Tuesday evening, Duke n ° 2 made his presence felt in Coral Gables against a team from Miami who fought powerfully since the head coach Jim Larrañaga announced his retirement the day after Christmas (Miami has only 6-22 years).
As expected, the Blue Devils opened a box of you-know-know what the Hurricanes, while Cooper Flagg, national player of the potential year, did his thing and his colleagues of first star of the first star Isaiah Evans and Kon Knueppel came to a 97 in a 97 -60 decimation of the canes.
As the two teams overthrew, the game had taken a new intrigue. Multiple reports, including one of CBS Sports – were published on Saturday declaring that Miami was aiming for the best assistant to Jon Scheyer, I LucasFor his coaching position.
All of a sudden, a forgetable eruption at the end of February had a meaning behind. For obvious reasons, Lucas did not comment on the reports that he is Miami’s main candidate. But Scheyer had no choice but to address his associate head coach and close friend to take over in a rival program, where interim coach Bill Courtney is holding the fort since the Retirement of Larrañaga.
Scheyer first discussed the reports on Saturday, and he did not refuse them exactly by approving the potential of his lieutenant as a head coach.
“He is absolutely coach, there is no doubt,” said Scheyer. “This is part of the reason why I hired it, and the work it has done for us was incredible. All reports or everything that exists, I just have a wind now, but we are going to cross This bridge and understanding it.
Miami targeting Duke Assistant Jai Lucas to replace Jim Larrañaga as a coating of the hurricanes
Matt Norlander
A dynamic was created in which Lucas finds himself balanced his current role in Duke with imminent questions about his future. On Monday, during the weekly ACC teleconference, Scheyer managed to deepen his feelings about what could be a potentially embarrassing situation three weeks from the selection on Sunday – which will see the transfer portal open for basketball , which would be when a new news the coach would like to start building his list.
“Listen, for me, these are unusual moments. It’s unusual moments, right?” Scheyer said. “I and I were completely connected with all this. Until something is final and done, I will not speculate on what can happen or not. I can tell you, I have started this Three years ago, and our intention is to finish it.
On the other hand, fans of Miami have obtained something they do not get often during a coaching search: a chance to look at their main candidate in action. Of course, watching an assistant operating is not the same as evaluating a seated head coach, but assuming that the reports are true and that Lucas takes over, it was an excellent opportunity to know him.
Now in his third year on the Duke key line, Lucas is the defensive coordinator of Blue Devils, and the scout of Miami was his. After closing the No. 16 in total on Kenpom for the defensive note each of the last two years, Lucas a Duke in n ° 4 this season, and fans of Miami certainly had an overview of the suffocating defense that he designed .
As much as an assistant can prove their chops as a coach, Lucas does this as a renowned superstar recruiter which has been preparing for this time for some time. He played a central role in the landing of the current star of Duke, Flagg, and played a decisive role in the recruitment of 2025, Cameron Boozer and Cayden Boozer, for which Miami was a finalist. The Boozers, who live in Miami, signed their papers with Duke in November. Lucas was the key factor of Duke Landing 2025 Five-Star Shelton HendersonWho plays the Bellaire High School in Houston, where I played, and was part of the Nike Eybl program, the older brother of Jai, John Runs.
Miami does not have the basketball pedigree of the Duke and North Carolina conference rivals, but do not turn to the Hurricanes. They made the Final Four in 2023 with a list loaded full of radically offset players (via Nile), including Nijel Pack, which was ahead of its time to land a Agreement mediated over two years and $ 800,000. The era of the sharing of income that swirls in the action this summer could level the playground, but if the donors of Miami are determined to be competitive in basketball, it will be a rapid reconstruction – and we Let us doubt that Lucas leave the comfortable borders of Cameron inside without such insurance.
Son of the former recruit of the year of the NBA and longtime head coach John Lucas II, I was around the game all his life. His older brother, John, played and trained in the NBA and is now with the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA. Member of the 2007 high school class, I himself was an All-American from McDonald’s before registering in Florida and ending his playing career in Texas.
Before landing in Duke, Lucas also stopped on the touch of his Alma Mater and Kentucky. At 36, he built an impressive summary.
Personally, I have known since he was a second year student in high school. I covered him as a recruit, spent time with him in gymnasiums that have been exceeding the players since he became a coach and I was on the set with him when he joined our program in the Final Four 2023 in his Houston hometown – At the time when Miami was the Final Four and Duke tried to understand how to come back. All the big things that Miami fans have read on him, I have seen first -hand in the past 20 years. He has the type of passion and reader that cannot be rigged.
In years, no one will only remember Duke beaten Miami on a Tuesday evening in February. However, if the reports materialize, there may be many fans of canes who remember their first glimpse of Lucas – a potential rising star in the coache industry that resembles the favorite to inaugurate a new era of basketball Ball of Miami.
