Jai Lucas knows Miami is a basketball town. The Canes will show the world that in year two.

The first thing you need to know is that Miami is a basketball town.

You don’t lure blueblood-bred Jai Lucas from the Brotherhood by way of the Big Blue bluegrass to be your program’s head coach if you both don’t believe Miami can be a destination job.

You don’t ink Lucas to a five-year extension with a hefty pay raise if you aren’t administratively committed to excellence, either.

Both of these things happened at the University of Miami over the past 18 months, which gives you an idea of what 37-year-old Lucas and the University of Miami administration believe is possible in Coral Gables.

Lucas spent year one on campus rewarding Miami’s belief.

A year after Jim Larrañaga retired midseason and Miami won just 3 ACC games, finishing an abysmal 7-24, the Canes went 26-9 and 13-5 in an improved ACC in Lucas’s first year as a Division I head coach, winning a functional road game over Missouri in the NCAA Tournament as icing on the cake of one of college basketball’s most impressive single year turnarounds.

Lucas didn’t win ACC Coach of the Year, but he should have, with due respect to Jai’s former boss, Jon Scheyer, and Virginia’s impressive turnaround under Ryan Odom.

Which gets us back to the first thing you need to know.

Miami is a basketball town.

Sure, the Miami sporting universe still revolves around Friday Night Lights, the city and South Florida’s well-earned reputation as the richest football recruiting base on the planet. Yes, Miami has won 5 college football national championships, fielded probably college football’s greatest team ever assembled (the 2001 Canes), and Mario Cristobal’s 2026 team appears poised to add to the ring collection. Yes, the Sunshine State’s most storied basketball program plays 300 miles to the north.

No matter.

Maybe I’m biased. I grew up hooping in South Florida and have called the area home on and off for much of my adult life.

But Miami has hoops in its DNA.

It’s easy to write off Miami’s success as tracing back to the Heatles, when Miami-Dade County was affectionately called Wade County even before LeBron took his talents to South Beach. The city’s basketball roots, though, dig deeper.

From J. Leonard Hamilton’s epic Big East title run in 2000 to Larrañaga's city-tough, guard-driven run to the Final Four in 2023 to iconic, talent-laden Miami High teams under Frank Martin in the 1990s, there’s a gritty basketball underbelly to the city of Miami that makes hooping in the 305 special.

Lucas, who started his college career in the Sunshine State as a guard for Billy Donovan’s Gators, saw the Magic City’s hoophead culture and dove in, surrounding himself with Miami guys like associate head coach Charlton Young and assistants Erik Pastrana and Andrew Moran.

The idea was to resuscitate Miami’s basketball program in a way that honored both the city’s spicy, stylish swagger and its edgy resilience. It’s the style—athletic, fast, free-flowing hoops—that made Miami a hotbed of prep hoops in the 1990s, as fans filled local gyms to the rafters to see future 4- and 5-star talents at elite high school programs like Carol City, Miami Norland, Columbus, and of course, Miami Senior High.

“That was my sole reason for getting into coaching,” Pastrana told Basket Under Review.

“I grew up in Little Havana. I grew up being a little kid just going over to Miami High. I looked at Miami High Basketball the way some kids look at professional teams. That’s continued now, too. The way Miami Columbus has played has captivated the community.”

Those teams had a blueprint: style and swagger, but never sacrificed substance. There was also talent.

Too often it escaped, but the talent to win was right in Miami’s backyard.

“When we took this job, what we needed was right around us,” Lucas said late last season. In year one, he built a team that reflected that mentality. In year two, he retained key pieces and added to it.

Like preseason No. 1 Florida, the Hurricanes have invested in recruiting the state of Florida. The programs that have historically succeeded in Florida have done this, whether it’s Florida under Billy Donovan (Brent Wright, Haslem, Taurean Green were all South Florida recruits who became program staples), Hamilton at Florida State (Scottie Barnes, Anthony Polite, RaiQuan Gray, Trent Forrest were all in-state wins), or Todd Golden (Walter Clayton Jr. came home to Florida after 2 years at Iona, Denzel Aberdeen was Golden’s first high school commitment).

If you ask Miami associate head coach Charlton Young, building a winner in Florida has almost always come by building on the backs of players from Miami.

“It’s always been that way,” Young told me via phone. “I won a state title at Carol City in 1988. And we upset the great Miami High to win. But when we played Miami High, we’d get 14,000 at the old Miami Arena. That’s more than the Miami Heat would get back in 1988-89. They’d get 9,000. When we played in the community college, they’d squeeze 8,000 into a 5,000-seat gym. So, there’s never been a lack of talent or passion for basketball in Miami. It’s always been a basketball town.”

There’s a method to building winners in Florida, and Lucas, mindful of the big, physical, fast brand of basketball he wanted to play, embraced it.

“Jai figured out really quickly he had to honor that Miami tradition. He called me. He knew he had to rebuild it and do it with Miami guys, whether that was staff coming home—real 305 guys—or players. I was in,” Young said.

Young doesn’t lose many South Florida recruiting battles. He’s won them everywhere he’s been, and did it again last year when McDonald’s All-American Caleb Gaskins, a top 10 national recruit, stayed home to play for the Canes.

“When I took this job, I knew what was clear was that if you want to win a national championship, the national championship is probably an hour from your desk. You just go drive down I-595 and 95.” Young told me.

A year ago, Miami rode Floridians, from All-ACC big man Malik Reneau and All-ACC Freshman Dante Allen (Montverde Academy) to physical guard Tre Donaldson (Tallahassee). Marcus Allen, who would have carved out a role but for a cancer diagnosis (he’s in remission and doing well), is another local product on Miami’s roster.

Like every quality program in America, Miami has players from other places—but even this year, in addition to Gaskins, a star at Miami Columbus, the Canes brought Lakeland product LJ Cason, fresh off a national championship at Michigan, home to Florida.

According to Lucas, this is by design.

“Florida is one of the most underrated states when it comes to hoops talent. We also think in this era, kids still find pride in playing somewhere that has always mattered to them,” Lucas said before the NCAA Tournament last spring.

“I think it’s a margin you try to win,” Lucas said of building rosters. “Getting kids to take pride and want to stay home and want to play in front of their family and friends, that’s something we talk about and something we do. To me, it gives you more pride to wear the jersey. You feel like you’re playing for something. You are playing for your family and playing for your city and the people in the crowd. That makes you play harder for the university.”

In year one, Miami established how it wants to build a roster and the style it wants to play.

In year two, Lucas and his staff believe they’ve built a group that can execute that chosen style better.

It starts with Shelton Henderson, the do-everything wing who followed Lucas to Coral Gables after originally committing to Duke. Henderson has an NBA body—one NBA scout told Basket Under Review, “think Dailyn Swain but add 20 pounds of muscle.” Henderson shot just 25% from deep as a freshman but was efficient despite that, posting a respectable offensive rating of 115, per KenPom, and converting 62% of his twos, a testament to his effectiveness as a driver. He saved his best game of the year for last, pouring in 18 points in a competitive loss to Purdue in the NCAA Tournament, and earned preseason All-ACC honors last month.

Dante Allen (6 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists) gives the Canes a consummate glue guy, a player who cares little about personal production but constantly impacts winning.

One of the winningest players in the history of prep powerhouse Montverde Academy, Allen is universally beloved by Miami’s staff and players.

“You could see it in the AAU, recruiting him,” Pastrana said of Allen. “In this day and age, people will view being an elite glue guy, being a connector, with ‘Oh he’s not a talented basketball player’ because he’s not a big scorer. People take it like it’s a backhanded compliment when it is not. Dante is that player. He’s such a winner. For him and Shelton, you know, Jai was so intentional about roster construction. It’s probably one of the most impressive things about him. Literally, the first thing he talked about was being big. But he said he wanted to recruit freshmen but wasn’t going to take freshmen who weren’t physically ready to play the style we want to play. Obviously, Dante and Shelton checked that glowingly. They are built like juniors. They have high character. Dante won everything there was to win. And sometimes when you are really competent at everything, people mistake that for not being good at anything.”

Along with Reneau, that trio of returnees formed a trustworthy core for Miami to build around.

What Miami surrounded that trio with is why this staff feels like they can compete for an ACC Championship.

“There’s no rule that Duke has to win the league,” Young told Basket Under Review. “I like the guys we get to roll with.”

The guys Young gets to roll with include Acaden Lewis, an All-Big East selection as a freshman who averaged an impressive 12 points and 5 assists. Lewis shined in an exhibition win over All-American Tyler Tanner and Vanderbilt, and he may be the true ceiling raiser who transforms Miami from a second-weekend threat to a legitimate Final Four contender.

“He’s going to make it easier for a lot of our guys because he can get in the paint. He can throw the lob, throw the shape pass, kick to the corner,” Young said via phone. “People don’t realize he’s big and strong and a physical driver. He’s really good, and he wants to be good. He wants to get better. That’s why he made the decision to get to the U.”

Another problem Miami thinks it's solved is shooting.

A season ago, the Canes finished 331st nationally in 3-point makes, relying on rim pressure and twos to win games. To make the group more multi-dimensional, Miami added Cason (40% at Michigan), Indiana transfer Nick Dorn (38% from 3 on high volume), Saint Peter’s guard Brent Bland (career-best 37% last season) and Horizon League Player of the Year DeSean Goode (37% career from deep) as snipers. That depth means that even if Allen, Henderson, and Gaskins (just a 27% shooter from deep in high school) don’t shoot better, the Canes have options.

“I do think in a perfect world, having a year under us, in year two, keeping a couple of guys and saying, ‘This is what we’d like. But we can add versatility,” Pastrana said via phone. “We won’t lose sight of who we are. But we have positional versatility. We have multiple guys who are 6’5 but long enough to feel like 6’9. So, if we are smaller, we aren’t really smaller, and if you switch, we are going to attack you. I also feel confident we’ll shoot the basketball much better this year. Obviously, we didn’t shoot it well a year ago. But we were okay with that because our strengths are going to be paint touches on offense and protecting the paint and rebounding on defense. That gave us a chance to be in every game. But this year we’ll shoot it better because we have better shooters.”

There’s frontcourt depth too, with Somto Cyril, one of the SEC’s best shot blockers a season ago, on board from Georgia, and Robert Miller III, a stout rebounder with multiple seasons of SEC experience at LSU, should keep Reneau fresh.

At the center of Miami’s quick build from a 7-win team to a Final Four dark horse is Lucas, even if he’s naturally shy and deflects praise by nature.

When Miami made the hire, there were plenty of cynics.

Pastrana and Young weren’t among them.

“With Jai, there is a lot there that people had assumptions about coming in, that he was “just a recruiter”, or whatever,” Pastrana told me.

But what makes Lucas special?

“He’s very comfortable in his own skin,” Pastrana said. He’s super organized. He’s super detailed. He knows what he wants and works towards that with a work capacity I haven’t seen from many people in this profession. But the thing that trumps all those things for him is that he’s so relational. His ability to connect to players and staff, in this era, his ability to do that without us feeling like we’re being reprimanded—it’s an innate feel for how to connect with people. That opens the door for everything else: what he expects from people, how he wants to build a roster, how he wants to play, how he recruits. And he does all this with a quiet confidence. He knows he’s good. He’s never going to tell you this. He’s embarrassed when he hears praise. We tried to put all the awards he’s received on a PowerPoint for player visits during the portal, and it disappeared from the presentation during the second player visit. He was so embarrassed about it.”

The staff he hired demonstrates quiet confidence.

Hiring Young, a former Division I head coach, and Pastrana, a fellow industry rising star, isn’t something many first-year head coaches would have done. But Lucas isn’t afraid of other voices.

“He isn’t deferential,” Young said. “But he doesn’t have time for ego. He has tremendous humility. He wants input and guidance. And he has a staff that wants to implement his vision. A staff that wants to win a national title. I think we can here. So does Jai.”

Miami’s 26 win-year 1 was proof of concept, ahead of schedule.

Year 2?

You saw glimpses in Monday night’s opener against No. 1 Florida.

Shelton Henderson struggled to shake loose from Florida All-American Thomas Haugh and was bothered by Florida’s immense length, finishing just 2-13 from the field, but on most nights, the other team doesn’t have Thomas Haugh. Henderson also showed that even against a player like Haugh, he can get where he wants on the floor when he wants, and better evenings are ahead.

Acaden Lewis was corralled by Boogie Fland through much of the second half—but he led all scorers with 24 points, and when he gets to the middle pick-and-roll with Henderson or Malik Reneau, Miami’s offense looks formidable.

Lucas played deep into his bench, allowing the Canes to trade haymakers with a national title favorite all night—cutting Florida’s lead to 2 points on multiple occasions in the second half after the Gators led by 10 at the break.

The Canes fouled too much (26) and didn’t shoot well from beyond the arc (4-17), but the Hurricanes outscored Florida’s vaunted frontline in the paint and every time Florida pushed, Miami responded.

You can’t get a better opening night test.

The Hurricanes lost, but they learned they could play with anyone in America.

Just the way Jai Lucas wanted to build it.

A gritty, winning team in a gritty basketball town.