Jai Lucas Believes the Best 2026 Basketball Recruits are In Florida
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — It is his first day as the Miami Hurricanes head coach, but Jai Lucas is already focused on the 2026 recruiting class and the talent in Florida.
I mean it's kind of like I spoke about earlier. especially with this next class coming up in 2026 class there probably Florida has the best talent coming up these next couple of years," Lucas said. "it's just building those relationships, giving them the understanding of the value of staying home, the value of coming to Miami, the development that'll get here and just really lock it in on just lock it down the state honestly."
Lucas coming in was known as a monster recruiter. That was one of the main reasons he was hired as the next head coach because of his ability to understand NIL and the ability to relate to players who are trying to stay home and be close to family.
"Times have changed where kids do wanna stay home, but it's also the opportunity and the resources and NIL and stuff to go to other schools and things like that, but it it still come down to building those strong relationships with the right people and getting them to understand the value of being at The U," Lucas said.
He already has a challenge ahead but something that won't be too hard for him to figure out now with the talent pool starting to flood over in Miami.
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University and is the site lead for Miami Hurricanes on SI. He can be reached at justice.sandle111@gmail.com or follow him on 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.