CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The idea to make Jai Lucas the youngest coach at the power conference level began with recruits Miami didn’t even land.
As athletic director Dan Radakovich and his small search committee surveyed the landscape a little more than a year ago, knowing the next Miami coach would inherit a program that had sunk to the bottom of the ACC in Jim Larrañaga’s final years and would need a complete roster overhaul, there were two paths.
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Miami could wave millions of dollars at an experienced coach or make a strategic bet on a 37-year-old who had been responsible for Duke’s recruitment of the Boozer twins from nearby Columbus High School, had been ingrained in the complex landscape of NIL and would not command a huge salary right away.
“The Boozer twins [were already headed to Duke], but could somebody continue to have that kind of relationship with young people given the world we live in right now?” Radakovich told Yahoo Sports. “When you have coaches my age or Coach Larrañaga’s age, you have to reprogram yourself. These folks are just getting programmed, and that’s where I thought Jai was going to really shine.”
He has. Among all the teams that qualified for the NCAA tournament as an at-large, few have been more surprising than Miami, which earned a No. 7 seed in the West regional after going 25-8 in Lucas’ first season.
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And Miami’s successful gamble on a young, first-time head coach reflects a growing trend across the sport. As the older generation of famous coaches ages out of college basketball and athletic departments grapple with how to allocate funds amid an uncertain environment in NIL and revenue sharing, more 30-somethings are popping up in the head coach’s chair and winning big right away.
Jai Lucas and the Miami Hurricanes are a No. 7 seed in the NCAA tournament. (Samuel Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Lucas, in fact, is one of eight coaches in this year’s NCAA tournament field age 40 or younger, a group that includes Florida’s Todd Golden winning the national championship last year at 39 and Duke’s Jon Scheyer making the Final Four at 37. The others in that age bracket include Wright State’s Clint Sargent (37), Idaho’s Alex Pribble (40), Ohio State’s Jake Diebler (39), High Point’s Flynn Clayman (37) and South Florida’s Bryan Hodgson (38).
“You see a lot of the GOATs, the legends, guys that have done this thing for a long time, they’re pretty much on their way out,” 37-year-old Nolan Smith told Yahoo Sports after leading Tennessee State to the Ohio Valley Conference title in his first season as a head coach. “So it’s like a generational shift right now and it’s exciting. There’s a bunch of younger guys out there really coming on right now and this generation of players are really responding to the younger style of coaching and the guys that can relate to them the best.”
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Hiring young coaches in college basketball is not a new development. Mike Krzyzewski was 33 when he got to Duke, John Calipari was 29 when he started his ascent at UMass and Billy Donovan was 31 when he coached his first game at Florida.
What’s changed, however, are the economics of college sports. With power conference schools having to absorb a $20.5 million expense in revenue share this year for the first time, plus the demand to invest in football rosters that most programs face, the prospect of spending big on an established coach becomes more daunting.
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Though athletic administrators are loath to acknowledge that budget concerns played any role in hiring a coach, it was not considered a coincidence within the industry that four football-oriented schools — Texas A&M, Utah, Florida State and Miami — went the young and relatively inexperienced route when making basketball changes last year.
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When Buzz Williams left Texas A&M for Maryland, athletic director Trev Alberts replaced a high-profile coach making $4.6 million with Samford’s Bucky McMillan, whose initial contract was worth $3 million — on the low end of the SEC pay scale.
“As you look at the future, we have one sport here that makes money,” Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts told Yahoo Sports last fall. “We’ve got to find a way to get basketball to turn a profit.”
The strategy paid off. Despite having to build a roster from practically nothing, the 42-year-old McMillan got Texas A&M to the NCAA tournament as a No. 10 seed.
Bucky McMillan is in his first year at Texas A&M and the Aggies are 21-11 and bound for a first-round matchup against St. Mary’s in the NCAA tournament. (Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
And though the Seminoles did not make the NCAA tournament, their 10-3 record down the stretch validated FSU’s decision to hire 35-year-old Luke Loucks, an alum who spent the past nine years as an NBA assistant with the Warriors and Kings. After a rough start, he looked like one of the most promising young coaches in the country by the end of the ACC tournament — and a bargain at $2.365 million per season.
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“You look at the trend not only in this conference but nationally, legends were retiring and there were a lot of people that wanted this job who were very established,” athletic director Michael Alford said. “But where the program was at the time, I wanted to get someone in here coming off the House settlement with still some uncertainty going on, but let’s get the right person and grow with them.”
Similar to Florida State, Miami has a huge financial investment in its football program — which paid off this year with a trip to the College Football Playoff championship game. But Larrañaga proved you could win big at Miami in basketball, too, making the Final Four in 2023 with a roster built around some highly publicized NIL deals.
Radakovich said Miami has the resources to go all-in for both sports, but Lucas’ recruiting network allows them to do it in a slightly different way. Though Miami’s current roster is heavily built around established transfers like point guard Tre Donaldson (Michigan) and forward Malik Reneau (Indiana), he was also able to convince top-100 recruit Shelton Henderson — who hails from Houston, where Lucas’ father John is an iconic basketball presence — to follow him after originally committing to Duke.
“Being young and having the ability to relate to players was a plus,” Radakovich said. “When we talked to him about, ‘Hey, what’s your vision? How would you pull it together?’ he was really, really good throughout every part of the interview. He sold himself.
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“Nobody can do this without resources. But how to evaluate the resources, to be able to call baloney on certain things and have the ability to be in the mix with agents and other coaches and people who are knowledgeable in college basketball is important.”
The question was whether he could coach. And like the former point guard he was at Texas, where he played in three NCAA tournaments, Lucas shouts instructions from the sideline almost nonstop — often reacting to a wide-open shot or a missed defensive assignment a split-second before it happens.
“The way he’s been prepared and how diligent he’s been is unbelievable,” said longtime assistant coach Russell Springman, who was on the Texas staff when Lucas played there and is now coaching under him at Miami. “When you’re around him, the No. 1 thing is how great he is with people. He’s got an ability to make people want to work harder. It’s a gift. And from a basketball standpoint, he’s elite. The way he adjusts on both sides of the ball is incredible. He’s one of the most impressive people I’ve ever been around in my life.”
In many ways, the younger coaches like Lucas — and the success they’re having so quickly — are changing the perception of what matters in college basketball.
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Yes, Calipari, Rick Pitino and Tom Izzo are still thriving. But for programs that can’t hire a ready-made Hall of Famer, the ability to quickly adapt to changing circumstances is becoming the ultimate separator in an era where rosters will change significantly every year.
Lucas has acknowledged that the current Miami team is short on certain skills. But leaning into a roster with physicality and toughness was enough to exceed all expectations and prove that Radakovich made an inspired hire — albeit one that had some risks and question marks when viewing it through a traditional lens.
“It’s a testament to Jai and his coaches that he got them to play together because basketball is really just one big chemistry experiment,” Radakovich said. “You can have great players, but if they don’t move together, if they don’t like each other, if they don’t respect each other, you’re not going to have anything. He’s been able to bring those personalities together, and I think that’s been his biggest victory to bring those 14 or 15 guys that he brought in, make them work together and understand their roles, keep them happy and get us to this point.”
