“The U is back”…
The media and the entire country tossed around this phrase in January when the Miami Hurricanes football team returned to national prominence. However, for the basketball team, the applicability of this phrase was yet to be determined, as conference play had only just begun in college basketball. Now, just over two months later, as Miami’s basketball season has come to an end, the country can say one thing for sure: “The U is here”.
Although the season did not end in the Final Four in Indianapolis, the first year under Miami head coach Jai Lucas was a complete success. After a year like Miami had last season, finishing at the bottom of the conference with an overall record of 7-24, a program could only hope for a turnaround as quick and successful as Miami’s. In fact, the Canes completely flipped the script, tying a Division I record with a +19 win total difference from the previous year.
What made this turnaround so special was the complete scrap of the program. No exaggeration, it was every single player’s first year playing for Miami and every single staff member’s first year working for the team except for two (Director of Basketball Ops. Jeff Dyer and Physical Therapist Tommy Otley). Ultimately, it was Coach Lucas’s experience under Duke’s Jon Scheyer that taught him how to build a program as a first-time head coach. And he did exactly that, recruiting All-ACC talent from both the transfer portal and high-school.
The core of Miami consisted of three seniors, all looking to refine and grow their game under Jai Lucas in their final season of college hoops. Tre Donaldson and Malik Reneau were the first two commits for Lucas, followed shortly after by Ernest Udeh. All three would earn ACC honors at the end of the season after being overlooked by even their own coaches during their time before Miami.
“They put Miami basketball in a place where we can go nowhere but up,” Lucas said.
When asked about what this season meant to all of them, Reneau and Donaldson responded with absolute gratitude toward the program:
MALIK RENEAU: “Yeah, this season meant the world to me. Just coming through all the obstacles I’ve been through in my career, and Coach giving me the opportunity to not only be a pivotal player on the team and play 30-plus minutes, but also become a leader and be someone these guys look up to for years to come. So I’m just blessed that Coach gave me this opportunity to come back home and come to The U and finish my last year at The U.”
TRE DONALDSON: “Coming to Miami, I had to build myself back up coming off a tough year last year and how it ended and how everything went, transferring and stuff like that. So just coming into a coaching staff that was going to help me build myself back up and not only build myself back up to where I was, but then continue to help me get better. I felt like that was the biggest thing coming here to Miami. I enjoyed every moment of it. So as someone has said, I’ll never forget it.”
Jai Lucas also talked about the importance of the two freshman starters he recruited to come play for him at Miami in Shelton Henderson and hometown-kid Dante Allen.
“Malik, Ernest and Tre they have set the foundation of what this culture is, what this work should look like. And then for those younger guys like Dante and Shelton, my goal and my plan is for them to carry it on and to hold it up,” Lucas said.
Lucas already has his ambitious eyes on next season, now that his foundation is already set.
“Now it’s my job to keep it going and keep it rolling, where this time next year we’re talking about going to the Sweet 16, not just the season ending. So that’s the goal, that’s the plan, until you win the National Championships,” Lucas explained after last Sunday’s loss to Purdue in the second round of the NCAA tournament.