Miami men’s basketball will be commanded by a new point guard this season.
Tre Donaldson was excellent for the Hurricanes in 2025, orchestrating the offense and leading the team to 26 wins and a Round of 32 appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Unfortunately for Miami, that was Donaldson’s last season of college basketball, as he graduated and is now playing for the nearby Miami Heat. To replace Donaldson, head coach Jai Lucas and the Hurricanes went into the transfer portal and acquired sophomore guard Acaden Lewis, who set Villanova’s freshman assist record last year.
Lewis averaged 12.2 points, 5.3 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game last season. Not only was he one of the top freshmen in the Big East, but he was also one of the conference’s top players, taking home Second Team All-Big East honors.
Heading into his sophomore season, Lewis is focused on “being the best version of myself.”
There are three areas of improvement that Lewis highlighted to the media at the 2026 ACC Tipoff: shooting, playing like a pure point guard and defense.
“One of those things was shooting the ball, from the line and from three. I just didn’t have the confidence, but I’ve done a good job, and they’ve done a good job of instilling the confidence in me to get that back up, Lewis said. “Another thing that [Lucas and Lewis] talked about is being a pure point guard. And then defense. I tend to take some plays off, so we really have been on that, whether it be film or just being challenged in practice.”
With Miami’s season opener against Florida being less than a month away, Lewis is currently in the process of jelling with his new teammates.
“It just takes time through practices, scrimmages, games, things like that … I think we’ll get out, we’ll run, and we’ll get a lot more easy buckets, which hopefully will help to get me a couple more assists a game,” he said. “So, just figuring it all out in a new league with a new team.”
Lewis’ main goal at Miami? Win.
“Nothing matters more than winning games.”
The Hurricanes and the Gators will tip off their seasons on Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. The game will be played at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Fla.
