Jai Lucas takes over as the head coach of Miami basketball, also his first-ever head coaching stint. The 36-year-old has an intriguing starting lineup, but will need to get a lot out of his bench.
The tradition continues! It’s another year of our countdown of the top 100 preseason teams in college basketball until the start of the season. Each day, we will reveal the next team until we reach the team slotted at number one. Up next: Miami basketball.
As you’ll note below, it’s not even worth listing out Miami basketball’s notable departures because there are absolutely ZERO players who return from last season. And Hurricanes fans are probably happy, because a 7-24 season after Jim Larranaga retired was a disaster.
There’s also a new coach in town, and it’s up-and-coming star Jai Lucas, who took over the program following three seasons on the bench at Duke. Lucas had previous stops at Texas and Kentucky, so he’s a blue-chip assistant ready to start his head coaching career in the ACC.
Lucas’s biggest strength? His recruiting. And we saw that this offseason, both in the transfer portal and with high school seniors.
Even after just seven wins last season, Lucas did enough to bring in a seasoned point guard in Tre Donaldson and a veteran forward in Malik Reneau. The offense should run through them. Both the other pieces in former New Mexico guard Tru Washington and former TCU big man Ernest Udeh should help give Miami a much more reliable defense, a part of the game they desperately needed to fix. Marcus Allen also comes over from Missouri. He didn’t have a freshman year to write home about, but was a top-100 recruit coming out of high school.
And speaking about recruits, Lucas did his part in offseason numero uno. 247Sports ranked Miami 16th for the 2025 cycle. The star of the class is 6-foot-6, 240-pound forward Shelton Henderson, who should start from day one. He’s a five-star and someone who could be a one-and-done, or a critical piece of Miami basketball for years to come.
But Lucas didn’t stop there, also getting four-star Dante Allen, and then a whole bunch of other three-star prospects to fill out his bench. It’s clear that Lucas wanted to try and get winning transfers to make for a better year, but also future prospects for a lot better years to come.
The biggest challenge this year will be getting good play off the bench. The starting five looks solid and really looks like it could compete near the top of the conference. But the bench is unproven and young, so Lucas will need to coach them up if Miami wants to have a big-time one-year turnaround.
Head coach: Jai Lucas (1st season overall)
2024-25 record: 7-24 (3-17)
2025 postseason finish: No postseason
Notable departures:
- EVERYONE
Notable non-conference games:
- vs. Florida (Nov. 16)
- vs. BYU (Nov. 27) – ESPN Events Invitational
- vs. Dayton OR Georgetown (Nov. 28) – ESPN Events Invitational
- at Ole Miss (Dec. 2)
Projected Rotation
PG: Tre Donaldson (6-3, 198, Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 11.3 PPG, 4.1 APG, 3.5 RPG, 1.0 SPG, 37.5 3P% (Michigan)
SG: Tru Washington (6-4, 204, Jr.)
2024-25 stats: 11.1 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 1.9 APG, 2.1 SPG (New Mexico)
SF: Shelton Henderson (6-6, 240, Fr.)
247Sports Composite #23 ranked recruit
PF: Malik Reneau (6-9, 238, Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 13.3 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 2.0 APG, 55.2 FG% (Indiana)
C: Ernest Udeh Jr. (6-11, 266, Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 6.6 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 1.2 APG, 1.4 SPG, 1.3 BPG, 63.4 FG% (TCU)
6: Marcus Allen (6-7, 231, So.)
2024-25 stats: 2.6 PPG, 2.0 RPG, 0.5 APG, 9.2 MPG (Missouri)
7: Dante Allen (6-4, 220, Fr.)
247Sports Composite #59 ranked recruit
8: Salih Altuntas (6-10, 274, Fr.)
247Sports Composite #274 ranked recruit
9: Treyvon Maddox (6-6, 180, Fr.)
247Sports Composite #178 ranked recruit
10: Timotej Malovec
247Sports Composite #295 ranked recruit
11: Jordyn Kee (6-3, 183, Rs.-Fr.)
247Sports Composite #308 ranked recruit (2024) (Georgia)
Miami basketball team MVP: Tre Donaldson
Malik Reneau may wind up leading the team in scoring, but Donaldson will have to make sure the whole team clicks.
Last season, he ran the show at Michigan, leading the Wolverines to the Sweet 16 and an eventual loss to Auburn, where Donaldson spent his first two college seasons. Of course, Donaldson had the privilege of passing to Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf down low, but it’s not necessarily a steep drop off getting Reneau and Udeh this season.
His biggest job will be incorporating Washington into power conference ball and making sure Henderson can fill his role as a freshman starter alongside four upperclassmen. Donaldson may also be asked to score more, and as someone who hit over 37% of his threes last year, he certainly has what it takes to be more aggressive with his shot selection.
Donaldson will have a lot on his plate, but we could see a big season from the senior guard.
Miami basketball make-or-break player: Marcus Allen
On a bench filled with freshmen, Marcus Allen will ultimately need to be a leader of the second unit, only as a sophomore.
The Missouri transfer played sparingly last year, but sparingly is still more than none at all, like the rest of this Miami basketball bench. And at 6-7, 231, he could be asked to fill in at a few different positions, especially early on in the season.
It’s a big ask for someone who played fewer than 10 minutes per game a season ago, but he’s very physically gifted and can definitely fill a role of 15-20 minutes per game. It will be interesting to see how much he has improved after his first season at Mizzou.
Key analytic: Opponent points per game
It’s a whole new team, so no stats from last year really matter, but if you’re a Miami fan, you’re sure hoping to see better defense.
Last year, the Canes gave up 80.6 points per game, 351st in the country. In ACC play they let up 83.9 points per game, dead last in the ACC.
By adding Washington, Udeh, Dante Allen, and freshmen who carry a lot of size, it’s clear that Jai Lucas is looking to have a tougher team, more focused on slowing down their opponents. Offense wasn’t really a problem at all last season, but defense needed a major fix, and Lucas recruited well to make sure that got addressed.
Miami basketball 2025-26 projections
Projected conference finish: 8th in the ACC
Projected postseason ceiling: NCAA Tournament Round of 64 exit
[…] end of the Jim Larranaga era was an utter disaster for the Hurricanes and they look to turn the page by grabbing Jai Lucas off of Duke’s bench. Lucas had some money to spend, and used it to grab highly touted transfers Malik Reneau (Indiana) […]
[…] A big reason why was their dominant big men duo of Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin. Their ability to space the floor while still dominating the paint made them so tough to guard. They lost both of them this year, as well as talented guard Tre Donaldson, who moved on to Miami. […]