Midterm grade? UM’s Jai Lucas deserves an ‘A’ for Hurricanes’ turnaround
The 2025-26 college basketball season is at the halfway point this week, and there is little disputing that rookie University of Miami coach Jai Lucas has earned an “A” for his midterm grade.
The Hurricanes are 14-2 heading into Tuesday’s road game at Notre Dame, which is already double the number of victories Miami had all last season. The Canes, riding a nine-game win streak, are in third place in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 3-0 conference record after finishing in last place last year with a 3-17 record in league games.
There were skeptics who questioned whether a 36-year-old first-time head coach with an entirely new roster and staff could turn things around after the program went into a tailspin following the 2023 historic run to the Final Four under legendary coach Jim Larranaga.
Lucas, the former Duke assistant who turned 37 in December, is proving doubters wrong.
Miami is winning games by an average of 19 points, which ranks second in the ACC behind Duke. UM leads the conference in field-goal percentage (51.5), assists (18.75) and rebounding margin (9.9). Its 88.2 points per game rank third in the league.
Although the Hurricanes’ football team commands most of the attention these days, there is buzz growing around the resurgent basketball program.
Lucas refuses to take full credit.
“Coach L [Larranaga], at the end of his career, did phenomenal and amazing things,” Lucas said, when asked Monday about the team’s success so far this season. “The last two years, whatever happened, doesn’t take away from anything he did before. He built this program to the level it’s at, and that is why this job was so appealing.
“But things happen. The game changed. Everything changed about college athletics, and it was different from what he loved. I can understand how that happens. There’s an excitement around Coral Gables right now with football, and with us having a good start, being something new and different.”
Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry is not surprised at Lucas’ quick start.
“He’s been around great coaches for a really long time, starting with his dad [John Lucas],” Shrewsberry said. “It’s difficult when you step in to be a head coach in your first year, but the guys he has with him, C.Y. Young has been around a long time and is a great voice and a former head coach and the other assistant coaches, too. He is willing to let those guys help guide him.”
Lucas assembled a talented roster built on size and toughness, a blend of elite, experienced players from the transfer portal and top-shelf freshmen. Most of them have Florida ties, which was deliberate. In this age of revolving door rosters, Lucas wanted his players to share an immediate bond.
The plan is working.
Michigan transfer point guard Tre Donaldson, a Tallahassee native, leads the ACC with 110 assists and an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.4 (6.9 assists to 2.0 turnovers). He was voted ACC Player of the Week on Monday after scoring 27 points and dishing 10 assists (with just one turnover) in Saturday’s win over Georgia Tech.
Indiana transfer Malik Reneau, a Miami native, ranks fourth in the conference in scoring with 20.6 points per game. TCU transfer Ernest Udeh, Jr., of Orlando ranks No. 2 in the ACC with 10.5 rebounds per game. Freshman Dante Allen, a Miami native whose father, Malik, is a Miami Heat assistant coach, is an impact player.
Other standout players are freshman Shelton Henderson of Houston, a longtime Lucas family friend who de-committed from Duke to follow Jai Lucas to Miami, and New Mexico transfer Tru Washington, a relentless defender who ranks second in the ACC with 2.1 steals per game.
“This is not my first time playing Tre Donaldson in my years coaching college basketball,” Shrewsberry said. “He does a good job of being in attack mode at all times. He’s playing as well as anybody in our league right now, if you look at the stats and what he’s doing on a nightly basis, scoring the ball, getting assists, pushing the pace, guarding people. That’s what you want from a veteran point guard.
“He’s the head of the snake. He’s the guy we need to have full attention on and try to slow down because they have good players around him, but if he’s going, then that makes them really, really good.”
Other opposing coaches have noted that Donaldson is playing his best basketball this season, following stops at Michigan and Auburn.
“Sometimes it just takes a different voice, a different system to unlock something else in a player,” Lucas said. “He’s played for two great coaches, Bruce Pearl and Dusty May, so I’m not taking anything away from them, but sometimes it can be that little thing that can help them a little bit.
“And he’s older now. I’m getting him in his senior year. He’s played at a high level and has great experience.”
Whatever it is, it’s working.
Lucas said he continues to learn and evolve as a new head coach.
“Making decisions is different from having opinions,” he said, smiling. “The one thing I would say I didn’t account for was [the challenge of] not hiring anybody I had worked with, so I have to coach everything. Coach the team, coach the coaches, the equipment, the academics, building something really from the ground up.
“That’s what I wanted to do, but when you don’t have people who worked with you before, you have to be overly communicative in your message about how you want things done. The basketball stuff comes naturally.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2026 at 3:29 PM.