Duke assistant Jai Lucas will be the next Miami Hurricanes head coach according to longtime college basketball reporter Adam Zagoria. Lucas has been the associate head coach at Duke since 2023, on the Blue Devils staff since 2022 and previously worked at Kentucky and Texas.
Lucas is the son of Maryland legend John Lucas, who had a 14-year NBA career and was a head coach with the San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers. A 2007 McDonald's All-American, Jai Lucas played his freshman season at Florida before transferring to Texas and playing two seasons there before turning professional.
Jai Lucas played one season in Latvia and three years in the NBA G-League before becoming an assistant coach at Texas from 2016 through 2020 before being hired by Kentucky where he remained through 2022. Lucas was ranked as the second-best recruiter nationally behind his current boss, Duke head coach Jon Scheyer.
Jai Lucas will become the first head coach for Miami without prior experience leading a program since Frank Haith in 2004, and he's only the second since the rebirth of Hurricanes basketball in 1985. A former point guard, he works with Duke's backcourt and is the Blue Devils' defensive coordinator.
Duke’s Jai Lucas will be the next head coach at Miami, source confirms.
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) February 22, 2025
Miami will hire Jai Lucas as the program's next head basketball coach
In addition to his legendary father, Jai Lucas' brother John Lucas III played two seasons at Baylor and two at Oklahoma State before spending parts of eight seasons in the NBA and 13 seasons as a professional overall. John Lucas III spent four seasons as an NBA assistant for four seasons and currently works for the Las Vegas Aces.
At only 36 years old, Jai Lucas will become one of the youngest Power Conference coaches nationally. That would make a veteran coach an almost certainty on the new staff with the possibility that Jai Lucas could retain one of the Miami assistants. Miami is going to have a huge roster turnover in 2025 no matter who the new head coach is.