Kaufman: Hurricanes struggling after Elite Eight, Final Four runs. What went wrong? | Opinion
As the Miami Hurricanes celebrated their win against the Presbyterian Blue Hose over the weekend, finally ending a seven-game losing skid in front of a sparse Watsco Center crowd, my mind traveled back to the lobby of the Houston Hyatt Regency on March 31, 2023.
It was the eve of UM’s first Final Four appearance in school history, and that lobby was buzzing into the wee hours.
Hundreds of fans and former players spanning the eras proudly milled around in their orange and green, marveling at how a program that went dormant from 1971 to 1985, and then held open tryouts for its resurrected team on the student union patio, could find itself two wins from a national title.
A day later, the fifth-seeded Hurricanes lost to eventual champion UConn in front of 73,860 fans at NRG Stadium, but there was a feeling among the Miami faithful something big was brewing. UM students, habitually apathetic, scooped up the 700 designated tickets allotted for each Final Four team, made the trek to Texas, packed the end zone and outnumbered UConn students.
“This is not a fluke,” former UM guard Jack McClinton said as he enjoyed the moment. “Hopefully, we will finally get the respect we deserve, and our former players are bonding over this and building a brotherhood like the Dukes and other blue bloods have. UM basketball is here to stay.”
That magical ride to the Final Four should have catapulted the Hurricanes basketball program to national prominence.
They played a high-octane style that was fun to watch. Isaiah Wong and Jordan Miller wound up in the NBA. Coach Jim Larranaga, with his locker room dances and treasure trove of tales, regaled the national media at every press conference.
And yet, on Sunday afternoon, the arena lacked energy and there were three just reporters at Larranaga’s postgame interview. It has been that way much of this 4-7 season.
The Watsco Center student section, which rocked in the final months of the 2023 season, has been largely empty this season. Yes, this last game was during the school holiday break, but that does not explain all the empty seats in the previous home games.
So, what went wrong? How can a program that reached the Elite Eight and Final Four so recently be struggling to win and get attention?
You must go back to last season to get the answer.
The Hurricanes’ 2023-24 season began with a Final Four banner-raising ceremony, a No. 13 preseason national ranking and high expectations. Their season ended with a 10-game losing thud, and without an invitation to the NCAA Tournament.
The Canes wound up with a losing record (15-17) and finished second to last in 14th place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The other three 2023 Final Four teams (UConn, FAU, San Diego State) returned to the Big Dance. The UConn Huskies won the title again.
Asked at the end of last season why the team slid so far, Larranaga said: “Isaiah Wong and Jordan Miller graduated. The game comes down to players. Last year we needed a bucket, I went right to Isaiah or Jordan, one of those two guys, and invariably they would deliver. We don’t really have that this year. Haven’t all season long.”
Although several players were expected to take on the roles of Wong and Miller, none did. The coach explained how injuries to Nijel Pack, Wooga Poplar and Norchad Omier kept the team from reaching its full potential and how the team’s collective confidence and chemistry was affected once the losing streak got going.
Then came the postseason exodus.
Rosters all over the nation were decimated by the transfer portal as NIL money grew. Bouncing from school to school has become the norm. Players’ entourages, so often overfeeding player egos, fuel the moves by suggesting that more playing time and more success can be found elsewhere.
The ACC had 104 players bolt, including eight from Miami. Omier left for Baylor, Poplar for Villanova and Bensley Joseph for Providence. Jakai Robinson and Favour Aire went to Bryant, Christian Watson to Southern Miss, AJ Casey to Saint Louis and Michael Nwoko to Mississippi State. Freshman Kyshawn George was picked No. 24 in the NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards.
Pack is the only remaining player from UM’s 2023 Final Four team and, once again, is being hampered by an injury. This time, it’s a right ankle injury, and the timeline for his return is unknown, according to the team trainer. He missed Sunday’s game and is wearing a protective boot.
Pack, Matthew Cleveland and Paul Djobet are the three holdovers from last season. Larranaga and his staff restocked with 10 new players. Four are freshmen who are still adapting to the college game and six are transfers getting adjusted to new systems.
All but one of those transfers is a senior or grad student. Pack is a grad student and Cleveland is a senior. So, basically, Larranaga and his staff will have to start all over again with a very different roster next season.
College basketball is not much different from professional basketball these days, except that NBA players sign contracts and typically spend more than one season with a team.
While it is great that college players now have the same freedom as coaches to make money and move around, without contracts they will keep switching schools annually, which surely will not be good for their development as players or their education (Yes, they are, presumably, still student-athletes).
This is not how Larranaga and other successful coaches used to do business. They would watch kids as young as junior high, monitor their development, develop relationships with them, get to know their families and their high school and AAU coaches and then offer scholarships.
Now, most coaches lose a big chunk of their teams every spring, and then pick players from the portal based on word of mouth and as much research as they can do in a matter of weeks.
The changes in the game have led, at least in part, to the retirements of legendary coaches Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Roy Williams (North Carolina), Jay Wright (Villanova), Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) and, most recently, Tony Bennett (Virginia). That is a Mount Rushmore of college coaches right there.
Larranaga is 75 years old. He is under contract through the 2026-27 season. He hasn’t done much dancing since that magical March in 2023, but he insists he still loves coaching.
His favorite part of the day is practice. He loves teaching and considers himself a professor of basketball and life. Just last week, before the Presbyterian game, he reminded his players that “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift.”
Some fans are getting antsy with the Canes this season, and when that happens, they invariably suggest that Coach L is past his prime and should retire. He has heard it all before.
Here are some of the comments people made about Larranaga on Twitter in 2021…
Feb. 20, 2021: “Miami’s gotta fire Coach L. That program is a disaster.”
Nov. 25, 2021: “Fire Jim Larranaga. I can’t take this terrible basketball.”
The Hurricanes went on to reach the Elite Eight that season and the Final Four the following year. Larranaga has proven critics wrong before, and still could this season. It’s early. But it won’t be easy.
This story was originally published December 17, 2024 at 5:15 PM.