OPINION: Miami sinks lower and lower in historically poor season
Five-stars, NIL, one shock resignation, and many more losses to come.
MIAMI — Jim Larranaga washed his hands clean of the entire affair.
A tenured coach at the University of Miami, Larranga boasted two Final Four appearances, several Coach of the Year awards, and the enduring respect of all Miami fans at least familiar with the basketball team. Larranga built Miami from a mediocre ACC team into a genuine force to be reckoned with, taking the Hurricanes to the brink of a national title. Behind UNC, Duke, and maybe Virginia, Miami was the center of southeastern basketball. He had built an empire.
But with every embarrassing loss after embarrassing loss, Larranga could see the bricks of his self-built empire crumbling in front of his eyes. A 0-3 run during a Thanksgiving break tournament. An embarrassing 13-point loss to Tennessee on national TV. The final straw was a four-point overtime loss to Mount St. Mary’s — their first win against an ACC team since 1995.
Larranga watched all these events — especially the loss against the Mount — with a beleaguered, hopeless look on his face. He was 75, exhausted, and frustrated with landmark NIL deals that changed recruiting forever. So, with a bitter yet resigned heart, he stepped down from his post as Miami head coach.
"What shocked me was after we made it to the Final Four, just 18 months ago, the very first time I met with the players, eight of them decided they were going to put their name in the portal and leave," Larranaga scowled. "I said, 'Don't you like it here?' They said, 'No, I like it here, it's great.' But the opportunity to make money somewhere else created a situation that you have to begin asking yourself, as a coach, what is this all about? The answer is that it's become professional."
Larranaga, his successor Bill Courtney, and the entire Miami basketball administration have struggled to contend with the shifting landscape of college basketball. It’s evident with their results on the court. Since Larranaga’s departure, Miami is 0-5, which puts them dead last in the 18-team Atlantic Coast Conference.
Although Larranaga can safely watch Miami basketball's implosion from a distance, he won’t be able to wash some of the guilt out of his hands. Although Larranaga’s complaints about NIL and how it made transferring recruits essentially free agents are valid, he neglects to mention that one of the first instances of “buying” college athletes was in Miami.
Miami landed ex-Kansas State guard Nijel Pack largely thanks to a two-year, $800,000 NIL deal with “Miami’s NIL king” John Ruiz, CEO of Lifewallet. Pack was viewed as one of the best scorers in college basketball coming off an All-Big 12 season with the Wildcats. Adding Pack, a Naismith hopeful, pushed Miami from a threat to a genuine national contender. Big Dance darling Isaiah Wong and crafty shotmaker Jordan Miller both made over six figures as well thanks to their NIL deals.
The Hurricanes found themselves in deep water after LifeWallet found itself in financial trouble. An SEC finding discovered LifeWallet suffered a net loss of $211 million; Ruiz sent out emails to investors about his uncertainty over whether the company could continue. LifeWallet was in deep financial trouble, and Ruiz removed himself from the public eye.
Because of LifeWallet’s plummeting profits and a nationwide renaissance in NIL deals, Miami struggled to recruit high schoolers and college veterans. Despite returning three starters from last year’s team, Miami struggled with injuries, a ten-game losing streak, and an inability to replace the graduating Wong and Miller. They finished the season under .500, almost unheard of for a team that reached the Final Four a year ago.
Larranaga’s Last Stand was Jalil Bethea — a shifty, agile, skilled scoring guard who ranked inside ESPN’s top seven 2024 recruits. Bethea is Miami’s highest-rated recruit of all time — and living proof that Miami’s prowess on the court and financially was no fluke. Bethea was supposed to take Miami back to the Promised Land, to save Miami from the never-ending pits of mediocrity while giving the 74-year-old Larranaga his crown jewel before retirement.
His entire recruiting class was supposed to be Larranaga’s Last Stand. Larranaga also landed four-star guard Austin Swartz over Houston, UConn, Illinois, and more. They benefited in the transfer portal, landing underrated prospects like AJ Staton McCray (Samford), Jalen Blackmon (Stetson), and Lynn Kidd (Virginia Tech). Miami’s recruiting class ranked inside the top 15 — leading media panelists to rank them sixth in a preseason ACC rankings roll. Nijel Pack was voted onto the preseason first team with Cooper Flagg and RJ Davis.
But, when you look at the results — namely Tuesday’s embarrassing 35-point loss to #3-ranked Duke — the core Larranaga worked so hard to bring in seemed subpar. Jalil Bethea isn’t having the one-and-done year nearly everyone expected from him. Pack has been injured for weeks. It’s been Kidd and Matthew Cleveland shouldering a heavy load for Miami.
If Miami wanted to enter their nationally broadcasted game with title contenders Duke, they did not look like it. Despite hanging with Duke 8-9 early in the game, they quickly multiplied their one-point deficit after ceding five quick three-pointers to Kon Kneuppel and crew. Sooner enough, Duke’s lead ballooned to laughable proportions. Midway through the first half, Duke doubled Miami’s points. Despite a relatively stronger second half, Duke’s lead grew to as much as 35. Even 5’8 walk-on-turned-scholarship player Spencer Hubbard got some playing time.
“Our team was out-coached, out-played, and out-everything,” a beleaguered Courtney sighed after the loss. Courtney’s comments aptly summarize a woeful fourteen-game stretch where they’ve only won one.
The team’s biggest issues stem from their mentality — without mincing words, they’re too soft. After going 3-0 against the beginning of the season, their first actual opponents stunned them. In each of their three games at the Charleston Classic — where they went winless — they struggled early, letting their opponents build a big lead before fighting back. They were easily outrebounded. They shot poorly. Players sulked and coaches brooded.
It got worse, as Miami dipped under .500 for the first time in the season after losing at home to 1-7 Charleston South. On defense, they were lazy. They lost the rebound battle, and they seemed disconnected on offense. They looked forced to run an isolation-heavy offense, and without leading scorer Pack, their attempt was futile.
Miami slid further in tough games to tough teams; they lost to Arkansas (where Blackmon airballed the game-tying shot at the buzzer), Clemson, and #1 Tennessee, before beating the 1,100-student school of Presbyterian College. They’ve since been winless in ACC play — losing games to Boston, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Wake Forest, and Duke.
Yet, Miami can reasonably say they’ve had an unlucky time this season. Outside of an embarrassing 15-point loss to Florida State, their games have been close. Hell, their loss to Virginia Tech came down to an and-one with just seconds left.
The team’s sole source of offense in Pack has been out for weeks nursing a foot injury, while their highest-ranked recruit ever has struggled to adapt to the tempo of college basketball. Their future Hall of Famer coach resigned midway through the season, leaving them with a difficult ACC schedule course.
And finally, you wonder how much of this is luck and how much is Larranaga’s undoing. How much of his reliance on NIL to recruit players led to his inability to grab the best players from high schools — like the Boozer twins — and his eventual exhaustion? How much of his wanton mixing of the freshmen and transfers — along with his publicization of NIL deals — led to strife in the Miami locker room? How much effort did Larranaga give once he saw his self-built empire was crumbling, and did he always plan to leave one shocking afternoon in the middle of the season? And finally, how much damage did his surprise resignation a day after Christmas 2024 do to the Miami basketball organization this season and in the long term?
We won’t know for a long time, if at all. But as Bethea looks to pick up the pieces of a shattered rookie season, Courtney faces the difficult task of rebuilding the Power Conference’s worst team in just months, and Miami Basketball looks for brighter days, one thing is certain.
Jim Larranaga cannot wash his hands clean of the entire affair.