the nation’s No. 17-ranked class according to 247Sports in 2019.

His debut season as an assistant also helped spark a three-year streak in which a Texas freshman was selected in the first round of the NBA Draft. In 2016-17, he aided in the growth of Jarrett Allen, who garnered All-Big 12 recognition and was taken No. 22 overall by the Brooklyn Nets. The following two years saw Lucas play a key role in developing a pair of lottery picks, as Mohamed Bamba turned an honorable mention All-America season into becoming the No. 6 overall selection in the 2018 Draft while Jaxson Hayes was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year before going No. 8 overall in 2019. With Hayes’ selection, Texas joined Duke and Kentucky as the only programs with a lottery pick in consecutive drafts.

As a player, Lucas spent three seasons in the professional ranks, including one in Latvia with BK Valmiera of the Baltic Basketball League (2011-12) and two in the NBA Development League with the Idaho Stampede (2012-13) and Canton Charge (2013). He appeared in 58 games with one start during a two-year career at Texas, helping the Longhorns earn back-to-back NCAA Tournament bids. Lucas played at University of Florida for his freshman season in 2007-08 and was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team.

Miami booster Jose Mas, who also owns the Inter Miami soccer franchise, was intrigued and immediately became involved in the hiring process and offered his financial support. Athletic Director Dan Radakovich and Board of Trustees Chair Manny Kadre went on a trip out west to interview Fizdale, who was recommended by Eric Spoelstra and is now with the Phoenix Suns. They also spoke with New Mexico Coach Richard Pitino. But the decision was made to point toward hiring Lucas. That their interest quickly became known in the public domain was not part of the plan, but in the end did not really matter.

Scheyer soon began discussing the rumors on Lucas in different terms.

“Coach Lucas is the best,” Scheyer said. “Think these guys (Duke’s players) will tell you the impact he’s made. It’s not our news to share (that he’s taking the Miami job). We don’t know. This is not our news to share. We’ll let Miami handle that.”

Miami has now handled it with a formal announcement sent out Thursday morning after a contract was signed on Wednesday. So now with Lucas hired, the Hurricanes turn their attention toward resuscitating the basketball program.

“We are excited to welcome Jai and his family to the Hurricane Family,” Radakovich said. “Jai is an innovative coach, a relentless recruiter and proven talent developer whose knowledge and passion for the game resonated throughout the interview process. He has coached at some of college basketball’s most storied programs under tremendous head coaches.

“It is clear that Jai understands what it takes to compete on and off the floor in this new era of college basketball and he sees the great potential at Miami. We are fortunate to have Jai join us in Coral Gables.”

Lucas will make his Miami debut at a press conference on Monday.

“I am incredibly grateful and honored to be the next head coach at the University of Miami,” Lucas said. “Miami has everything you need to compete at the highest level — elite academics, a passionate fan base, and a commitment to excellence in athletics. Beyond that, the city of Miami has a rich culture and energy that makes this an incredibly special place. The history, diversity, and passion for sports here are second to none.

“I look forward to building on an incredible foundation and leading this program into an exciting new era. My family and I can’t wait to get to Coral Gables and get to work.”