Jai Lucas Stresses Not Peaking At the Wrong Time as Preseason Starts to Roll
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The past two seasons can leave people to forget that the Miami Hurricanes were one of the best programs in the country in college basketball.
The Canes were consistently competing for an ACC Championship and in the NCAA Tournament. Before the true NIL era started to take off, the Canes were in the Final Four, losing to the eventual national champions, UConn.
That was before one of the best program builders in the country, Jim Larranaga, retired. He couldn't adapt, like many others, to this new area. Now enters Jai Lucas, a recruiting protégé and Miami Hurricanes head coach.
Fall practice has begun, and Lucas dove deep into how he built his first iteration of his ideal basketball team.
“The way I built the team, I really wanted to be and to have great size, so we do have great size, great physicality. We should be able to be really good defensively and rebounding, and so the small things I felt that go into winning, I really wanted to attack that right away, especially this first year, so we can kind of check the boxes on those, and then we’ll grow and develop offensively throughout the year, what we’ll look like and what we’ll be, but we have the versatility to play a bunch of different ways, which is exciting.”Jai Lucas
Miami Freshman Shelton Henderson looking like a unit. pic.twitter.com/QCmRaCNaIt
— Miami Hurricanes On SI (@CanesCentralSI) September 22, 2025
After the first fall practice, this team is locked in and focused on doing great things this season. This is a brand new team with no retention from last season.
There are still some kinks to work out, but as the season inches closer, being in the best shape now and peaking too early wouldn't be in the best interest of anyone.
“We’re getting there. We look like a team more defensively than offensively,” Lucas said. “Right now, if I said we were great, I wouldn’t be as excited as a coach. I want to be our best when we start getting there toward January, February in-conference, toward March. But before then, I still want to be really good, but I don’t want to be peaking right now. I want to peak at the right time.”Jai Lucas
The Hurricanes will have their time to shine as the season is only a few short months away. There is a lot to love about where this team can be ahead of the 2025-26 season.
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University and is the site lead for the Miami Hurricanes on SI. He can be reached at Twitter @Justice_News5.
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University earning a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Communications with a concentration in Print and Digital Journalism. During his time in Starkville, he spent a year as an intern working for Mississippi State On SI primarily covering basketball, football, baseball, and soccer while writing, recording, and creating multimedia stories during his tenor. Since graduating, he has assumed the role of lead staff writer for Miami Hurricanes On SI covering football, basketball, baseball, and all things Hurricanes related.