Miami Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga will have a new-look roster next year with 5 players leaving so far: "This is a crazy business"
One way or another, change is coming for the Miami Hurricanes basketball team. Longtime coach Jim Larranaga won’t accept anything else off a team that underperformed as badly vs. expectations as any team he’s coached.
Your quick recap? Well, after his teams reached a program-first Elite Eight and then Final Four there was bigtime regression this past season that ended with 10 straight losses and a 15-17 overall record (6-13 ACC). Among the reasons for the slide: Injuries (Nijel Pack missed seven games, Wooga Poplar three, Matthew Cleveland three and Norchad Omier one), lack of team chemistry and simply missing a guy that can get to the basket at will like Isaiah Wong and a team-first leader like Jordan Miller.
“I’ve said this way too many times, but when we were 100 percent healthy we were a very good basketball team,” Larranaga said in a season recap interview. “Injuries impacted us in a huge way. Second, our bench players were very inexperienced, younger guys who hadn’t been through the wars and weren’t able to help us overcome those injuries. … When there is no continuity in practice and preparation (due to injury) you lose a lot of close games, and we did.”
This will also need to be a team that has more spirited leadership, and Larranaga said he thinks this team took winning for granted.
“You only are going to be as good as your leaders will provide,” Larranaga said. ‘One of the reasons we’ve enjoyed so much success getting to the Elite Eight and Final Four is we stayed healthy the whole time.”
As it pertains to the future with Miami’s season over? Well, on paper every player can return, and the team held two open scholarships all year. The Canes will bring in the nation’s 10th ranked class with On3 Industry 5-star Jalil Bethea, 4-star Austin Swartz and 3-star Isaiah Johnson-Arigu.
“We have three top players (in high school recruiting),” Larranaga said. “We’ve done that part. Now we have to focus on spring recruiting, which is mostly the portal.”
In reality this will be a roster with a lot of departures and likely several transfer additions. Already gone to the portal – Bensley Joseph (27 starts, 9.6 PPG), big man Michael Nwoko (freshman, one start, 2.7 PPG 2.0 RPG), Christian Watson (2.8 PPG) and AJ Casey (1.9 PPG).
For background, a year ago Pack (13.3 PPG, 3.6 APG) and Omier (17.0 PPG, 10.0 RPG) entered their names for consideration in the NBA Draft before opting to return. Poplar (13.1 PPG) was considered an NBA Draft pick early in the year but suffered a down season. Cleveland (13.7 PPG) transferred in from FSU this year.
A freshman starter was Kyshawn George, who really looked good as the year went along and started 16 games.
“I don’t know who is back,” Larranaga said. “All the guys I met with last week are gone, the guys I meet with today I’m hoping most of them will return. And I’m meeting with someone (Tuesday and Wednesday). Maybe by Friday I’ll have a much better feel.”
He adds “We are going to have several players put their name in the NBA Draft. Will they pull their name out in a month? My guess is no, they won’t. Because every player on our team when asked if they want to play in the NBA, every hand goes up.”
Yes, there could be a lot of moving parts, and an emphasis has to be on getting more depth after the bench didn’t have much of an impact. Other bench guys that have not announced if they will transfer were Paul Djobet (freshman, 2.4 PPG) and Jakai Robinson (1.0 PPG).
One area Larranaga will look to add personnel-wise is frontline players.
“We need bigs, just don’t have very many big guys,” Larranaga said.
Another factor for any college basketball program is the NIL world. It’s almost like a salary cap for some programs, so that will also be a factor. So is roster building / roster keeping easier or harder in the NIL/portal era?
“When you recruit a young man you have a picture of what he’ll be able to do during the course of his career,” Larranaga said. “The problem is if they don’t play immediately all of a sudden they get discouraged very, very quickly and then their mind is not on getting better, it’s on `Where am I transferring to?’”
Larranaga stresses that players are essentially giving up on themselves when they transfer, and that as players get older they get better.
“There are so many voices in their ears with opinions,” Larranaga said. “You have so many factors that determine a kid’s mindset. It’s a very popular thing to put your name in the transfer portal. Half the players in college basketball are looking for a new destination. Does that make any sense to anybody? It doesn’t to me.”
Oh, and for those wondering if Larranaga is definitely coming back as coach? Yes, there really wasn’t any thought otherwise for the coach despite challenges in modern college basketball.
“A lot of coaches (that have left the game) realize coaching is not as much fun,” Larranaga said. “If you’re working with a player who is a freshman, working with him a lot to develop him – he’s got the potential in a year (to help the team). And at the end of the year he tells you thanks but I’m going to put my name in the portal and go somewhere else. That’s very frustrating. … This is a crazy business.
“I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing, and the players are going to keep doing what they are doing. I don’t have control over that. … I love coaching, being around the players. Practice is my favorite time of the day, so I’m going to keep doing it until practice is no longer my favorite time of the day.”
