Miami Hurricanes head basketball coach Jai Lucas was on the "Hoops HQ" basketball podcast. Lucas talked about the program's vision and his portal strategy on how he built the 2026-27 Hurricanes team:
Reporter: This is your second time through the transfer portal cycle with Miami, and you are two for two. You're obviously a very well resourced program. Let's be honest, your charm is considerable, but it only goes so far. You've got to have that bag. Give us a sense of what it is like in your position and at your level to manage this, not only the transfer portal, but also retaining a guy like Shelton Henderson, who certainly was going to command a lot of money on the open market. Give us a sense for what it's like to be the head coach at Miami with this kind of success in the portal. What are you doing right?
Jai Lucas: One thing I will say, we are resourced. I wouldn't say well compared to what we're competing against, but this is a great place. We have a lot to offer. One thing I still am big on, and it showed in this portal cycle and with the last one too, is relationships. You still have to have some basis of relationships with people to overcome some of the other obstacles that are out there. For us, we still lean on that a lot. Then really it's about picking the right ones. We're a smaller roster program, so we're not going to get 13 or 15 guys and put them all on salary. We stay around 10 and really dig into the ones we believe in and the ones we trust.
Reporter: I want to go back to your decision when you left Duke for Miami because it was a little bit of a unique situation compared to this past coaching cycle where Luke Murray took the Boston College job in your league, but he stayed with UConn through the Final Four and juggled both. It was a pretty interesting decision by you to say, "You know what, I need to go all in at Miami," and obviously it paid off. You had a great year this past season, but you were leaving a team that ultimately did go to a Final Four. If you can take me back, what went into making that kind of hard decision?
Jai Lucas: There were a lot of factors. Back then the portal opened differently, so it was a little bit of a different scenario. Also, I didn't want to be a distraction with everything that was going on in Durham, so that was a part of it too. But I will say, if I could do it again, I wouldn't do it any differently. I don't think I would be here talking to you all if we didn't have the year that we had. Being able to recruit and build the program in my vision, having that extra time and those extra couple weeks before the portal opened gave me a lot of time to kind of hit the ground running once everything kicked off.
Reporter: What was the biggest surprise for you about moving from an assistant coach to a head coach? Maybe one thing that, as much as you try to prepare for this opportunity, you could never truly be prepared for.
Jai Lucas: Man, the biggest part was not having people who had worked with you or worked for you. Most of the time, a lot of head coaches just bring everyone with them from where they were before. You get guys like Pat Kelsey at Louisville and he had a bunch of people come with him. I had nobody. A lot of this year was coaching the staff just like it was coaching the players because we all came from so many different places and had different backgrounds. Trying to get everybody on the same terminology and having them understand what I want and how I want things done, that was a big part of it. That was the one thing I didn't prepare for, just having to coach the staff and coach the team and coach administration. That was a big part of the year as well.
Reporter: Obviously there had been history in the last quarter century at Miami, a Final Four a few years ago with Jim Larrañaga, and then there was the down year. But in this new era where rosters are changing every year, how do you look at rebuilding a program now compared to when you were a player or an assistant coming up?
Jai Lucas: I think now you just don't have the time that you thought you would have. With the resources people are giving and the money involved, your clock starts a little bit quicker in terms of having to win. But I think the most important thing is still retention. Finding ways to get four or five guys back every year if you can, and then using the portal to really fill those holes. You look at the teams who have been successful in this portal and NIL era. You have your Floridas, your Dukes, your UConns. Those teams have multiple players back. I think the one outlier is probably Michigan, who kind of started with maybe one or two guys back, but those other schools had four or five. That's where you want to build it and where you want to get to. If you can get four guys back every year, it's the best way to build and then plug in and fill holes through the portal.
Reporter: Do you feel like younger coaches like yourself, Jon Scheyer, Dusty May, Todd Golden, because things are changing so fast in college basketball, you don't really have a framework of, "This is the way things used to be." Do you think younger coaches have some advantages in this environment?
Jai Lucas: I think it's because we have no choice because this is what we grew up in. I've seen the older coaches and I understand exactly why they are miserable with how things are and why some of them retired. It is such a different game and such a different profession than the one they grew up in and fell in love with. For me, I don't have 800 wins. I don't have 500 wins. I'm trying to get there, so I have to find my best way to win in whatever this is and whatever this is going to be. I live by a motto of adapt or die. That's what I try to do and how I try to move forward. But I get it. I understand why they're grumpy. I would be grumpy too if something I had made my life's work completely flipped upside down in the last five years.
Reporter: So two of your highest profile portal guys, I covered a bunch of their games this past season in the Big Ten and the Big East. Nick Dorn, your second straight Indiana guy after the success you had with Malik Reneau, and then Acaden Lewis from Villanova. This kind of shows the era we're in because this was not a coaching change, but I can't remember a time where you had a Rookie of the Year in a power league not have a coaching change and then still move. You've got Akeem Lewis from Villanova to Miami, who's going to have an immediate impact in the ACC. Take me through each one of these guys and maybe some others with this new roster.
Jai Lucas: Yeah, for me it's like coaching a whole new team. I think something that goes into the past is you have something that fits and you just try to rinse and repeat. That's kind of how a lot of programs are built. But now with this portal era, you don't know what you're going to get every year. My team looks completely different than before, so I had to build it differently. It started with being able to get a really good point guard. We had one last year in Tre Donaldson, and that's where Acaden came into play. Having somebody you feel can run the team, but also has the ability to take over games. Watching his stuff in the portal and doing the analytics, he's one of the best point guards in the country pound for pound with what he's able to do and how he's able to create. Like I talked about earlier, we had a prior relationship that went back to when I was at Duke and we recruited him there. So it was kind of an easy recruitment once the portal opened and I was able to talk to him. That was kind of my foundational piece. Then I wanted a big, and that's where Santo came in. He played for a coach who is on staff now, Eric Pastrana, at Georgia, so that was kind of the relationship built there. Once we got those two pieces along with Shelton and Dante, who we had coming back, the one thing I knew we missed last year and needed this year was shooting. That's where Nick Dorn, Brent Bland, DeShawn Goode, and some of these other guys who will be high level complementary pieces came into play with our foundational pieces like Acaden, Shelton, Dante, Somto, those guys. Then we wanted to get more depth than we had last year where we played about six or seven. I wanted to be able to play eight plus, maybe nine this year. So we focused on that, focused on the shooting, but also wanted to have size. Nick's size at 6 foot 7 and his ability to shoot, and what he did at Elon and then having it transfer over to what he was able to do in a Power Five conference, I felt was a fit for what we want to do here.
Reporter: So, Jai, you know I'm not letting you get out of here without talking about your pops. And I want all the young kids out there to Google John Lucas. There's so much to say about him. I always start with the fact that he was the number one pick in the 1976 NBA Draft, and he may have been a better tennis player than he was a basketball player. He had a really good career as a player and then fell into a cocaine addiction that derailed his career. It would have ended not only most people's careers, but maybe even their lives or their ability to make a living. Not only did he come back, but he became one of the great coaches in NBA history. He also has a setup in Houston where he brings in athletes who have dealt with addiction and counsels them. He's really one of the most amazing people on the planet and an incredible gift to humanity. I've always felt that guys like you who come up with parents in the business understand how hard it is, and yet you still went into coaching anyway. So take it wherever you want. The influence he's had on you, his playing career, his coaching, his struggles, what he's done with his story, and his presence in your life now as a dad.
Jai Lucas: I can't really put it into words, but my foundation as a coach and my foundation as a person comes from him and understanding that you're able to overcome anything and still come out on top. Just his hard work, discipline, perseverance, and everything that came with his struggles and him being 40 years sober now is an amazing accomplishment from where he was to where he went. Then just all the time I spent in the gym with him growing up as a kid and being able to be around basketball. That's my family business. That's all I know, so I had no choice. I didn't turn out to be the player I wanted to be or thought I was going to be, so coaching was the next best thing for me. The accountability, the vulnerability, everything that comes with needing to be a great coach comes from him. I've also been able to be around other great coaches as well and take a little bit from everyone, but my foundation and my beliefs all stem from him and the impact he's had on me.
Reporter: One quick thing, Seth, I don't want to forget his brother. I was there in New Jersey and Phil Martelli will never forget it when Oklahoma State beat Saint Joseph's in the Elite Eight and Jameer Nelson and your brother John hit a shot that will live in Stillwater lore forever. Where is his influence in your life?
Jai Lucas: He was like my first role model because like any little brother, you look up to your older brother and follow him everywhere. It's a six year age gap, so I was able to be everywhere he was and try to do everything he did. My love for college basketball starts with him and going on that Final Four run with him. Before then, you watch college basketball, but going to every game and understanding the emotion and importance of the Elite Eight, the Final Four, and the Sweet 16, that's how I really fell in love with college basketball. It was following him around and being able to go to the 2004 Final Four with him. It all stems from those two, growing up with them and around them, and then creating my own journey out of that and everything I've been able to go through as well.
Reporter: This is your second time through the transfer portal cycle with Miami, and you are two for two. You're obviously a very well resourced program. Let's be honest, your charm is considerable, but it only goes so far. You've got to have that bag. Give us a sense of what it is like in your position and at your level to manage this, not only the transfer portal, but also retaining a guy like Shelton Henderson, who certainly was going to command a lot of money on the open market. Give us a sense for what it's like to be the head coach at Miami with this kind of success in the portal. What are you doing right?
Jai Lucas: One thing I will say, we are resourced. I wouldn't say well compared to what we're competing against, but this is a great place. We have a lot to offer. One thing I still am big on, and it showed in this portal cycle and with the last one too, is relationships. You still have to have some basis of relationships with people to overcome some of the other obstacles that are out there. For us, we still lean on that a lot. Then really it's about picking the right ones. We're a smaller roster program, so we're not going to get 13 or 15 guys and put them all on salary. We stay around 10 and really dig into the ones we believe in and the ones we trust.
Reporter: I want to go back to your decision when you left Duke for Miami because it was a little bit of a unique situation compared to this past coaching cycle where Luke Murray took the Boston College job in your league, but he stayed with UConn through the Final Four and juggled both. It was a pretty interesting decision by you to say, "You know what, I need to go all in at Miami," and obviously it paid off. You had a great year this past season, but you were leaving a team that ultimately did go to a Final Four. If you can take me back, what went into making that kind of hard decision?
Jai Lucas: There were a lot of factors. Back then the portal opened differently, so it was a little bit of a different scenario. Also, I didn't want to be a distraction with everything that was going on in Durham, so that was a part of it too. But I will say, if I could do it again, I wouldn't do it any differently. I don't think I would be here talking to you all if we didn't have the year that we had. Being able to recruit and build the program in my vision, having that extra time and those extra couple weeks before the portal opened gave me a lot of time to kind of hit the ground running once everything kicked off.
Reporter: What was the biggest surprise for you about moving from an assistant coach to a head coach? Maybe one thing that, as much as you try to prepare for this opportunity, you could never truly be prepared for.
Jai Lucas: Man, the biggest part was not having people who had worked with you or worked for you. Most of the time, a lot of head coaches just bring everyone with them from where they were before. You get guys like Pat Kelsey at Louisville and he had a bunch of people come with him. I had nobody. A lot of this year was coaching the staff just like it was coaching the players because we all came from so many different places and had different backgrounds. Trying to get everybody on the same terminology and having them understand what I want and how I want things done, that was a big part of it. That was the one thing I didn't prepare for, just having to coach the staff and coach the team and coach administration. That was a big part of the year as well.
Reporter: Obviously there had been history in the last quarter century at Miami, a Final Four a few years ago with Jim Larrañaga, and then there was the down year. But in this new era where rosters are changing every year, how do you look at rebuilding a program now compared to when you were a player or an assistant coming up?
Jai Lucas: I think now you just don't have the time that you thought you would have. With the resources people are giving and the money involved, your clock starts a little bit quicker in terms of having to win. But I think the most important thing is still retention. Finding ways to get four or five guys back every year if you can, and then using the portal to really fill those holes. You look at the teams who have been successful in this portal and NIL era. You have your Floridas, your Dukes, your UConns. Those teams have multiple players back. I think the one outlier is probably Michigan, who kind of started with maybe one or two guys back, but those other schools had four or five. That's where you want to build it and where you want to get to. If you can get four guys back every year, it's the best way to build and then plug in and fill holes through the portal.
Reporter: Do you feel like younger coaches like yourself, Jon Scheyer, Dusty May, Todd Golden, because things are changing so fast in college basketball, you don't really have a framework of, "This is the way things used to be." Do you think younger coaches have some advantages in this environment?
Jai Lucas: I think it's because we have no choice because this is what we grew up in. I've seen the older coaches and I understand exactly why they are miserable with how things are and why some of them retired. It is such a different game and such a different profession than the one they grew up in and fell in love with. For me, I don't have 800 wins. I don't have 500 wins. I'm trying to get there, so I have to find my best way to win in whatever this is and whatever this is going to be. I live by a motto of adapt or die. That's what I try to do and how I try to move forward. But I get it. I understand why they're grumpy. I would be grumpy too if something I had made my life's work completely flipped upside down in the last five years.
Reporter: So two of your highest profile portal guys, I covered a bunch of their games this past season in the Big Ten and the Big East. Nick Dorn, your second straight Indiana guy after the success you had with Malik Reneau, and then Acaden Lewis from Villanova. This kind of shows the era we're in because this was not a coaching change, but I can't remember a time where you had a Rookie of the Year in a power league not have a coaching change and then still move. You've got Akeem Lewis from Villanova to Miami, who's going to have an immediate impact in the ACC. Take me through each one of these guys and maybe some others with this new roster.
Jai Lucas: Yeah, for me it's like coaching a whole new team. I think something that goes into the past is you have something that fits and you just try to rinse and repeat. That's kind of how a lot of programs are built. But now with this portal era, you don't know what you're going to get every year. My team looks completely different than before, so I had to build it differently. It started with being able to get a really good point guard. We had one last year in Tre Donaldson, and that's where Acaden came into play. Having somebody you feel can run the team, but also has the ability to take over games. Watching his stuff in the portal and doing the analytics, he's one of the best point guards in the country pound for pound with what he's able to do and how he's able to create. Like I talked about earlier, we had a prior relationship that went back to when I was at Duke and we recruited him there. So it was kind of an easy recruitment once the portal opened and I was able to talk to him. That was kind of my foundational piece. Then I wanted a big, and that's where Santo came in. He played for a coach who is on staff now, Eric Pastrana, at Georgia, so that was kind of the relationship built there. Once we got those two pieces along with Shelton and Dante, who we had coming back, the one thing I knew we missed last year and needed this year was shooting. That's where Nick Dorn, Brent Bland, DeShawn Goode, and some of these other guys who will be high level complementary pieces came into play with our foundational pieces like Acaden, Shelton, Dante, Somto, those guys. Then we wanted to get more depth than we had last year where we played about six or seven. I wanted to be able to play eight plus, maybe nine this year. So we focused on that, focused on the shooting, but also wanted to have size. Nick's size at 6 foot 7 and his ability to shoot, and what he did at Elon and then having it transfer over to what he was able to do in a Power Five conference, I felt was a fit for what we want to do here.
Reporter: So, Jai, you know I'm not letting you get out of here without talking about your pops. And I want all the young kids out there to Google John Lucas. There's so much to say about him. I always start with the fact that he was the number one pick in the 1976 NBA Draft, and he may have been a better tennis player than he was a basketball player. He had a really good career as a player and then fell into a cocaine addiction that derailed his career. It would have ended not only most people's careers, but maybe even their lives or their ability to make a living. Not only did he come back, but he became one of the great coaches in NBA history. He also has a setup in Houston where he brings in athletes who have dealt with addiction and counsels them. He's really one of the most amazing people on the planet and an incredible gift to humanity. I've always felt that guys like you who come up with parents in the business understand how hard it is, and yet you still went into coaching anyway. So take it wherever you want. The influence he's had on you, his playing career, his coaching, his struggles, what he's done with his story, and his presence in your life now as a dad.
Jai Lucas: I can't really put it into words, but my foundation as a coach and my foundation as a person comes from him and understanding that you're able to overcome anything and still come out on top. Just his hard work, discipline, perseverance, and everything that came with his struggles and him being 40 years sober now is an amazing accomplishment from where he was to where he went. Then just all the time I spent in the gym with him growing up as a kid and being able to be around basketball. That's my family business. That's all I know, so I had no choice. I didn't turn out to be the player I wanted to be or thought I was going to be, so coaching was the next best thing for me. The accountability, the vulnerability, everything that comes with needing to be a great coach comes from him. I've also been able to be around other great coaches as well and take a little bit from everyone, but my foundation and my beliefs all stem from him and the impact he's had on me.
Reporter: One quick thing, Seth, I don't want to forget his brother. I was there in New Jersey and Phil Martelli will never forget it when Oklahoma State beat Saint Joseph's in the Elite Eight and Jameer Nelson and your brother John hit a shot that will live in Stillwater lore forever. Where is his influence in your life?
Jai Lucas: He was like my first role model because like any little brother, you look up to your older brother and follow him everywhere. It's a six year age gap, so I was able to be everywhere he was and try to do everything he did. My love for college basketball starts with him and going on that Final Four run with him. Before then, you watch college basketball, but going to every game and understanding the emotion and importance of the Elite Eight, the Final Four, and the Sweet 16, that's how I really fell in love with college basketball. It was following him around and being able to go to the 2004 Final Four with him. It all stems from those two, growing up with them and around them, and then creating my own journey out of that and everything I've been able to go through as well.
