NEW YORK — Duke assistant Jai Lucas is the front-runner to be the next coach at Miami, though Lucas has not formally been offered the job at this point, sources told CBS Sports on Saturday.
Lucas, one of college basketball’s rising stars and an ace recruiter, would succeed Jim Larrañaga as coach of the Hurricanes and, at 36, would become one of the youngest high-major coaches in the sport. If Lucas winds up as the pick, he’d begin a rebuild of a program coming off one of its worst seasons in school history. Larranaga, previously the oldest high-major coach in men’s college basketball, stepped down in December after a 4-8 start less than two seasons after leading Miami to a Final Four appearance in 2023.
Lucas, 36, began his coaching career at his alma mater, Texas, where he worked for seven seasons beginning as a special assistant and working his way up to an assistant coach. He left in 2020 to take a job on John Calipari’s staff at Kentucky as a recruiting coordinator before a promotion to assistant coach. In 2022, he joined Jon Scheyer’s staff as an assistant coach before a promotion in 2023 to associate head coach.
After No. 3 Duke’s dominant 110-67 win over Illinois at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, Scheyer was asked about Lucas’ prospects as a future head coach.
“Absolutely he’s a head coach, no question about it,” Scheyer said. “It’s part of why I hired him, and the job he’s done for us has been incredible. Any report or anything that’s out there, I’m just getting wind of it now, but we’ll cross that bridge and figure it out. But I can tell you 100% Jai’s an amazing coach.”
Coincidentally enough, Duke’s next game is Tuesday at Miami.
Over the course of his young coaching career, Lucas has been an instrumental voice in recruiting the likes of Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Cason Wallace and Shaedon Sharpe, among others. Most recently he played an outsized role in helping Duke land the highly touted Boozer twins, Cameron and Cayden, both of whom hail from Miami.
The Boozers chose Duke over Miami and Florida last fall and are primed to be among the most impactful freshmen in college basketball next season. Miami was one of the more aggressive men’s basketball programs in the first two years of the NIL era, but has slipped recently. It’s likely to return to an ambitious spending plan when then next coaching regime begins. That should fit nicely with Lucas’ propensity to go big-game hunting.
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