Jai to Miami
- Thread starter DrChainsaw
- Start date
Scheyer still has a year of eligibility left hopefully Jai doesn’t flip him
Truth
Member
Did you purposefully click on a thread called "Jai to Miami" and expect it not to be about, uh.. Jai? OMG.
g111m1c
Member
You don’t have to wait to become a “diaper dandy” as an adult, even if you don’t need them. When I lived in San Francisco, there was this one place on the west end of Market Street (near Noe) where…
Oh wait…I’m on the wrong message board again.
brevity
Member
Jai Lucas finally adds an assistant coach to his staff, and it's Georgia assistant coach Erik Pastrana (bio), a Miami native who recruited Asa Newell to UGA and Cade Cunningham to Oklahoma State. He's also assisted at Florida International (2016-17), Florida Atlantic (2018-19), and Florida (2021-22).
There have been a few coaching and staff names linked to Miami, but the process of building a staff has been slow. Miami has reportedly contacted a few players in the transfer portal, and while there was one coach recruiting them, now there are two.
There have been a few coaching and staff names linked to Miami, but the process of building a staff has been slow. Miami has reportedly contacted a few players in the transfer portal, and while there was one coach recruiting them, now there are two.
So we seem to be getting a lot of news from many schools about coaching hires and last remaining recruit commits and transfer portal commits etc., but I don’t recall seeing anything out of Miami? Has Lucas gotten any players? Has he assembled any sort of coaching staff? Could he perhaps be in San Antonio …in an unofficial capacity? I’m sure a lot is going on, but the paucity of news suggests maybe he really didn’t need to leave so soon
Go Duke! 9F, even if they’re watching the final four from Capel Hil!
Go Duke! 9F, even if they’re watching the final four from Capel Hil!
SkyBrickey
Member
Jai has been busy. He's signed 3 quality starters out of the portal already. Michigan's starting PG. Indiana's best player, a Forward. And TCU's starting Center, a former 5* that Duke was once very interested in.
Based on their trajectory so far, I expect they'll be back in the ACC top 5 next year.
Louisville and Miami have been the big ACC winners in the portal so far.
Based on their trajectory so far, I expect they'll be back in the ACC top 5 next year.
Louisville and Miami have been the big ACC winners in the portal so far.
brevity
Member
Look one post up from yours, and you'll see Jai Lucas hired Georgia assistant Erik Pastrana as an assistant coach.
We're covering Miami in the Transfer Portal thread. So far he's added Tre Donaldson (Michigan), Malik Reneau (Indiana), and Ernest Udeh Jr (TCU).
brevity
Member
It has seemingly been in the works for a while, but Coach Jai Lucas has officially hired Andrew Moran, the Boozer twins' high school coach, to his coaching staff at Miami. (Fans of the Hurricanes were hoping this would lead to some backdoor poaching of Cameron and Cayden, but Coach Lucas was always pretty clear that his recruiting of in-state players was about looking ahead, not behind.)
miamihurricanes.com
Moran, who was recently named the 2025 Naismith National High School Boys Basketball Coach of the Year, comes to The U after serving as the head coach at Miami’s Christopher Columbus High School for the past six years...
Earlier this month, Moran coached Columbus to its first-ever national championship as the Explorers defeated Dynamic Prep 67-49 in the 2025 Chipotle High School Basketball Nationals. Columbus concluded the season ranked the No. 1 boys basketball team in the nation per ESPN and MaxPreps.
The new Miami staff is currently a trio: head coach Lucas, assistant coach Erik Pastrana (formerly at UGA), and Moran. The expectation is that Coach Lucas will hire a veteran with some head coaching experience as his second in command, and there are a couple of names out there, but nothing firm.
Miami Hires Moran as Assistant Coach/Director of Player of Development
University of Miami head men’s basketball coach Jai Lucas announced Friday that he has hired Andrew Moran as assistant coach and director of player development.
miamihurricanes.com
Moran, who was recently named the 2025 Naismith National High School Boys Basketball Coach of the Year, comes to The U after serving as the head coach at Miami’s Christopher Columbus High School for the past six years...
Earlier this month, Moran coached Columbus to its first-ever national championship as the Explorers defeated Dynamic Prep 67-49 in the 2025 Chipotle High School Basketball Nationals. Columbus concluded the season ranked the No. 1 boys basketball team in the nation per ESPN and MaxPreps.
The new Miami staff is currently a trio: head coach Lucas, assistant coach Erik Pastrana (formerly at UGA), and Moran. The expectation is that Coach Lucas will hire a veteran with some head coaching experience as his second in command, and there are a couple of names out there, but nothing firm.
brevity
Member
The Field of 68 released this video earlier Monday. Jeff Goodman interviewed Jai Lucas about the kind of coach he'll be, and later asked Randolph Childress and Matt McCall for their takes on Miami's hire.
Jai Lucas: "Our plan is to be one of the best defensive teams in the country... I still value being big and having positional size, but also having bigger bodies up front... I think basketball has shifted a little bit and some of the things that just go into winning: being able to guard, being able to rebound, come up with loose balls when it matters... So we'll have that toughness and that defensive mindset.
Now, offensively, the way you coach offense is: what do you have? It's easy to say, oh I want to play five out and I want to shoot 30 threes and do all this stuff, but that may not be my team... We'll kind of morph and figure out what best fits us."
Jai Lucas: "Our plan is to be one of the best defensive teams in the country... I still value being big and having positional size, but also having bigger bodies up front... I think basketball has shifted a little bit and some of the things that just go into winning: being able to guard, being able to rebound, come up with loose balls when it matters... So we'll have that toughness and that defensive mindset.
Now, offensively, the way you coach offense is: what do you have? It's easy to say, oh I want to play five out and I want to shoot 30 threes and do all this stuff, but that may not be my team... We'll kind of morph and figure out what best fits us."
brevity
Member
Jai Lucas wasn't just working on his recruiting pitch this offseason. Here he is throwing out the first pitch in Thursday's ACC baseball game between Miami and Notre Dame.
The above video was an excerpt of this 25-minute interview between Jeff Goodman and Coach Lucas.
Jeff Goodman: "I know you got some crap for it, for leaving Duke in February. I want to give you the platform to explain why you did it, and how difficult it probably was to walk away from that team, which was a fun team to be around and coach."
Jai Lucas: "Yeah, it was extremely hard [to leave Duke] because of the relationships you built there with the players, the staff, everybody in the program. You have a team that you always dream of, that you want to coach, and you feel like you had the opportunity to really win a national championship, which doesn't come around a lot. But also, I felt at peace because I knew the maturity and I knew the staff and everything that was already set, that me stepping away at the right time -- which was a mutual decision between me and Jon [Scheyer]...
It was the first year that we didn't have teams play in the conference tournament, so [Miami's] season was over March 8th. If I had stayed around [Duke], I was really going to be a month behind, having to really start over with everything that was going on here... With [Jim Larrañaga] retiring at Christmas, the portal had already opened down here, to be honest... Just knowing what was ahead of me, and Jon also seeing that, really put things in perspective... We really were calculated and thought it through, and it ended up working out for everybody."
The above video was an excerpt of this 25-minute interview between Jeff Goodman and Coach Lucas.
Jeff Goodman: "I know you got some crap for it, for leaving Duke in February. I want to give you the platform to explain why you did it, and how difficult it probably was to walk away from that team, which was a fun team to be around and coach."
Jai Lucas: "Yeah, it was extremely hard [to leave Duke] because of the relationships you built there with the players, the staff, everybody in the program. You have a team that you always dream of, that you want to coach, and you feel like you had the opportunity to really win a national championship, which doesn't come around a lot. But also, I felt at peace because I knew the maturity and I knew the staff and everything that was already set, that me stepping away at the right time -- which was a mutual decision between me and Jon [Scheyer]...
It was the first year that we didn't have teams play in the conference tournament, so [Miami's] season was over March 8th. If I had stayed around [Duke], I was really going to be a month behind, having to really start over with everything that was going on here... With [Jim Larrañaga] retiring at Christmas, the portal had already opened down here, to be honest... Just knowing what was ahead of me, and Jon also seeing that, really put things in perspective... We really were calculated and thought it through, and it ended up working out for everybody."