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Jeff Goodman Says Jai Lucas Is the Best First-Year Head Coach So Far

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Trinton Breeze

Trinton Breeze

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On Wednesday afternoon’s Field of 68 show, the longtime college basketball analyst and podcaster, Jeff Goodman, said Miami Hurricanes head coach Jai Lucas has his vote as the best first-year head coach in the 2025–26 season and Goodman didn’t hesitate when making his case.



“To me it’s easy,” Goodman said. “I think it’s easy — Jai Lucas. They’re 14-2.”

Goodman pointed out that Lucas faced plenty of skepticism when he was hired, with many questioning whether...

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JD4 said:
I guess I just find it hard to believe we were the worst ACC job for Mens hoops when Larrañaga had so much success while he was here.

Other than that I agree with a lot of what he said
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I thought the same thing. These media members love to make the backhanded compliments about us. They can never just say something nice.
 
JD4 said:
I guess I just find it hard to believe we were the worst ACC job for Mens hoops when Larrañaga had so much success while he was here.

Other than that I agree with a lot of what he said
Click to expand...
I think he was referring to pre-L eras. He’s been pretty favorable to us under L.
 
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It's tough with the schedule so far to really know exactly how good we have been (we have lost to the only two tournament teams we have played)... but I don't see any reason to not have confidence in Jai as a good fit for this program as he can recruit/motivate well and does not seem to be a liability as a game day coach (jury is still out).

I also agree that Coach L transformed this job from one of the worst in the conference, to a top half of the ACC type job. Realistically the goal is now to make the NCAAT, and there would periods in our early ACC time (i.e. the Haith/Clark eras) where that was more of a pipe-dream than a goal. Now I would love for us to take the next step and turn into one of those programs that aims for second weekends in the NCAAT (i.e. a top 25 program nationally), but we are still a ways from that and would require a larger commitment to hoops that we would probably never get.
 
I think we have a very bright future here in Basketball. This guy is getting top talent to at least visit and put us in their top 5. With a little success, we will start winning more and more of these battles.
 
JD4 said:
I guess I just find it hard to believe we were the worst ACC job for Mens hoops when Larrañaga had so much success while he was here.

Other than that I agree with a lot of what he said
Click to expand...
L had a ton of success because he's a borderline HOF quality coach. That said, the funding wasn't where it needed to be(L winning was used as an excuse to keep the budget pathetically low), and once other schools started leveraging their resources to their full potential, L was screwed. I'm happy that Lucas is having early success, because that will make things easier for him because he will have some proof of concept to sell recruits. I can only imagine what L would have done with a similar budget...
 
How in the world is UM un ranked, but Louisville and Tennessee which are both 12-5 and 1-3 and 0-3 respectively in conference are ranked?
At what point do people actually watch games instead of being lazy and beholden to preseason rankings?
 
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