Jai Lucas is part of a storied family of basketball. His father is John Lucas III, who played pro basketball. His father is John Lucas II, who was the head coach of the Miami Tropics franchise. JL II also coached in the NBA for 14 years. Jai Lucas carries this pedigree with him, plus time with Texas, Kentucky and Duke.
The Miami Tropics practiced out of the arena of "the public university in Miami." For a period from 1992-1993, Lucas II compiled a 38-9 record and won the USBL Championship in 1993. JL II used basketball to help former basketball players recover from addiction as per this article from the Sun Sentinel in 1992.
In the candid coaching survey given by CBS Sports, Duke and Texas were #14 and #17 of programs at managing their NIL situations. Jai Lucas, like Mario Cristobal, was one of the top recruiters at Duke. As per the Duke press release announcing the hiring of Lucas, he is an excellent recruiter:
"Lucas was an integral part in helping Texas land three top-20 classes during his tenure as an assistant coach. The Longhorns hauled in the No. 6 (2017), No. 8 (2018) and the No. 17 (2019) classes (according to 247Sports) with Lucas among the team’s full-time assistants on the recruiting cycle. The sixth-ranked class in 2017 was highlighted by the signing of Bamba, who was rated as the No. 3 player in the class."
Miami basketball will reportedly hire Jai Lucas as its next head coach
Jai Lucas learned under current Arkansas coach John Calipari. For an example during COVID, Calipari shuffled Lucas from an on-court coaching role to more recruitment. Jai Lucas showed resolve to make the switch to solely focus on recruiting (which was one of his strengths.)
Calipari spoke about "being ahead of the curve" with college basketball trends. Jai Lucas will bring a similar vision to the program. As per his biography on the Blue Devil website, his main purview is the defense and he also aids in the development of the backcourt.
The best part of the Jai Lucas hire is he knows players in the Big 12 and ACC. No doubt that players are already thinking of transferring to "The U" next semester. From every Cane fans' point of view, it is always nice to see Duke lose something too.