Miami's season ended Sunday with a 79-69 loss to Purdue in the Round of 32, but the bigger picture on Jai Lucas' first team is still impressive. The Hurricanes finished 26-9 after going 7-24 a year ago, and that turnaround did not happen by accident.
Lucas brought in veterans who immediately changed the program, and three of the biggest players unfortunately might have played their last game in college on Sunday: Malik Reneau, Tre Donaldson and Ernest Udeh Jr.
Malik Reneau was the face of Miami all season
Malik Reneau spent three seasons at Indiana from 2022-23 through 2024-25 before transferring to Miami for the 2025-26 season.
The Miami native and former Indiana forward was named first-team All-ACC and finished the year leading the Hurricanes in scoring at 19.0 points per game while adding 6.6 rebounds and shooting 54.5% from the field.
In his final game, Reneau scored 16 points against the Boilermakers and added three assists, though his seven turnovers were costly. Two days earlier, he was the best player on the floor against Missouri, finishing with 24 points, six rebounds and three assists.
Tre Donaldson was Miami's lead guard
Tre Donaldson spent two seasons at Auburn from 2022-23 through 2023-24, then one season at Michigan in 2024-25 before arriving at Miami for 2025-26.
The senior guard was voted second-team All-ACC after averaging 16.5 points, 5.8 assists and 3.6 rebounds.
Donaldson scored 17 points against Missouri and went 5-for-7 from 3-point range in the first-round win. Against Purdue, he finished with 13 points, four rebounds and three assists. The efficiency was not up to his standard in the season-ending loss, but Lucas trusted him to handle pressure and run the offense against the best teams on the schedule.
Ernest Udeh Jr. was the anchor down low
Ernest Udeh Jr. spent one season at Kansas in 2022-23 and two seasons at TCU from 2023-24 through 2024-25 before transferring to Miami for 2025-26.
The senior center made the ACC All-Defensive Team and finished the season averaging 6.8 points, 9.3 rebounds and shooting 73.1% from the field, which put him among the national leaders in field-goal percentage.
In his final two games, Udeh grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds in the win over Missouri, then followed that with three points and seven rebounds against Purdue. He protected the rim, cleaned the glass and gave Lucas a real interior presence on both ends.
Reneau, Donaldson and Udeh Jr. set the groundwork
Losing all three would be a real hit, especially because Lucas built this first Miami team around them. But they did their job. As veterans, they were brought in to raise the floor (and ceiling) right away, and they did exactly that.
Lucas is rightfully proud and can fairly say those three helped drag the program back into relevance in just one year.