As the Duke team he helped build and develop made its run to the Final Four, Jai Lucas was busy starting over.
Hired as the new coach at Miami on March 6, two days before the end of the regular season, Lucas was already hard at work rebuilding the Hurricanes while his former squad won its first four games of the NCAA Tournament. “It was probably the hardest thing I’ve done in my career,” Lucas told Hoops HQ. “Not being able to be with them in those high pressure moments, those intense moments when they really need you, it was hard.”
Lucas was the first Duke assistant in three decades who had not played at the school. He left before the postseason because Miami needed to have its next coach in place well before the transfer portal opened on March 17. The decision of Jim Larranaga to retire in December gave Miami a head start on finding his replacement. It was excruciating for Lucas to leave Jon Scheyer’s bench, but Miami was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Scheyer was sorry to see Lucas go but supported his decision. “I think nowadays you’ll see this happen a lot more,” Lucas said. “I just happened to be the first.”
Lucas, 36, couldn’t bring himself to watch any of the games until Duke reached the national semifinals. Not that he had much time for casual television viewing. For the first month-and-half of his tenure, Lucas said he averaged between 12-14 hours a day on phone and Zoom calls. His to-do list — construct a roster, assemble a coaching staff, build an infrastructure to handle NIL and the transfer portal — has been so jam-packed, he hasn’t had the chance to celebrate his new job with his family yet.
“It’s what’s expected,” Lucas said. “You’re coming into a new place. You get down here and you have to adapt and adjust because it’s completely new. You have to have a plan.”
Lucas’ plan starts with acquiring talent, something he built his reputation on during stops at Texas, Kentucky and Duke. “He’s a great relationship guy,” Rice coach Rob Lanier, who coached and worked with Lucas at Texas, told Hoops HQ. “He has a gift.”
That gift is already reaping dividends. On Monday, Shelton Henderson, a five-star, top 30 recruit, committed to the Hurricanes. Henderson originally committed to Duke, where Lucas served as his primary recruiter. The 6-foot-6, 220-pounder forward embodies what Lucas is looking for as he reconstructs Miami’s roster following a 7-24 season. “I wanted to have is positional size,” Lucas said. “And the other thing I want to be is tough. I think there’s a level of physicality that’s needed to be able to compete right away in the ACC and at the national level.”
Even before the addition of Henderson, Lucas had pulled together an impressive haul from the transfer portal. Indiana forward Malik Reneau, Michigan point guard Tre Donaldson, New Mexico point guard Tru Washington and TCU center Ernest Udeh Jr. will give Lucas a solid core.
The son of former NBA player and coach John Lucas, Jai has worked for some of the elite names in the college game, including John Calipari, Rick Barnes and Shaka Smart. “He’s just ready,” Lanier said. “He’s going to be fine in a room full of alpha men being a leader. He doesn’t have to flex to do that, because he’s sure of himself. He doesn’t need five more years to get ready. He’s mature beyond his years.”
Lucas is also putting together an experienced staff, starting with Associate Head Coach C.Y. Young, a former Georgia Southern head coach who has been an assistant in the ACC at Florida State and Georgia Tech. Lucas also hired Erik Pastrana, who has been an assistant at Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma State, Florida Atlantic, Florida International and Stephen F. Austin. Both bring considerable recruiting chops to Miami.
Lucas’ vision for tackling the challenges of the portal era includes building an NBA-style “front office” with three main positions – director of player personnel, director of scouting and a director of branding and marketing. Former Houston Rockets scout LJ Rose will occupy the first of those roles. When it comes to recruiting and paying players, Lucas said he’s confident he’ll have the financial resources to build a winner. Unlike the older generation of coaches, including Larranaga, Lucas doesn’t spend much time bemoaning the seismic changes in college athletics.
Lucas may only be 36 and doesn’t have any head coaching experience, but given Larranaga’s reluctance not to have to navigate the new landscape, Lucas is hoping his youthful perspective will prove to be an asset. “My job is to be the best at the way it is,” he said. “I understand why some of the old coaches get mad. I did start and play in that era. Some of the things you loved about building teams aren’t there any more. For me, it’s kind of like, ‘OK, understand this is a part of it. This is where it is.”
