Although the cement has not officially dried on Jai Lucas' first season with Miami, it has become abundantly clear that the Hurricanes have the right man to lead them moving forward. Miami finished the regular season at 24-7 overall and 13-5 in ACC play. Although their regular-season finale ended with a tough three-point loss to Louisville, Lucas has set a tremendous foundation for Miami already.
What he had to say after the Louisville loss should have prospective recruits wanting to play for him.
"You can be other places and you can come here and develop and get better. Even with Tre [Donaldson], Malik [Reneau], and Ernest [Udeh] that have been different places, but these are career years for them."
He continued by saying why these three transfer portal players were all able to acclimate so quickly.
"I think it goes to putting them in the right spots, our style of play, and also what we do here in kind of our culture of how we work and how we develop. And even though you've been somewhere else and maybe didn't have this in your game, you can come here and work on it, and then continue your career."
Lucas mentioning Tre Donaldson, Malik Reneau, and Ernest Udeh all by name speaks volumes here.
Coach Lucas with a message for recruits thinking about coming to Miami pic.twitter.com/PmFVLbTV4z
— Tailgate Sports305 (@TGSports305) March 7, 2026
Miami may continue to be active in recruiting top-flight prospects out of high school, but Lucas knows that getting key transfer portal wins could serve his program moving forward. Donaldson spent time at Auburn and Michigan previously. Reneau played at Indiana the last three seasons. Udeh was over in the Big 12 at Kansas and TCU before coming to Coral Gables ahead of his senior year.
Clearly, their leadership and veteran experience is guiding Miami towards a special season for them.
Jai Lucas says how important having success in the transfer portal can be
Prior to this season, Donaldson, Reneau, and Udeh were all playing in other Power Five leagues. They were all at other programs of note, but chose to come play for Jon Scheyer's former top assistant at Duke. Miami may have had great success previously under Jim Larrañaga, but Lucas plans to get Miami back on top in his own way. It is coaching. It is accountability. It is working for him and the team.
Right now, Miami is the No. 3 seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament. The Hurricanes got a double-bye to the quarterfinals. Because they are on the other side of the bracket from Duke, Lucas may get a real opportunity to beat his former boss with an automatic qualifer spot in the line in the title bout. Undoubtedly, Miami is a lock to make the NCAA Tournament, but how far could this team really go?
At this time, Miami improved to a No. 7 seed in the most recent Bracketology update. Keep in mind after a week where Miami beat SMU, but fell to Louisville. If Miami can improve to even a No. 6 seed, the chances of them getting to the Sweet 16 could improve exponentially. For this being a veteran team, that could serve Miami to potentially play well into the second week of the NCAA Tournament.
No matter what happens moving forward for Miami this year, it has been a huge success for Lucas.