Jai Lucas did not win ACC Coach of the Year on Monday. The honor went to Duke's Jon Scheyer, who pulled 51 votes to Lucas' 19 from the 86-member panel of ACC coaches and media.
Duke won the regular-season title at 29-2 overall and 17-1 in the ACC, and the Blue Devils piled up 15 Quad 1 NET wins. But if this award is supposed to honor the most impressive coaching job in the conference, Lucas had the better case.
Honorable mention goes to Virginia's Ryan Odom, who took a team picked to finish fifth in the ACC in the preseason and finished second at 27-4 overall and 15-3 in conference play.
Duke’s Jon Scheyer has been named ACC Coach of the Year, per release.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 9, 2026
Jai Lucas had the strongest ACC Coach of the Year case
Lucas inherited a mess. Last season, Miami finished 7-24 overall and 3-17 in ACC play, dead last in the ACC standings and far outside the ACC tournament field. This season, in Lucas' first year, the Hurricanes flipped that into a 24-7 record, a 13-5 ACC mark, the No. 3 seed in the ACC tournament and a double bye into the quarterfinals. Lucas truly orchestrated one of the biggest turnarounds in the country.
Now, Scheyer absolutely coached a great team. Nobody can deny that. Duke is elite, Cameron Boozer has won both ACC Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year, and the Blue Devils backed up their preseason favorite label by winning the regular season ACC title.
But there is a difference between doing the best job and having the best roster. Duke was picked to finish first in the ACC in the preseason and finished first. Miami was picked to finish eighth in the ACC in the preseason and finished third after winning 17 more games than it did a year ago.
And Lucas did it without some overwhelming talent edge. Miami placed Malik Reneau on the All-ACC first team and Tre Donaldson on the second team, which tells you the Hurricanes have guys who can play. But Duke claimed five of the ACC's six major season awards, including Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year.
Lucas clearly should have been the ACC Coach of the Year.