Early start to the ACC’s coaching carousel has already created some awkward and surprising moments
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The month of March has only just begun. But already, the madness is upon us.
Not the kind of madness that involves brackets, buzzer-beaters and the cutting down of nets. This is the kind that comes when the coaching carousel starts spinning at full speed before the final game is played.
The kind that creates awkward situations such as the one that took place at Miami last Tuesday. With a coach on one bench working to help his current team beat the team on the other bench, the team he’s about to be hired to coach in the future.
It’s not so much that the Hurricanes have approached Duke assistant Jai Lucas about filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Jim Larrañaga in January. That sort of thing happens all the time. It just usually stays confined to back channels until the appropriate time.
In this case it didn’t.
Three days before the Blue Devils traveled to Coral Gables to inflict their obligatory beatdown on the ACC’s worst team, reports began surfacing that Lucas’s eventual hiring by Miami was more a matter of when, not if.
Though neither side is ready to confirm the arrangement, for obvious reasons, no one denied it, either. Though Jon Scheyer, Lucas’s boss for at least the next few weeks, came close when pressed about the matter during his postgame remarks.
“Absolutely he’s a head coach. No question about it,” Scheyer said after Duke’s 97-60 victory. “It’s part of why I hired him. And the job he’s done for us has been incredible. Any report or anything that’s out there, I’m just getting wind of it now. But we’ll cross that bridge and figure it out. But I can tell you 100% that Jai is an amazing coach.”
That much can be verified without the benefit of a press release.
Lucas has paid his dues, put in his time learning from some of the best coaches in the game – Rick Barnes at Texas, John Calipari at Kentucky and now Scheyer – and is prepared for the challenge of leading a team of his own.
His work with the Blue Devils’ backcourt is tangible through the growth of Tyrese Proctor this season and as defensive coordinator of the No. 4 defense in the country, according to KenPom.
If Miami has chosen to go in the direction of an untested first-time coach, Lucas has the right profile to get the Hurricanes back on the path that took them to the Final Four just 2 seasons ago.
He’s young and vibrant, and savvy to the intricacies of NIL and the transfer portal. He’s a proven recruiter, having helped Scheyer build Duke’s current star-studded roster. The son of former Maryland All-American and No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick John Lucas, he’s been around basketball his entire life.
He’s got a name that gives him instant credibility and a résumé to back it up.
The Lucas to Miami drama isn’t the only ACC coaching news deflecting attention from the usual March to the NCAA Tournament and coaches trying to save their jobs, not look for other employment.
Speaking of which …
Just down the road from Duke in Chapel Hill, word began to leak out about Hubert Davis’s future at North Carolina. And surprise, it’s not what anyone expected.
Turns out he’s not going anywhere.
Never was.
While everyone around college basketball, myself included, was speculating that Davis might be in trouble if the Tar Heels don’t make the NCAA Tournament, which might be a moot point anyway because of the way his Tar Heels are playing right now, the coach has been safe and secure after signing a 2-year contract extension back in December.
It’s been an unusual year for coaching in the ACC.
Virginia’s Tony Bennett retired a week before the start of practice because he was burned out trying to keep up with the changing landscape of college athletics. Larrañaga called it quits after his team got off to a horrendous start and Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton followed him out the door a few weeks ago amid issues both on and off the court.
The Cavaliers’ opening is likely the next one to be filled. And that could happen before the season is over, too, if the school’s administration decides to elevate interim coach Ron Sanchez to the job permanently. As Bennett wanted, his players and several rival coaches have begun actively lobbying.
That, however, would be a mistake.
It’s not as if UVa is terrible. The Cavaliers are 14-14 overall, 7-10 in the ACC with 3 regular season games and the conference tournament remaining.
As much as the folks in Charlottesville have “embraced the pace” during their team’s run as a national contender, Bennett’s deliberate, defense-oriented style of play had already begun to get stale before he decided to pull the ripcord last fall.
Players don’t stay around long enough to become fluent in the pack line defense anymore. And transfers aren’t interested in coming to a program whose system won’t allow them to compile the gaudy stats they believe will help them get to the League.
So the time has come for the Cavaliers to make a clean break and try something new by bringing in a coach from outside the program.
That’s a decision that will most likely be made once the season finally plays itself out.
But you never know. Once the coaching carousel starts spinning, it’s hard to stop it.
Even this early in March.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
