Nijel Pack has emerged from the turbulence of a lost season and injury to be a leader on a new look Miami Hurricanes basketball team

Forget the disappointments of a basketball season that went astray. This was even crazier. Not too many days later, it was like a nuclear bomb went off around Miami Hurricanes guard Nijel Pack.

Forget also that he personally needed surgery to repair a worn-down knee. All of his teammates were on their way to the transfer portal, including his roommate, center Norchad Omier.

Just a year after the Hurricanes made the Final Four, everybody wanted out. In many of those cases, in the aftermath of that 15-17 season, Coach Jim Larranaga and his staff were not all that bothered over the 10 open scholarships they suddenly had at their disposal. They just had a lot of work to do in the transfer portal to find six imports to go along with four traditional high school recruits.

It was a pattern seen throughout college basketball — including the ACC which had 104 transfers among 18 teams — this infatuation with changing teams. But Pack, who had come to Miami on a well-publicized $400,000 per year for two years NIL deal, decided to stay with the Hurricanes for a third season.

“Talking to coach L, I believe in his plan,” Pack said after an off-season practice where he clearly was not yet in shape for the season due to the recovery from surgery, but still was draining his trademark long-range jumpers. “I really support and trust in what coach L and the rest of the coaches have for us. I want to be a leader on this team.

“I know transferring makes it kind of hard to be a leader, you’re a new guy. So being here, staying and trusting what the guys have and believing that coach L can go out and get some really good talent, which he was able to do – and then just trying to redo what we’ve done in the past. The past, we can’t go back, but we can look forward to the future and put things in our minds and manifest it and keep working for it.”

Turnover of this magnitude is not typically a positive. Teams thrive on continuity and chemistry. But throwing that out the window under these circumstances was unquestionably warranted. The new faces have restored a bounce to Larranaga’s step. You will remember at one point last season, that he was so flabbergasted that he left the team and went to sit on the bench in the middle of a timeout.

Now his new look team has six portal imports that will join Pack and Matthew Cleveland as the foundation of the 2024 Hurricanes. There is the strong veteran presence of Lynn Kidd, a center from Virginia Tech via Clemson, who finally said “yes” to Larranaga on the coach’s third attempt to recruit him. There is pure scorer Jalen Blackmon, who arrived via Stetson, and East Carolina power forward Brandon Johnson.

That’s your likely starting line-up that will be complimented by returnee Paul Djobet, a couple more transfers in Idaho State forward     Kiree Huie, Samford guard A.J. Staton-McCray, Yale forward Yussif Basa-Ama and a freshman class led by 5-star recruit Jalil Bethea, forward Isaiah Johnson-Arigu and guards Austin Swartz and Divine Ugochukwu.

“It’s been fun, learning everybody, getting to know everybody’s personality off the court, on the court,” Pack said. “It’s been great. Ever since we first got here, everybody’s been competing really hard.

“I can feel that bond, connection already. Everybody really appreciates and loves everybody on this team, and then when it comes to on the court everybody is competing and going hard at each other. I feel we’re getting ourselves ready for a really good season.”

Pack’s conditioning might not be there yet, but it’s only July, it doesn’t need to be. He runs without any signs of injury, which is a big deal considering how banged up he became last season.

“I feel good,” he said. “It (the surgery) was in April, and I’ve been cleared for two or three weeks now.  I’m just trying to get my wind back, get used to running up and down the court, get used to the new guys. Other than that, I feel really good.”

Miami’s game this year is going to be different than it has been with Kidd, who brings toughness and polish to the post. Omier was a undersized warrior who got by inside on effort. Kidd is a true 6-11 and has mad skill that can drop jaws. He is going to be a pillar for this team and give Pack and the rest of the team a true inside / outside game to play within.

“We have some size,” Pack said. “You can see our two 5 men competing, playing really hard, that’s what we need on the inside. As always, coach L is good at getting really good guard play. I feel like with that competition we set ourselves up really well. I feel like we have a really talented team in every spot. We have a lot of guys that compete every day, that’s what you need on a team to win. Everybody is ready to play going hard. That’s a good thing.”

This will be an older team, with seven grad students/seniors on the roster. Larranaga is hopeful that comes with a maturity that Miami was lacking last season. Isaiah Wong and Jordan Miller left a bigger hole than expected when they moved on to the NBA after the Final Four run of 2023.

“You see a lot of the successful teams have a lot of older guys on the team,” Pack said. “Having a lot of older guys comes with a lot of experience. We also have some really talented freshmen that know how to play the game but can use a little coaching. The leadership from the older guys will help to take their game to the next level.

“So that’s our job – help the younger guys, but also help each other. Continue to keep playing hard, and I feel like especially with the older guys it makes everybody hungry just because this is our last go around, our last time being here. So everybody wants to take advantage of it.”

The optimism is not just Pack sugarcoating what was a really tough situation after last season ended. He acknowledges that turbulence, still even communicates with Omier, who chose to go to Baylor. The roommate bond is still the roommate bond.

“It was definitely difficult watching all the guys from last year ending up finding their own way,” Pack said. “Obviously I am happy for every one of them finding a new school and hopefully success for them as well.  It sucked that we couldn’t try it one more time, run it back one more time.

“But coach L and the rest of the coaches did a good job in the portal to find guys that want to be here, want to win. And they came in from Day 1 ready to play, ready to compete and I feel like if we can continue to stack days like we have been doing, we can set ourselves up very well.”

The transition has included Pack being a leader, teaching the newcomers the Larranaga and Miami way. The Final Four will always live on as a realistic goal to begin every season because it was made to happen. Yeah, it is very far in the distance right now with all this change. But it also is very much at the forefront of the Nijel Pack message to his new teammates.

“Those guys are vets, but they’re still new to Miami, don’t know our culture, what to expect from coach L, what coach L likes, doesn’t like,” Pack said. “And that’s kind of my job as one of the leaders on the team to help those guys be successful on the court. We’re still learning every day. The guys are learning new drills we do in practice. We still are putting guys in the right spot, teaching them and telling them where they should be and letting them do the rest, learn. The summer is time for us to all learn each other, learn the coaches and to get better.

“I’ve talked about how great an experience that NCAA Tournament run was, and some of the guys on our team just have never experienced March Madness before. I said, `It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.’ I know there’s a lot of guys, seven grad students, older guys, and this is their last go-round. So I know this is something they look forward to, a goal that they set, and I know they are going to work hard to get there. Once we get there, we have to live in the moment and make every moment count.”