Jai Lucas wants to transform Miami into a national college basketball powerhouse. His standard for the program echoes that belief.
“I want this to be a place where we get to a championship level and then sustain it,” said Lucas, who spoke with reporters on Thursday at UM’s Media Day.
Entering his second year as the Hurricanes’ head coach, Lucas has a roster that has the potential to reach this lofty standard.
Sophomore Shelton Henderson, who was recently named to the All-ACC First Team, is expected to lead the Canes. He’s joined by a litany of other talented players, including five-star freshman Caleb Gaskins, as well as former Villanova guard Acaden Lewis and Georgia center Somto Cyril, who were two of the most highly touted transfers to enter the portal this offseason.
Rounding out the group is Malik Reneau, who was a late addition to the roster after being granted an injunction to play a fifth season of college basketball. Reneau led the Hurricanes in scoring last season, averaging 18.9 points per game.
“This team was built without him in mind,” Lucas said about Reneau. “Being able to add him and what he does is kind of a bonus. The way the team was built, it wasn’t built like, ‘Oh man, Malik. We need him to do this, need to do that. He just kind of comes in and is able to enhance us.”
An improvement from last year’s to this year’s roster is the depth. Lucas has the ability to run a legit nine-to-10 man rotation with little drop-off from the starters.
“I like where we’re headed. I do feel we’re a lot deeper than we were last year. That was a big priority this offseason just to make sure we have more depth off the bench and we can play a bunch of different ways,” Lucas said. “We can play small. We can play big. We can do a lot of different things with this roster.”
Lucas expects the scoring to be much more balanced in 2026–27.
“I think we should have at least five-to-six guys in double figures,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll have anybody like Malik, who was at 19.5 (points per game). If we have a bunch of people between nine and 15. If we have five or six guys in there, then we’re where we’re supposed to be. We have great depth, and my whole thing is I want to play 40 minutes where there’s no real drop-off.”
As for Gaskins, Lucas indicated that the star freshman is ahead of schedule in his development.
“He doesn’t have to force anything. He lets everything come to him. He can guard multiple positions. He’s been shooting the ball from outside at a really high level. He’s somebody that we play on the perimeter. We play him as a guard, as a bigger guard. He’s shown the ability to handle pressure, play out of ball screens, play out of actions,” Lucas said. “For me, that was a bigger jump than I expected him to be at this time and at this point.”
Looking ahead at the season, Miami will be tested several times in non-conference play.
The Hurricanes will face the likes of Florida, Texas, TCU and Alabama. Each of these teams made the NCAA Tournament last season. They’ll play the Gators, potentially the preseason No. 1 team in the country, to start the year on Nov. 2.
“The first game is a good one because you’re playing someone who has a lot of retention and also has a lot of expectation going into the year, so you get to see early what you do good, what you get better at and then you move on from there,” Lucas said.
Before the season-opening showdown with its in-state foe, Miami will take on Vanderbilt at home on Oct. 23 in an exhibition game.
Lucas will treat this preseason matchup as if it were a real game.
“Playing somebody who has size. Playing somebody from the same conference [as Florida]. Playing somebody who also is really, really good and really well coached was important. You take it, and we’ll treat it like a real game,” he said. “Now, we’ll probably play more people than we would in a real game, like everybody will get chances, opportunities, and we’ve done that with some of the stuff we’ve done so far.”
