#1 – UNC || #2 – NC State || #3 – Wake Forest || #4 – Virginia || #5 – Clemson
Miami’s dip after Jim Larranaga departed the day after Christmas, 2025, was limited to one year, as the ‘Canes shot up from 7-24 to 26-9.
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Miami’s 19-win turnaround ties Wake Forest for the biggest in ACC history, and nationally as well.
That’s down to former Duke assistant Jai Lucas, and anyone who has paid attention understands that Lucas is a rising star.
He was highly regarded as a John Calipari assistant at Kentucky, and he made a major impact while he was in Durham, as well. Miami made a very smart hire.
Last year, he built his team around transfers. Point guard Tre Donaldson, forward Malik Reneau, big man Ernest Udeh, and freshman Shelton Henderson all excelled. Tru Washington was the fifth starter.
It was a flawed but highly successful team that Lucas put together despite not taking the job until March of last year.
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Udeh was limited offensively, but he pulled down 9.2 boards. Reneau at times ran hot and cold, but he averaged 18.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 2.1 assists.
Donaldson and Washington were a solid backcourt, but both are gone.
Here’s what Lucas is working with, including a portal haul that ESPN ranked #7 nationally.
Returnees
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Marcus Allen – 6-7/231/JR
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Shelton Henderson – 6-6/240/SO
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Dante Allen – 6-2/180/SO
Portal
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Acaden Lewis – 6-2/180/SO (Villanova)
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DeSean Goode – 6-8/230/JR (Robert Morris)
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Quin Berger – 6-2/195/SR (Bucknell)
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Brent Bland – 6-3/195/GR (St. Peter’s)
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Nick Dorn – 6-7/225/SR (Indiana)
Freshmen
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Caleb Gaskins – 6-8/219/5-star
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Chris Birden – 6-10/200/NR
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Egor Ryzhov – 6-11/220/Russia
Of the five, only Henderson returns. A dynamic 6-6 and 240 lb. wing, Henderson is a bruiser. He averaged 13.8 ppg, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists, and he may be as powerful as any player in the ACC.
On the downside, shooting is an issue: he did hit 56.7% overall, but just 25.5% from deep and a weak 57.6% from the line (as you’ll see, poor foul shooting becomes a theme for Miami).
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Still, he’s a dynamic talent and he’ll likely be the emotional leader of this year’s team.
Marcus Allen and Dante Allen (no relation) are also back. Dante is the son of former NBA player and current Miami Heat coach Malik Allen. He was a reliable member of the rotation last season, starting 18 games and getting 23.9 mpg.
Allen shot 43.1% overall, 32.1% from the bonusphere, and 58.3% from the line. He only averaged 6.6, but could easily expand that this year.
Marcus’s story is more dramatic.
Last December, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and missed the rest of the season. On July 2, he announced that he is now cancer free, so hopefully, he’ll be ready to go in the fall. His health is the main priority, but when it comes to basketball, will he be ready? It’s impossible to know in July.
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With his two top scorers out of eligibility after last season in point guard Donaldson and forward Reaneau, Lucas knew he needed solid replacements, and he appears to have found them.
Acaden Lewis comes over from Villanova, where he averaged 12.2 ppg, 3.0 rebounds, and 5.3 assists. He didn’t shoot particularly well – 45.6% overall, but just 27% from deep and a modest 58.3% from the foul line.
A lot of that is just mechanics and repetition, and he’s still just a sophomore. We would expect improvement, certainly at the line if not more. And his assists are certainly impressive for a freshman.
Cyril, meanwhile, started at Georgia. The Nigerian native largely improved his stats from his freshman year. His minutes were up by 50%, his shooting percentage went up dramatically from 62.5% to 75.9%. Rebounding went from 3.8 to 5.4.
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Like some of his teammates, free throw shooting is a weakness, but that did improve from 48.8% to 57.8%.
On the downside, he averaged nearly 3 fouls in his 21.2 minutes an outing, so that’s a concern.
However, at 6-11 and 260, he brings a lot, literally, to the lineup.
Goode was the Horizon League Player of the year last year, and he put up 15.2 ppg, grabbed 8.7 rebounds and passed out 1.4 assists.
Most impressively, he shot 57.1% on his threes. He probably won’t do that at Miami, but that will get everyone’s attention, regardless. Overall, he shot 62.9% and hit 76.3% from the line.
The question is how well it translates from the Horizon to the ACC, but he should help.
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Charlotte native Nick Dorn started at Elon and spent his junior season in lovely Bloomington, Indiana, before heading to Boca Raton.
He started 12 games for the Hoosiers and averaged 8.1 points and 2.3 rebounds. Dorn also shot 40.4% overall, 38% from 3-point range and a very impressive 87% at the free throw line.
Bland was a double-digit scorer (13.9) at Saint Peter’s, but shot just 38.8% overall. However, he hit 36.9% of his threes. Of his total 623 shots, 454 of them were three point attempts, which means that nearly 73% of his overall attempts were from behind the three-point line. He also hit 78% of his free throws, and got 5 boards per outing.
He likely won’t get that many rebounds for Miami, but that guy clearly has a nose for the ball, and you can’t teach that.
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Berger wasn’t a regular starter for Bucknell and only got 16.6 mpg, so there’s no reason to expect he’ll exceed that in his senior year with Miami, but he can still build a valuable role, even it’s as a practice player.
The freshmen are promising.
Gaskins attended Miami’s Christopher Columbus High, which means he surely knows Cameron and Cayden Boozer, who were two years ahead of him.
He was a McDonald’s All-American and you can expect him to start. He’s one of the best recruits Miami has landed in years.
Birden is likeley to be on a development path this year, but the staff believes he has pro potential, so keep an eye on him.
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Finally, there’s the Russian import, Egor Ryzhov. He’s played professionally in Russia, but with the Ukrainian War ongoing, he probably didn’t get out of Russia very much, which might limit his development somewhat.
Still, he’s said to be talented and could conceivably start. At a minimum, giving Cyril’s tendency to foul, he’ll get his minutes.
Lucas’s second Miami team looks quite promising. He’s got solid guard play, good big guys, a bruiser in Mitchell, and the other forwards, not least of all Gaskins, are talented. Toss in some three-point shooters, and Miami is looking pretty good in the futures market.
And that could be a problem for the university.
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If Lucas has another great year and makes a solid run in the post-season, other programs are going to quickly come after him.
And in particular, if Mark Pope, already somewhat on the hot seat, has another miserable season for Kentucky and gets fired, they won’t try to coast on their past glories and only go after big-name coaches, all of whom rejected them last time. That was an ego-imposed straitjacket that damaged their search, and surely the new AD, J Batt, will not repeat it.
Whatever they do, they’d be fools not to consider Lucas, who already knows the program, the lunatic fan base, and Lexington quite well.
Put him in that environment, with those resources, and he goes from being a promising young coach to someone who could dominate the SEC for a decade or more.
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Or he could opt to stay with the Hurricanes and build something of his own, where he wouldn’t have to deal with the rather mercurial Big Blue Nation.
Either way, his star is still bright and rising.
One last note about Lucas, and it’s a bit unusual. He’s from a prominent basketball family, and his father, Durham native John Lucas II, was a sensational point guard for Maryland and had a long, if troubled, NBA career (the elder Lucas had a crippling battle with cocaine). Since recovering, he has been a tremendous coach and has helped various athletes with their own struggles.
His brother, John Lucas III, played for six NBA teams and has been an NBA assistant coach for three. Currently, he works for the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces.
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Somehow, the younger Lucas has established an identity which is almost entirely separate from that of his brother or, more notably, from his father. He did mention once that it was nice to be at Duke because he had family in Durham, but that’s the only time we can recall that his family has ever been mentioned. It’s a strange, but notable.
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