{"id":84936,"date":"2025-03-06T08:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T14:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/jai-lucas-releases-first-public-comments-on-accepting-miami-head-coaching-job\/"},"modified":"2025-03-06T08:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T14:35:08","slug":"jai-lucas-releases-first-public-comments-on-accepting-miami-head-coaching-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/jai-lucas-releases-first-public-comments-on-accepting-miami-head-coaching-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Jai Lucas releases first public comments on accepting Miami head coaching job"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Miami Hurricanes<\/strong><\/a> have their next head coach in Jai Lucas<\/a><\/strong>. He\u2019s coming to the program from Duke<\/strong><\/a>, where he had been an assistant coach known for his recruiting and leading the defensive approach with the Blue Devils. <\/p>\n

Now, in the wake of his hiring, Lucas shared his first public comments on accepting the Miami job. In those comments, he shared his belief in why Miami is situated to compete at the highest level of college basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am incredibly grateful and honored to be the next head coach at the University of Miami,\u201d Jai Lucas said<\/a>. \u201cMiami has everything you need to compete at the highest level \u2014 elite academics, a passionate fan base, and a commitment to excellence in athletics. Beyond that, the city of Miami has a rich culture and energy that makes this an incredibly special place. The history, diversity, and passion for sports here are second to none.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucas played his own college basketball at Florida<\/strong><\/a> and Texas<\/strong><\/a>. He\u2019d play professionally in Latvia and in the G-League before he began his coaching career as an assistant at Texas. Since then, he\u2019s made stops at Kentucky<\/strong><\/a> and Duke. He\u2019s been with the Blue Devils since 2022 and has been their associate head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to building on an incredible foundation and leading this program into an exciting new era,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cMy family and I can\u2019t wait to get to Coral Gables and get to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jai Lucas will be replacing Jim Larra\u00f1aga<\/a><\/strong>, who was a legend in coaching. Larra\u00f1aga led the Miami program since 2011 and had been in coaching since 1971. As recently as 2023, he took the program to the Final Four but stepped away from the team to retire in December. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a difficult season for the Miami Hurricanes, going 6-24 to this point in the season. Despite those struggles, athletic director Dan Radakovich<\/strong> believes that he has the right coach to rebuild the program in Jai Lucas.<\/p>\n

\u201cJai is an innovative coach, a relentless recruiter and proven talent developer whose knowledge and passion for the game resonated throughout the interview process. He has coached at some of college basketball\u2019s most storied programs under tremendous head coaches,\u201d Radakovich said. \u201cIt is clear that Jai understands what it takes to compete on and off the floor in this new era of college basketball and he sees the great potential at Miami. We are fortunate to have Jai join us in Coral Gables.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jai Lucas has an interesting challenge in front of him. Despite that, both Lucas and Miami believe the situation is a good one to succeed in. <\/p>\n

The post Jai Lucas releases first public comments on accepting Miami head coaching job<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Miami Hurricanes have their next head coach in Jai Lucas. He\u2019s coming to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}