Miami men’s basketball returned to the hardwood Monday night and tipped off the 2025-2026 season against the Jacksonville Dolphins and got a decent looking 86-69 victory.
New Miami Hurricanes head coach Jai Lucas spoke after the game. Here is everything he said.
Head Coach Jai Lucas
Opening statement …
“Of course, I’m excited about winning. You know, tonight we had some first-game stuff, first-game jitters and all that. We’ve got some guys who have been phenomenal in practice. One guy I’m really heartbroken about is Dante (Allen). He had a great preseason, and he’s a freshman. I’ve got to give love to say he’s just a freshman, and this was his first college game. He’s somebody who’s going to be a big part of what we do. Another one who really played well for us was Ernest. I’m yelling at him all game to get a rebound, and then I look up and he’s got 14. We had five guys in double figures, which is big. We turned the ball over a little too much, but we shared it the right way. For us, this game was about identity and our standard. We were almost there, not all the way, but it’s the first game, so I’ll give them the benefit of that.”
On having his wife present the game ball…
“That moment meant a lot. I’ve never seen my wife that fired up before, so it was exciting to see her like that. She’s been the biggest part of my journey through all this. Sharing that moment with her meant everything, she’s part of the reason I’m even sitting here. She planted the seed and sacrificed so much for me to get here. Without her, I wouldn’t be in this position. And yeah, the guys said they thought about dumping water on me, but they said that’s coming after the championship.”
On what he learned about his team tonight…
“We’ve got good resilience. The one thing that carried over from practice was our rebounding, our physicality, and our ability to get to the free throw line. We’ve done that in scrimmages, and it carried over. This was our first time facing a little adversity, them coming out in that 1-3-1 zone. I haven’t seen one of those in three years. I’ve watched almost every game the last three years preparing for this one, so just being able to adjust on the fly and figure out how to attack it, and staying poised, was what stood out.”
On the five guys in double figures...
"I feel like we were bad tonight, to be honest. This wasn't even a good night for us. A little bit was the zone — it was just throwing us off a little bit — and then the first game jitters; we had a bunch of first game jitters with our flow, our pace, and our continuity wasn’t there like it should be. But this is what our stat sheet should look like. I think we can maybe end up with six in double figures. Malik, moving forward, will be our leading scorer — a part of that is the position he's in, being a bigger four, and just that advantage and the mismatches. For Tre and Tru, gonna have to figure stuff out on the fly was important as well. And Shelton barely played, it felt like, but he was still able to impact the game. And then the guys off the bench — Marcus has had a great preseason, just his ability to be a connector, being a glue guy. He's kinda like our Draymond Green with the different things he can do."
What adjustments did he do against the zone...
"It fared pretty well. We had, of course, prepared against a 2-3 because that's the zone that they showed. Then they came out in a 1-3-1, so we kinda ran our man offense against it. At halftime, we showed them exactly what we were looking for, and then they came out in the second half and executed it perfectly."
Thoughts on the defensive side...
"I'm trying to be positive. I didn't think we were great defensively where we've been. The ball got into the paint too much, and our ball screen coverage really struggled. But one thing I am excited about is that guys continued to battle, and they played the whole 40 minutes. They figured it out on the fly. There are gonna be games like that, especially for this to be our first game against Jacksonville. Looking forward to Thursday — I just saw the score on my phone, so they must be pretty good. I know some of the names on the team, but I haven’t gotten to watch them yet. I wanted to focus on this one."
On Coach Larranaga on the sidelines...
“For Coach L and his wife to be here is huge, l ike I’ve always said — and I’ll say it because it is true — but this is the program that he built, and all the success you look up all the banners come from him. So he’s welcomed me with open arms ever since I got here. And to see him at the first game, him and his wife, was just a blessing to me.”
