Miami officially names Jai Lucas as Head Men’s Basketball Coach

[TheRichtShow]

This is a great hire for where modern college basketball is at.

The name of the game is talent acquisition, and coaches need to put together new rosters every year. Lucas seems like as good of an option as we could expect for this program.

Now he's got to get to work cause it's a complete rebuild

 

[King of Allapattah]

Correct, but he also had known deficiencies. We have no idea what Lucas will be other than a recruiter. That matters more in basketball than football.

He who has the most money gets the players. Easy to recruit at Kentucky, Texas and Duke. IF deep pockets in Miami don’t put out, will be difficult to bring in any top guy. I don’t care who you are.

 

[cway313]

He who has the most money gets the players. Easy to recruit at Kentucky, Texas and Duke. IF deep pockets in Miami don’t put out, will be difficult to bring in any top guy. I don’t care who you are.

We will find out quick if it was just the money or not, but I'm optimistic.

 

[King of Allapattah]

This is a great hire for where modern college basketball is at.

The name of the game is talent acquisition, and coaches need to put together new rosters every year. Lucas seems like as good of an option as we could expect for this program.

Now he's got to get to work cause it's a complete rebuild

Intriguing hire but hard for me to call it a great hire when we don’t know what kind of HC he’ll be and there being more experienced and possibly better options out there. Again, not going to give the hire an F but certainly not an A. More like an INCOMPLETE. We shall see. Hopefully it’s na A+++

 

[cway313]

Intriguing hire but hard for me to call it a great hire when we don’t know what kind of HC he’ll be and there being more experienced and possibly better options out there. Again, not going to give the hire an F but certainly not an A. More like an INCOMPLETE.

Every hire is incomplete pending results.

 

[AmherstCane]

With all that talent - and at all those big name schools, the programs Jai was at had less than 1/4 of the March success that Miami has had over the same time period.

Things that make you go hmmmmm.

 

[cookies]

Lol so I’m supposed to believe Jai Lucas was just recruiting and not coaching despite coming from a family of coaches?

Tommy Lloyd at Arizona was known for his “recruiting,” as well….but no one questioned if he could coach. As far as bouncing around programs, what he did was not much different than what Mario did. Sure Mario is not mastermind schemer, but dude could coach his position groups — OL + TE.

Shaka Smart made a final four at VCU and is winning at Marquette. People on this board approved of both him and Rick Barnes, who Lucas played & coached under, as better options than Lucas.

Stating that I would assume you folks believe Barnes and Smart can coach. Barnes made a Sweet 16 at Clemson. At Texas, he had two sweet 16s, two elite 8s, and a final four appearance. Lucas also played under Billy D for a season so he has seen many styles of coaching.

John Calipari has his faults, but he is unquestionably a strong coach. It’s easy to hate on him. And yet, people assume too often that his teams run on autopilot. Calipari DEVELOPS and EVALUATES as strong as anyone else. Those dudes are prepared to play. Only Jay Wright matches his track record with guards: for the 21st century.

Throughout the 10s, Duke had an equivalent quality to UK in their recruiting classes. The schools would often switch between 1 and 2. However, as shown in the pros — the difference is staggering.

Moreover, players like SGA, PJ Washington and Herro were not top ten can’t miss guys. Unlike Duke, where their all stars were ranked top 5 in their class — Ingram, Zion, Kyrie, etc.

I understand what I wrote above will be considered a “hot take,” though. In the one and done era, Cal has the most elite eights (tied w/ Bill Self for 6) and final fours. He came up short in the championship game twice which hurts his public standing.

Anyways, the idea that Jai Lucas can only recruit and not coach, despite coming from a family of coaches — his brother is a NBA assistant; being able to watch his dad and other NBA coaches work with players for his whole life growing up, is laughable for me.

Some of the guys you mentioned as long time assistants were known as some of the best coaching minds in the college game, not as recruiters. Jai has made a living plucking players. Question now is, can he coach? That’s basically what it will come down to. There are a plethora of young up and coming lifelong assistants who vould recruit but struggled as HCs.

 

[King of Allapattah]

Every hire is incomplete pending results.

True but most/many of them come in with more answers than questions.

 

[King of Allapattah]

Lol so I’m supposed to believe Jai Lucas was just recruiting and not coaching despite coming from a family of coaches?

Tommy Lloyd at Arizona was known for his “recruiting,” as well….but no one questioned if he could coach. As far as bouncing around programs, what he did was not much different than what Mario did. Sure Mario is not mastermind schemer, but dude could coach his position groups — OL + TE.

Shaka Smart made a final four at VCU and is winning at Marquette. People on this board approved of both him and Rick Barnes, who Lucas played & coached under, as better options than Lucas.

Stating that I would assume you folks believe Barnes and Smart can coach. Barnes made a Sweet 16 at Clemson. At Texas, he had two sweet 16s, two elite 8s, and a final four appearance. Lucas also played under Billy D for a season so he has seen many styles of coaching.

John Calipari has his faults, but he is unquestionably a strong coach. It’s easy to hate on him. And yet, people assume too often that his teams run on autopilot. Calipari DEVELOPS and EVALUATES as strong as anyone else. Those dudes are prepared to play. Only Jay Wright matches his track record with guards: for the 21st century.

Throughout the 10s, Duke had an equivalent quality to UK in their recruiting classes. The schools would often switch between 1 and 2. Both teams only won one championship, but as shown in the pros — the difference is staggering. Moreover, players like SGA and Herro were not five stars. Unlike Duke, where their all stars were ranked top 5 in their class.

I understand what I wrote above will be considered a “hot take,” though. In the one and done era, Cal has the most elite eights (tied w/ Bill Self for 6) and final fours. He came up short in the championship game twice which hurts his public standing.

Anyways, the idea that Jai Lucas can only recruit and not coach, despite coming from a family of coaches — his brother is a NBA assistant; being able to watch his dad and other NBA coaches work with players for his whole life growing, is laughable for me.

I didn’t read the whole thing but glancing thru the HCs you mention, if I’m not mistaken most of them didn’t break their cherry as HCs in ACC or P5 level. Aside from the guy at Arizona I think all the rest of the guys began at low to mid majors before moving up to the P5 level.

By the way I never said he couldn’t coach. All I’ve been saying is there were candidates out there who we know and have proven that could.

GO CANES!!

 

[cookies]

With all that talent - and at all those big name schools, the programs Jai was at had less than 1/4 of the March success that Miami has had over the same time period.

Things that make you go hmmmmm.

So now we are simultaneously hating on his lack of HC experience while also attributing the final outcome, usually reserved for head coaches, to him.

 

[cookies]

I didn’t read the whole thing but glancing thru the HCs you mention, if I’m not mistaken most of them didn’t break their cherry as HCs in ACC or P5 level. Aside from the guy at Arizona I think all the rest of the guys began at low to mid majors before moving up to the P5 level.

By the way I never said he couldn’t coach. All I’ve been saying is there were candidates out there who we know and have proven that could.

GO CANES!!

C’est la vie

Go canes

 

[Canedude08]

I won't get into a Mario debate. I disagree, but it doesn't matter. The point is he is known as a poor coach that can recruit at a high level. He was celebrated as a recruiter. Attempting to dismiss Lucas after praising Mario is counterintuitive.

The major difference is that we have proof of concept with Mario. Why? BECAUSE HE HAS BEEN A HEAD COACH BEFORE. We know that his method can work, because he has had success as the man at the top of the organizational chart. You know full well that with Mario you are getting a guy that will run a program that is strong in the talent acquisition space. He has his downsides, but we know that as a HC, what the product will look like.

The issue with Lucas is that we don't know anything, outside that he has been a part of some blue blood programs. That's it, we don't know anything about the kind of program he wants to run, we don't know if he even understands HOW to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. Now, does that mean that it's impossible for him to be as good as some of you believe he can be? No, but it's also very, very tough to predict. It's tough to predict even when you have guys with experience (Al Golden is the ultimate example of this), this is just upping the difficulty by a factor of 100.

Programs that make these hires are usually midmajors. Why? Because they usually don't have a choice. They don't have the funding, or the name recognition to go after other midmajor guys (It's a lateral move), nor can they convince a major guy to take a step back(unless it's a major coach that has become radioactive). They are rolling the dice out of necessity. Miami shouldn't have to roll the dice like this, especially if the funding aspect is being enhanced.

We all HOPE it works out, but just like I HOPED Manny Diaz would work out, I also knew it was the kind of hire that should get an AD fired, and look what happened.

 

[Canedude08]

This is a great hire for where modern college basketball is at.

The name of the game is talent acquisition, and coaches need to put together new rosters every year. Lucas seems like as good of an option as we could expect for this program.

Now he's got to get to work cause it's a complete rebuild

Coaching still matters, experience still matters. Go look at the SEC, Go look at the Big East. Go look at the conferences that are destroying the ACC right now, and tell me what they have in common. They have experienced, proven coaches that understand what they do well and recruit and build their programs around that. They aren't learning on the job. Lucas may be great one day, but honestly, it's lot more likely he's Frank Haith, than Coach L or Ham.

 

[Da_Lucky_One]

Right now, I am sitting in first class on the Jai Lucas bandwagon.
There is a lot of room for others to join.
Get your seats now while they are available.

Remember, Coach Lucas is about 3 things:
Relationships, Development and Competition.

Are you CONNECTED because I am!

GO CANES.

 

[AmherstCane]

So now we are simultaneously hating on his lack of HC experience while also attributing the final outcome, usually reserved for head coaches, to him.

I’m not attributing the final outcome to him at all!

I’m saying it takes more than talent to win… as demonstrated by the teams he was part of.

And I’m also saying he doesn’t have a run of sustained success to model. In fact out of his entire coaching career all he really has to model is last year and part of this year (and this year was with a likely generational player).

Honestly I hate all this because he seems like a phenomenal human being. I just think he’s getting put in a really, really bad position.

 

[cway313]

The major difference is that we have proof of concept with Mario. Why? BECAUSE HE HAS BEEN A HEAD COACH BEFORE. We know that his method can work, because he has had success as the man at the top of the organizational chart. You know full well that with Mario you are getting a guy that will run a program that is strong in the talent acquisition space. He has his downsides, but we know that as a HC, what the product will look like.

The issue with Lucas is that we don't know anything, outside that he has been a part of some blue blood programs. That's it, we don't know anything about the kind of program he wants to run, we don't know if he even understands HOW to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. Now, does that mean that it's impossible for him to be as good as some of you believe he can be? No, but it's also very, very tough to predict. It's tough to predict even when you have guys with experience (Al Golden is the ultimate example of this), this is just upping the difficulty by a factor of 100.

Programs that make these hires are usually midmajors. Why? Because they usually don't have a choice. They don't have the funding, or the name recognition to go after other midmajor guys (It's a lateral move), nor can they convince a major guy to take a step back(unless it's a major coach that has become radioactive). They are rolling the dice out of necessity. Miami shouldn't have to roll the dice like this, especially if the funding aspect is being enhanced.

We all HOPE it works out, but just like I HOPED Manny Diaz would work out, I also knew it was the kind of hire that should get an AD fired, and look what happened.

Mario hasn't exactly been a success to date. Hopefully he continues to improve, but pretending like he was a sure thing while dismissing a hungry up and comer that was born into basketball coaching is outside of my comprehension. Maybe google his father before asking some of those questions. The sons of coaches have a long history of succeeding. It won't happen, but I would like to see the long leash and benefit of the doubt Mario has been given repeated. I'm sure the pitchforks will come out after the first loss.

 

[Canedude08]

Mario hasn't exactly been a success to date. Hopefully he continues to improve, but pretending like he was a sure thing while dismissing a hungry up and comer that was born into basketball coaching is outside of my comprehension. Maybe google his father before asking some of those questions. The sons of coaches have a long history of succeeding. It won't happen, but I would like to see the long leash and benefit of the doubt Mario has been given repeated. I'm sure the pitchforks will come out after the first loss.

Mario hasn't been an overwhelming success, but when you look at the hires before him, he is, outside of Richt the only hires that had previous P4 success before, and along with Golden, were the only guys that had been a HC before they came to campus. Think about that, six hires after Butch, three had no business ever being hired. NO BUSINESS WHATSOEVER. You look at the growth in the Miami football program over his tenure, and it's beyond obvious that he's not the miserable failure some of our fans want us to believe he is. It remains to be seen what will happen in 2025 and beyond, but one can easily see that this isn't going to be a miserable failure, compared to Coker, Diaz, Golden and Shannon(and you can argue that there's some nuance in the Golden tenure, it was a failure but maybe not a miserable one).

By the way, you know that there are up and comers that have actually managed a program before, right? McCollum over at Drake, even Shaka Smart, who is the proven version of what in theory Lucas COULD be, are out there. But nah, let's run and hire this guy, a guy that would likely still be around at the end of the month, because outside of a midmajor, there are few and I mean FEW major programs willing to make this hire, much less at the BEGINNING of the hiring cycle. The entire process was a farce, but I shouldn't be shocked, it's the University of Miami athletic department. Rational, well structured hiring processes aren't a thing at my alma mater, and I'll never understand why.

 

[Canedude08]

I’m not attributing the final outcome to him at all!

I’m saying it takes more than talent to win… as demonstrated by the teams he was part of.

And I’m also saying he doesn’t have a run of sustained success to model. In fact out of his entire coaching career all he really has to model is last year and part of this year (and this year was with a likely generational player).

Honestly I hate all this because he seems like a phenomenal human being. I just think he’s getting put in a really, really bad position.

It smells like Manny Diaz all over again. I grew to dislike Manny, but I also understood that he had no business being forced into that position. You could see the train wreck coming, and you were hoping that the dude would figure it out before it got toxic, but it got toxic and honestly, it hurt to watch. I'm hoping that Jai doesn't end up in that same situation, because he seems to be a solid dude.

 

[cway313]

Mario hasn't been an overwhelming success, but when you look at the hires before him, he is, outside of Richt the only hires that had previous P4 success before, and along with Golden, were the only guys that had been a HC before they came to campus. Think about that, six hires after Butch, three had no business ever being hired. NO BUSINESS WHATSOEVER. You look at the growth in the Miami football program over his tenure, and it's beyond obvious that he's not the miserable failure some of our fans want us to believe he is. It remains to be seen what will happen in 2025 and beyond, but one can easily see that this isn't going to be a miserable failure, compared to Coker, Diaz, Golden and Shannon.

By the way, you know that there are up and comers that have actually managed a program before, right? McCollum over at Drake, even Shaka Smart, who is the proven version of what in theory Lucas COULD be, are out there. But nah, let's run and hire this guy, a guy that would likely still be around at the end of the month, because outside of a midmajor, there are few and I mean FEW major programs willing to make this hire, much less at the BEGINNING of the hiring cycle. The entire process was a farce, but I shouldn't be shocked, it's the University of Miami athletic department. Rational, well structured hiring processes aren't a thing at my alma mater, and I'll never understand why.

If your argument for Mario is he isn't the worst OR we have done worse are you really making an argument?

 

[Canedude08]

If your argument for Mario is he isn't the worst OR we have done worse are you really making an argument?

The point I'm making is that compared to the completely unprepared, unqualified guys hired before him(With few exceptions), it's beyond obvious that there's something there, the hire made actual sense. The point I'm making is that as an AD, if you consistently make quality hires, you have a better chance of hitting on some, compared to rolling the dice every single time.

Even elite ADs have hires they regret. Sometimes, you hire a candidate that has everything you are looking for and they ultimately fail, because we are talking about human beings and sometimes, things happen. Al Golden is a good example.

I'm going to use an example of a well respected AD that had a rough patch in regards to hiring. Mal Moore was at Alabama and hired Dennis Franchione, Mike Price, Mike Shula and ultimately Nick Saban to run the football program. Out of the 4 hires, only one was someone that had no business getting hired, and even then, one can argue the only reason he got the job was because they needed someone on short notice due to Price getting himself fired before coaching a single game at Alabama. Yes, funding is bottomless at Alabama, but it doesn't change the fact that he executed multiple searches and ended up with quality coaches.

Compare that to Miami. An over the hill Mark Richt, a qualified but flawed Mario, and Al Golden are the only ones with any kind of previous success as HC. Miami also hired Larry Coker, Randy Shannon and Manny Diaz, three guys with no business getting the job. No wonder the program has been awful for two decades. Imagine had Miami hired solid coaches after Butch, instead of going with back to back guys that shouldn't have gotten hired. Imagine Miami hired Gary Patterson, or someone of that ilk, instead of Randy Shannon. Imagine had Miami gone out and hired Bill Clark instead of Manny Diaz, and Manny had the opportunity to learn and grow at Temple. Is it a certainty that Clark or Patterson would have worked out at Miami? Of course not, but it's a lot more likely they would have, compared to two guys that were forced to learn on the job.