University of Miami basketball coach Jim Larranaga deserves an apology. Here’s why | Opinion
Be honest now.
Were you one of the critics who demanded that Jim Larranaga be fired before this season? Were you one of the people who insisted that the 72-year-old legendary coach was past his prime and needed to move on?
If so, you owe Larranaga an apology.
Of course, you probably won’t be that gracious because you posted your strong opinions on Twitter, where anybody can say anything anonymously without having to ever face the people they trash.
Here are some of the comments people made about Larranaga:
Feb. 20, 2021: “Miami’s gotta fire Coach L. That program is a disaster.”
Nov. 18, 2021: “Miami has an awful roster and in a few weeks we’ll have a new AD and Larranaga’s seat will be on fire.”
Nov. 25, 2021: “Fire Jim Larranaga. I can’t take this terrible basketball.”
Dec. 3, 2021: “The new AD needs to fire Larranaga and get Turgeon if they want Miami basketball to be relevant.”
Oh, really?
Is the program a disaster now? Do they have an awful roster? Is Larranaga’s seat on fire? Are the Hurricanes playing terrible basketball? Is Miami basketball irrelevant?
No. No. No. No. And No.
Heading into Tuesday night’s game at Florida State the Hurricanes were 13-3 and sitting alone atop the ACC standings with a 5-0 league record and a nine-game win streak after a road upset at No. 2 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Before Larranaga arrived at Miami 11 years ago the Hurricanes were 2-15 against Duke. Since his arrival, the Canes are 7-7 against the Blue Devils, which is second-most wins against Duke by any team in the nation. Only North Carolina has beaten Duke more times (10) during that span. And three of those Hurricanes’ wins were at Cameron Indoor, one of the most intimidating arenas in college basketball.
Three nights before beating coach Mike Krzyzewski and his Blue Devils Larranaga’s Canes rallied from 18 points down to beat another Hall of Fame coach, Jim Boeheim, who is in his 46th year at Syracuse.
Between them Krzyzewski and Boeheim have won six national titles (five for Coach K) and have reached 17 Final Fours.
Larranaga has one Final Four on his resume after a magical run at George Mason in 2006. That 11th-seeded Patriots team managed to upset No. 6 Michigan State, defending champion North Carolina, Wichita State and top-seeded UConn — silencing critics who said the Patriots didn’t deserve an at-large bid and had no business being in the Big Dance.
Larranaga loves competing against the best coaches in America and silencing doubters. It is one of the main reasons he chose to take the Miami job rather than riding out his career at George Mason, where he was so beloved that the menu at Brion’s Grille, a restaurant in Fairfax, Virginia, featured the Jim Larranaga Burger (which was slathered in honey mustard, jack cheese and banana peppers).
Shortly after Larranaga took the Miami job at age 62 he revealed that when he left his job as an assistant coach at the University of Virginia 25 years earlier, he wrote down a career goal: “ACC head coach.” He considered it the ultimate challenge to test his coaching skills against the likes of Krzyzewski and North Carolina legend Roy Williams.
So far, so good.
There were skeptics who felt Larranaga was past his prime in 2011, that UM should have gone for a younger coach. But he didn’t take long to win them over. In his second season the Canes won the ACC regular-season title, topped North Carolina for the ACC tournament title, and reached the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament. It was the first time since 1974 that a school other than Duke or Carolina won the ACC regular season and tournament championship.
Three years later, the Canes reached the Sweet 16 again. The program took a dip the past three years, but it would be unfair to blame Larranaga. There was an FBI probe into recruiting that UM was tangentially mentioned in, but nothing came of it and the school’s name was redacted from the indictment. Although UM was cleared, it hurt two recruiting cycles.
Then, there was a plague of injuries that befell the team to the point that many nights Larranaga had just six or seven healthy scholarship players. Even John Wooden would have struggled to win with such a thin roster.
Last summer, things started to turn around. Isaiah Wong and Kam McGusty announced they would return to UM after initially declaring for the NBA Draft. Sam Waardenburg decided to return, as well. DePaul point guard Charlie Moore and George Mason’s Jordan Miller transferred to Miami. All of a sudden, Coach L had the kind of team he loves – four sixth-year seniors, positive energy, and a poised point guard who can score at will but happily shares the ball.
I asked Krzyzewski on a Monday conference call what he thought of the job Coach L has done, considering there were critics calling for his ouster on Twitter a few months ago.
“I’m not big on critics on Twitter,” Krzyzewski said. “It sounds like a comedy show on HBO, let’s watch Critics on Twitter.
“Jim’s one of the outstanding coaches in the history of our game, one of the winningest coaches and he’s done a great job at Miami. No team that I can remember has been devastated with injuries as much as his team was last year. For him to keep those kids coming back, especially Wong and McGusty and (Sam) Waardenburg – it shows those kids trust him and believe in him. And he’s been able to complement them with two outstanding transfers in Moore and Miller.
“As long as Jim wants to coach, they’d be smart to keep him there. Hell, he might win the league. That’s going to be an NCAA tournament team and he’ll be a tough out for whoever’s playing them.”
Larranaga’s not done at Miami. He is as hungry as ever. He’s still doing Muhammad Ali dances in the locker room. Don’t be surprised if his team is dancing again come March.
This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 2:43 PM.