Malik Reneau thriving with Canes after transferring home to Miami from Indiana
Malik Reneau is finally home and enjoying basketball again, just like he did as a carefree kid driving to the hoop in the Police Athletic League at OB Johnson Park in Hallandale Beach.
The 6-9 University of Miami forward, who transferred from Indiana University last spring, is playing with confidence and freedom, 23 miles from where he was taught the game by his mother, Melanie.
She was a star center at Cheyney University in Pennsylvania, is in the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame and spent the past 27 years as Hallandale Beach Superintendent of Parks and Recreation before retiring last month.
Reneau has fond memories of family time on the court with his mother, his older brother Rashid and his father, Patrick, a security guard and native of Belize who also played basketball and met Melanie when she was a Peace Corps volunteer.
“When I was growing up, my mom was my coach and my brother’s coach for our little PAL teams, so she was always around basketball with me, and she taught me how to dribble, how to shoot the ball, everything,” he said.
After five years living away from home at prep school and IU, Reneau said it boosts his confidence seeing his parents, brother, lifelong friends and newlywed wife, Shaunece, cheering him on at the Watsco Center.
When he wants to relax, he can head to the Everglades to fish for peacock bass with his friends.
And his Labrador retriever, Ace, shows him love when he gets back to his apartment, win or lose.
Heading into the Hurricanes’ Sunday night showdown against No. 10 University of Florida in Jacksonville (8:30 p.m., ESPN), Reneau is the leading UM scorer with 21.3 points per game. It is the first time in his career he had three 20-point games in a row.
He is shooting 63.9% and averaging six rebounds and 3.3 assists. He grabbed 10 rebounds against Stetson on Monday.
Through three games, he has demonstrated a blend of power and finesse, excellent footwork, body control and court vision. Coach Jai Lucas and his staff have challenged Reneau to become a better rebounder.
Reneau dabbled in baseball and soccer as a kid, but basketball was always his sport of choice.
He went through a major growth spurt before ninth grade and started raising eyebrows as a freshman playing varsity for the late legendary coach Shakey Rodriguez at Mater Academy in Hialeah Gardens.
UM assistant coach Erik Pastrana, a Miami native with deep ties to the area, was the recruiting coordinator at Oklahoma State in 2019 and remembers getting a call from Rodriguez.
“I found out from Shakey and his son, Eric, that they had this young kid that had a chance to be really good,” Pastrana recalled. “I had just gotten to Oklahoma State from FAU and was trying to continue to build relationships down here, so I came down and watched Malik play when he was in ninth grade. I knew instantly that was somebody I would follow.”
Pastrana was particularly impressed with how effortlessly Reneau could score.
“Typically, in ninth grade, when you’re that big, you’re not as skilled as far as great hands and being able to finish around the basket,” Pastrana said. “Shakey spoke so highly of him. He had coached a lot of great players, so for him to vouch for Malik meant a lot. A kid with that size and skill, you’re just like, `Man, I don’t know what this is going to look like by the time he’s in 12th grade, but it’s probably going to be really good.’”
His prediction proved prescient.
Before long, Reneau became one of the most sought-after players in South Florida. As a sophomore, he averaged 20.5 points and 10 rebounds per game and helped Mater to a 25-5 record and a berth in the Class 6A regional finals.
Rodriguez, realizing that Reneau would benefit from higher-level competition, supported his decision to transfer to national powerhouse Montverde Academy outside of Orlando. At Montverde, he won back-to-back GEICO High School Basketball National titles (2021 and 2022) and elevated his status to a top-30 college recruit.
UM, Florida State, Florida and Memphis all recruited Reneau hard, as did many other programs around the country. Pastrana, who was on the Gators’ coaching staff by that time, was able to help persuade him to pick UF.
He signed with the Gators in August 2021 but then head coach Mike White left Florida to take the job at Georgia. Pastrana went with him, but Reneau did not follow. He reopened his recruiting and chose to join Montverde teammate Jalen Hood-Schifino at Indiana.
“It was a drag-out, hard-fought recruitment and we won out, which was huge for the UF program at the time, and huge for me, personally, because Malik was probably the highest-caliber player I recruited, and for us to get him ahead of Miami, with Coach L [Jim Larranaga] and FSU’s success, it was a big win for us,” Pastrana said.
He said the staff was shocked when White announced his plan to leave for Georgia, as was the Reneau family.
“We had built a great relationship, and it was a stressful time,” Pastrana said. “Malik was completely thrown for a loop, and he was emotional about it. It hurt me because he put his trust in us, and I was so excited to coach this kid I had seen since he was 14 and instead, I had to watch him play on TV for IU.”
He came off the bench behind Trayce Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson as a freshman, averaging 6.1 points and 3.7 rebounds for the 2023 NCAA Tournament team that lost to Miami in the second round.
Reneau shined his sophomore season with the Hoosiers, averaging 15.4 points, six rebounds and 33.3% three-point shooting
He missed six games with a knee injury last season but was still Indiana’s leading scorer, averaging 13.3 points with 5.5 rebounds. The Hoosiers finished 19-13 and declined an NIT bid after failing to make the NCAA Tournament.
“I had a great time there, the coaching staff were all great to me, it was just a downhill situation that third year due to all the losses, and the fan base was deeply involved,” Reneau said. “A lot of stuff didn’t end up well that third year, so the majority of the coaching staff parted ways, and I had to enter the transfer portal.”
He got in contact with newly hired UM assistant coaches Pastrana and Charlton “CY” Young, who recruited him while at FSU.
“Everything just connected, and I was able to get a whole package of coaches that I knew I could trust,” Reneau said. “E.P. [Pastrana], Coach CY, and then Jai was a big part of that, too, because he recruited me when he was at Texas, and then Kentucky. He was always in contact with me.
“When Jai started telling me the names of coaches he was bringing to Miami, familiar names kept popping up, and I was like, `This is my spot. This is where I need to be.’”
Auburn, Michigan, and Southern California were his other finalists. But his heart kept pulling him home.
When he found out Tre Donaldson was transferring from Michigan to UM and Ernest Udeh was leaving TCU for UM, his mind was made up. The three got to know each other playing the AAU circuit in Florida.
“I felt like UM was home, and not just because I’m home, home… They make it feel like home because of all the people I’m around, all the stuff the coaches tell me about what they want me to do on the court, but also the way they are off the court, how genuine they are and the respect they have for everybody.
“I am just happy I ended up here.”
As soon as he said those eight words, the tears he had been trying to hold in spilled down his cheeks. He wiped them with his shirt and explained what he was feeling.
“I’m super emotional because it was a hard transfer portal to get through and dealing with my last year,” Reneau said. “I wanted to be in the perfect spot, and I was able to get that from Jai and the staff. They trust me so much on the court. The freedom Coach Jai gives me allows me to play super confident and puts me in position to be successful, and I think that’s why my game is blossoming from the three years I had at Indiana to now. It’s only been three games, but I’m headed in the right direction.”
He is also on schedule to graduate with a degree in American Studies in May 2026.
His mother has no doubt that Malik made the right decision coming home.
“Things didn’t go very well at IU, but he stayed there and tried to stay strong,” she said. “When Coach Lucas called and said he was at UM and what he was all about, we were like, `Malik needs to come home.’ The coaches that are there now all recruited him coming out of high school, so it’s funny how it all came around.”
“It’s his time,” she said.
“He has a whole new outlook on basketball and I’m so happy and proud of him. His spirit is up. He had been bumped to a backup at Indiana and that kind of broke his spirit but now his spirit’s back on point and if he continues the way he is, it’s going to be an awesome year.”