UM basketball is suddenly all the rage on campus, and coach Jim Larranaga is the reason | Opinion

The revolving door at the University of Miami football office (soon to be a $300 million football complex) continues to rotate as Mario Cristobal needs to hire a new offensive player less than a year after wowing everyone about his all-star coaching staff and Defense coordinator a month before spring training.

Hurricanes fans took to social media Tuesday to find out that Cristobal had lured Lance Guidry, a highly respected defense attorney, away from Tulane, where he had just accepted a job as defense coordinator after leaving Marshall.

Guidry’s resume should give Hurricanes fans reason for optimism, but even long-suffering UM supporters have reason for skepticism. We’ve seen this movie before. We will see.

Meanwhile, the men’s basketball program is going from strength to strength under Coach Jim Larranaga, a Naismith Hall of Fame nominee who is finally getting the respect he deserves after five decades of bringing out the best in his players.

A sold-out crowd at the Watsco Center and a national television audience witnessed UM’s 81-59 win over Duke on Monday night, improving the Hurricanes’ record to 19-5 overall, 10-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and 13-0 at home.

The Hurricanes, whose two top scorers were a 6-7 transfer from Arkansas State and a 6-7 transfer from George Mason, completely dominated a Duke roster loaded with McDonald’s All-Americans including frontcourt newcomer Kyle Filipowski , who is 7 feet tall. and Dereck Lively II, who is 7-1.

Ask any coach in America if they’d swap Duke’s roster for Miami’s, and they’d probably say no. And yet, the Hurricanes led the Blue Devils from start to finish, forcing them to make 21 turnovers and overtaking them 38-31. Three weeks earlier, they had taken Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium, one of the most intimidating places to play.

Last year, the Hurricanes beat then-No. 2 Duke and legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski at Cameron and made a surprise start in the Elite Eight in March.

Larranaga always makes it a point to credit his players and staff for the team’s success, but the truth is he deserves a lot of the credit. Before he arrived in Miami, the Hurricanes were 2-15 against Duke. Since he took over, they are 8-9, including a 90-63 loss to then-leader Duke in 2013, the biggest loss ever for a No. 1 team.

This is no coincidence.

Since arriving at UM 12 years ago, the Canes have been promoted to the Sweet 16 twice, once to the Elite Eight, and have won both the ACC Season and Tournament titles.

Coach L, as he is affectionately known, didn’t build his reputation on the backs of five-star recruits. This is a man who led 11th seed George Mason to the Final Four in 2006. george mason

Critics said his team does not belong in the NCAA tournament. They shocked the nation, beating 2005 Final Four team Michigan State, defending champions North Carolina, Wichita State and 2004 champion UConn before losing to eventual champion Florida.

Before his game against Carolina, Coach L said to his team, “Their fans think they’re supermen. Our fans know we are kryptonite.”

Year after year he grows and rebuilds, develops his players, earns their trust, adapts his tactical plans to the squad’s strengths and weaknesses. And he’s having fun.

The 73-year-old coach ignores his back pain and dances with his players in the dressing room. He makes up cheesy motivational stories. He promotes his team across campus, speaks in classrooms, visits fraternities, meets with the pep band, invites ghost groups to practice.

At press conferences, he entertains reporters with basketball history and funny stories. In fact, on Monday night after the big win over Duke, he opened his remarks by introducing one of his high school teammates who was in the back of the room.

“Before I start the game, I want to introduce John Carey. He was a point guard at Archbishop Mulloy High School. We played together and he was smart enough to throw the ball to me after he shot it about 30 times.”

He later shared that prior to the Duke game, he wanted to emphasize the importance of rebounding for his players, so he threw a ball at the board, jumped, and bounced. With a big smile, he added, “I’m about 40- inches vertically.”

This positive spirit rubs off on his players and their happiness shows every time they step onto the pitch.

Another reason for Larranaga’s success is his willingness to move with the times. Sure, he loved the good old days before social media, the transfer portal and name, picture, similarity deals. But he accepts that college basketball recruiting is different these days, and he’s learned to adapt.

Legendary Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim had the gall to say last week that Miami is winning because it “bought a team.” He complained during an ESPN interview that Miami, Pitt and Wake Forest had bought players on NIL deals.

He has since clarified his remarks, saying he didn’t mean they cheated that the NIL deals were within the rules. Still, he clearly believes NIL money is why the Hurricanes are ranked 19th in the nation and have back-to-back wins against ACC leaders Clemson and Duke.

Yes, Kansas State transfer Nijel Pack has landed a two-year, $800,000 deal from LifeWallet, a company owned by UM superbooster John Ruiz. And Norchad Omier, the Arkansas State Transfer, gets ZERO money despite being a foreign student doing his support work in his native Nicaragua.

But that’s not why UM wins. Isaiah Wong, Jordan Miller, Bensley Joseph, Wooga Poplar, Harlond Beverly and Anthony Walker were all here before NIL. Omier had ties to Miami and was keen to return to a Hispanic community.

Miami wins because Larranaga built something special. So special that the UM student body, which for decades largely ignored basketball, is finally showing up in large numbers, turning “The Wat” into a true ACC cauldron.

Two years ago, during one of Larranaga’s rare down seasons, some fans became restless. On Twitter they called for his downfall:

“Miami needs to fire Coach L. This program is a disaster.”

“Fire Jim Larranaga. I can’t stand this terrible basketball.”

Would love to know what these fans think now.

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