The ACC was truly awful last season\u2026but you wonder what might have happened if Virginia and Miami had been up to their recent standards.<\/p>\n
Both Tony Bennett and Jim Larranaga were exhausted though and tired of the changes in college basketball. For Bennett, as discussed previously, his system relied on getting his type of players in and maturing them. It was never going to work in the new environment.<\/p>\n
As for Larranaga, he attempted to adjust, but at 74, it was asking a lot. He retired the day after Christmas and Miami, already bad, just fell off a cliff. The \u2018Canes finished 7-24 and won just three times after Larranaga stepped down.<\/p>\n
Word broke near the end of the season that Duke assistant Jai Lucas would become the new head coach and Lucas was officially announced as Miami\u2019s new coach on March 6th.<\/p>\n
His Duke boss, Jon Scheyer, said that Lucas would be a great head coach and it\u2019s hard to argue with his assessment.<\/p>\n
Lucas, son of Durham native and Maryland legend John Lucas, was a McDonald\u2019s All-American in high school. He played first at Florida for Billy Donovan, then transferred to Texas where he was coached by Rick Barnes.<\/p>\n
As an assistant, he worked for Barnes, his Longhorn successor Shaka Smart, Kentucky\u2019s John Calipari and then finally Scheyer at Duke.<\/p>\n
Toss in his dad, who has an excellent basketball mind, and Lucas has a tremendous amount of experience at 36, with an array of very talented mentors.<\/p>\n
So what should we expect at Miami?<\/p>\n
Well, not 7-24, we can just about guarantee that. Even if the record isn\u2019t that much better (and we think it will be), this team will defend and compete.<\/p>\n
The woeful roster has been completely rebuilt. Nijel Pack is off to Oklahoma. Jalil Bethea is at \u2018Bama. AJ Staton-McCray is Seton Hall-bound. Divine Ugochukwu is at Michigan State. Paul Djobet will play for UAB. Austin Swartz is now a Creighton Blue Jay and Isaiah Johnson-Arigu is bound for the St. Thomas Tommies. Matthew Cleveland, Lynn Kidd, Brandon Johnson, Kirk Huie and Yussif Basa-Ama all either graduated or are out of eligibility. Not one player is back.<\/p>\n
The portal delivered Jordyn Kee, a 6-4 redshirt freshman from Georgia, Marcus Allen a 6-6 sophomore from Missouri, Tru Washington, a 6-4 junior from New Mexico, Malik Reneau, a 6-8 senior from Indiana, Tre Donaldson, a 6-0 senior from Michigan and Ernest Udeh, a 6-10 senior from TCU.<\/p>\n
Kee comes to Miami along with former Georgia assistant Erik Pastrana. he was a three-star prospect coming out of high school. We don\u2019t know much about him, but he\u2019ll have to play defense to see time for Lucas.<\/p>\n
Allen has a reputation for defense. A native of Miami, he was a four-star guy in high school and he\u2019ll likely get minutes. He got about 10 per game at Mizzou.<\/p>\n
Washington looks like a pretty sturdy guard who left the Lobos after Richard Pitino took the Xavier job. He got 28 mpg for UNM and while he averaged 11.1 ppg and 5.4 boards, his 2.1 steals per game probably drew as much interest as anything else.<\/p>\n
Like Allen, Reneau is a native of Miami and he was a Top 30 recruit out of high school. He had a knee injury last season but as a healthy sophomore, averaged 15.4 ppg and 6.0 rebounds. They\u2019ll find a use for him.<\/p>\n
Finally, Ernest Udeh. He started off at Kansas before moving to Jamie Dixon\u2019s TCU team. He didn\u2019t do much statistically – 6.6 ppg and 7.5 rebounds – actually the rebounds weren\u2019t bad – but he\u2019s a big, strong guy and for a defense-first coach, he\u2019ll be an asset.<\/p>\n
Miami also brings in a nice freshman class. The best two are probably Shelton Henderson and Dante Allen.<\/p>\n
Henderson of course originally committed to Duke but followed Lucas to Miami. He\u2019s a rugged 6-6 athlete who should be a terrific defender and should contribute offensiveley too. Incidentally, he went to the same Houston-area high school as Lucas, Bellaire.<\/p>\n
For his part, Allen originally committed to Villanova but bailed when Kyle Neptune was canned. Yet another hometown kid, Allen played at Montverde, where Lucas no doubt got to know him while recruiting former Duke star Cooper Flagg. He\u2019s another promising athlete who should be a capable defender. He\u2019s also used to winning, having won two Florida State championships and three Nike EYBL championships.<\/p>\n
John Laboy is a native of Houston. A 6-3 point guard, he\u2019ll likely be a backup as a freshman.<\/p>\n
Timotej Malovec, a 6-8 freshman from Slovakia, is slim at 180. He\u2019s kind of an unknown quality but Lucas says he\u2019s versatile and can attack the basket as well as hit threes, so that\u2019s all good.<\/p>\n
Salih Altuntas is anything but slim: he\u2019s 6-10 and 280. He\u2019s know for his rebounding but might need to lose some weight to be effective. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n
Quite recently Miami got a commitment from 6-5 Israeli Noam Dovrat. He\u2019s not listed on the roster yet so we don\u2019t know what his class is, but he\u2019s 23 so at a minimum, he\u2019ll bring some maturity and experience. Here\u2019s what Lucas says about him: \u201cWe are excited to bring Noam to our program as he brings a wealth of playing experience in Israel and in international play. He is someone that has the ability to score and facilitate the offense while also using his size and physicality to play and guard multiple positions.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what to make of the new-look Miami?<\/p>\n
Well, it\u2019s hard to say. Chemistry is impossible to predict in this brave new era. A few years ago, no one would have dreamed of starting over with an entirely new roster. Now? It\u2019s common-place.<\/p>\n
From here, it looks like Lucas has size, athleticism and some scoring talent. We expect this team to defend hard and to be competitive. How good?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s pretty tough to say, but assuming the pieces fit together, Miami is first going to play hard. We\u2019d expect the Hurricanes to make the post-season. We\u2019re just not sure whether it will be in the NCAA or NIT. Whatever it is, Lucas is building something that should be solid and impressive. Miami is going to be a tough out for the forseeable future.<\/p>\n