The Miami Hurricanes improved to 20-5 (9-3 ACC) on the 2025-26 season after a close 77-76 victory over the NC State Wolfpack on Saturday afternoon.
Head coach Jai Lucas met with the media to recaps Miami’s win. Here’s everything Lucas had to say.
Opening statement...
Man, life in the ACC, it's a roller coaster. Exciting game, I don't know what else, what other way to put it. Coach Wade has done an amazing job. I know everybody knows that, but he's done a great job in a short time. Just with his team and their spirit and competitiveness that they play with.It's really hard to match. It's just comes down to little details. I thought the first half we stayed close enough for them not to get a great run. And then we hit a wall in the second half where we had a little bit of lead. They took over and they made a run. But I'm just excited for our guys because they battled and they competed the whole night. The whole night they just kept chipping away. And we were able to pull it out at the end.
On the late 8-0 run to win it...
I just think the way Dante came in our pressing group, we have a lineup that we put in for pressing. The way he came in was able to get active and get hands on the ball. And then we did a great job of not fouling in the traps right away. Usually we can get fouls right away, but we wanted to trap one time and if the ball came out, then foul. But we were able to get turnovers out of the trap, which was big time.
On getting NC State to switch matchups...
We tried. We came in the game with a plan. It worked better in the first half. Then we had to adjust in the second half. And we started to do it a little bit different. But, for me, we always base our game off of three things. Points in the paint, offensive rebound, and winning the free throw battle. We were able to offensive rebound and match our second chance points with our offensive rebound. Fifty-six points in the paint, which is big time. But we didn't get the amount of free throws that we need. We need to be more close to 30, 34, and we try to make about 19 or 20 a night. And that kind of makes up for nights where we don't shoot the three-girder. And that kind of closes the gap when teams shoot better and do things like that.
On Playing Against a Former Canes Commit, Matthew Able...
He's a big time. He's big time. When I got there, he was committed. Didn't really have a prior relationship with him. And I tried to recruit him. He came on visits, spent time with him and stuff like that. And then he just decided that he wanted to go somewhere else. But I knew he's a stud. He's a stud. He's going to be a stud no matter where he is because he's made up of the right stuff.
On His Durham Roots...
I'm just happy for my team. I'm just happy for my team. And I haven't had a lot of success in this building. I always tell people this is one of the hardest buildings in the ACC. It is. I put it right up there. I mean, usually when you're at Duke, you get everybody's top crowd. Look at the crowd tonight. Like, this is one of the hardest places to play. And I put it up against anybody. So I'm just happy we were able to survive.
On his family being in the building...
I had a lot of family with both my parents being from Durham, aunts, cousins, uncles, everybody. I thought 15, 20 people in.
On How His Team Stayed Tough After That Late Run by NC State...
It's huge. And we're still, I'd say, we're not, we're getting there. We're not there yet. But we're still a new team. And these experiences are huge for us because we have to go through them to help us down the stretch. Like, we still have a gauntlet left in the ACC. The ACC is a gauntlet. So we still have a gauntlet left. So each one of these games just adds to our data bank that helps us to become our best version, hopefully, towards the end of February, going into March.
On How Two Struggling Teams Flipped the Script and Making This a Meaningful Game for Miami...
When you get the opportunity to go on the road and get a quad one almost every night. And down the stretch, I think we got five of our last six or something like that, six of our last four or something like that, I'm sorry, four of our last six, a quad one games. That's a lot different than it was last year. Last year, I think we might have had two the whole year at Duke, which is Louisville, North Carolina. So just it goes to everybody in the league. But for us, it just speaks to the character of the kids that we recruited. And the staff did a great job of identifying the right people and really doing their homework of getting people who fit me and I fit them. And that's why we've been able to kind of mesh pretty quick.
Head coach Jai Lucas met with the media to recaps Miami’s win. Here’s everything Lucas had to say.
Opening statement...
Man, life in the ACC, it's a roller coaster. Exciting game, I don't know what else, what other way to put it. Coach Wade has done an amazing job. I know everybody knows that, but he's done a great job in a short time. Just with his team and their spirit and competitiveness that they play with.It's really hard to match. It's just comes down to little details. I thought the first half we stayed close enough for them not to get a great run. And then we hit a wall in the second half where we had a little bit of lead. They took over and they made a run. But I'm just excited for our guys because they battled and they competed the whole night. The whole night they just kept chipping away. And we were able to pull it out at the end.
On the late 8-0 run to win it...
I just think the way Dante came in our pressing group, we have a lineup that we put in for pressing. The way he came in was able to get active and get hands on the ball. And then we did a great job of not fouling in the traps right away. Usually we can get fouls right away, but we wanted to trap one time and if the ball came out, then foul. But we were able to get turnovers out of the trap, which was big time.
On getting NC State to switch matchups...
We tried. We came in the game with a plan. It worked better in the first half. Then we had to adjust in the second half. And we started to do it a little bit different. But, for me, we always base our game off of three things. Points in the paint, offensive rebound, and winning the free throw battle. We were able to offensive rebound and match our second chance points with our offensive rebound. Fifty-six points in the paint, which is big time. But we didn't get the amount of free throws that we need. We need to be more close to 30, 34, and we try to make about 19 or 20 a night. And that kind of makes up for nights where we don't shoot the three-girder. And that kind of closes the gap when teams shoot better and do things like that.
On Playing Against a Former Canes Commit, Matthew Able...
He's a big time. He's big time. When I got there, he was committed. Didn't really have a prior relationship with him. And I tried to recruit him. He came on visits, spent time with him and stuff like that. And then he just decided that he wanted to go somewhere else. But I knew he's a stud. He's a stud. He's going to be a stud no matter where he is because he's made up of the right stuff.
On His Durham Roots...
I'm just happy for my team. I'm just happy for my team. And I haven't had a lot of success in this building. I always tell people this is one of the hardest buildings in the ACC. It is. I put it right up there. I mean, usually when you're at Duke, you get everybody's top crowd. Look at the crowd tonight. Like, this is one of the hardest places to play. And I put it up against anybody. So I'm just happy we were able to survive.
On his family being in the building...
I had a lot of family with both my parents being from Durham, aunts, cousins, uncles, everybody. I thought 15, 20 people in.
On How His Team Stayed Tough After That Late Run by NC State...
It's huge. And we're still, I'd say, we're not, we're getting there. We're not there yet. But we're still a new team. And these experiences are huge for us because we have to go through them to help us down the stretch. Like, we still have a gauntlet left in the ACC. The ACC is a gauntlet. So we still have a gauntlet left. So each one of these games just adds to our data bank that helps us to become our best version, hopefully, towards the end of February, going into March.
On How Two Struggling Teams Flipped the Script and Making This a Meaningful Game for Miami...
When you get the opportunity to go on the road and get a quad one almost every night. And down the stretch, I think we got five of our last six or something like that, six of our last four or something like that, I'm sorry, four of our last six, a quad one games. That's a lot different than it was last year. Last year, I think we might have had two the whole year at Duke, which is Louisville, North Carolina. So just it goes to everybody in the league. But for us, it just speaks to the character of the kids that we recruited. And the staff did a great job of identifying the right people and really doing their homework of getting people who fit me and I fit them. And that's why we've been able to kind of mesh pretty quick.
