UM coach Larranaga defends suspended Hernandez, says he was ‘duped’ by his club coach
University of Miami basketball coach Jim Larranaga, awaiting word from the NCAA on the appeal to reinstate suspended Dewan Hernandez, vehemently defended his star forward Friday, saying he had been “duped” by his summer league coach.
Larranaga is frustrated by the saga, and feels Hernandez, who has missed all 16 games this season, is being punished too severely.
“This thing started in November,” said Larranaga, whose team plays at home at noon Saturday against No. 13 North Carolina. “We’re talking all of November, all of December, now 18 days in January. So, hopefully, at some point we’ll get good news. This is about a young man’s future.
“Dewan is a tremendous part of our program and one of the nicest human beings you ever want to be around, and he got duped by his (club) coach. I don’t know if you guys know the name Jordan Fair, he’s the one who created this problem. He was his (club) coach in high school, an assistant coach at University of Louisville at the time. So, not just a (club) coach, but a competitor of ours is talking to one of our players. From what I understand, that’s inappropriate as it is.”
Fair was one of two University of Louisville assistants placed on administrative leave and then released after the FBI announced its college basketball investigation. He is back in central Florida, coaching club ball and selling insurance.
In the indictment, a Louisville assistant identified as “Coach 1” was part of a hotel room conversation about funneling money to a high school recruit with two named defendants in the case, aspiring agent Christian Dawkins and Florida-based AAU coach Jonathan Brad Augustine. Charges against Augustine were later dismissed.
In the court proceedings regarding Dawkins, an e-mail surfaced which included proposed monthly payments to college players, and one of the names on the list was Hernandez, who went by Dewan Huell at the time. According to a source familiar with the case, Hernandez met with Dawkins at the suggestion of Fair, who was his club coach. No contract was signed, and Hernandez never received any payments, according to the source, but the NCAA ruled that they had a relationship which jeopardized his amateur status.
Larranaga said Hernandez has handled the situation with patience and class.
“He is so team oriented and cares so much about his teammates that he’s been on the bench at every home game, cheering like crazy,” the coach said. “He’s been at every practice he’s been allowed to attend and working his tail off, hoping for the day when he gets the green light to play college basketball again.”
Hernandez even went so far as to get himself to Tallahassee for the UM game there a few weeks ago.
“He jumped in a car with a friend to drive all the way to Tallahassee at his own expense, and the only thing he was allowed to do was sit on our bench and cheer for his teammates, which he did,” Larranaga said. “He made his own way, paid his own food, I think he stayed at a friend’s place.
“He’s made a lot of sacrifices. He deserves to be back playing.”
Hernandez has been practicing with the scout team, but also has been part of the starting unit at practice for the past month so he could be ready when he gets the OK from the NCAA.
The Tar Heels are known for playing at a breakneck pace, outrunning the opposition and scoring quick five-second layups. Miami has been reduced to a seven-man rotation, and would benefit greatly if Hernandez gets reinstated by Saturday.
“He certainly would play, he’d play a lot,” Larranaga said. “He’s a terrific player. I would expect, other than the emotions he would feel, that he’d be able to come right in and contribute mightily. If he’s so emotional at being given that opportunity, then we’d have to take that into consideration.”
This story was originally published January 18, 2019 at 3:42 PM.