If Jai Lucas had his choice, he’d stay coaching with the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils as far as their upcoming NCAA Tournament run lasts.
His current boss, Jon Scheyer, said that’s not reality in the current college basketball world.
After Duke closes its regular season Saturday at North Carolina, Lucas will move on to become Miami’s head coach and leave behind the championship team he helped build.
“Jai wanted to stay,” Scheyer, Duke’s third-year head coach, said Thursday, three hours after Miami officially announced Lucas’ hire as their head coach. “This wasn’t a decision that Jai made. This is me and him working to get together.”
The 36-year-old Lucas came to Duke three years ago, the first assistant coaching hire Scheyer made after taking over the program following Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement.
Together Scheyer and Lucas helped build Duke (27-3, 18-1 ACC) into a team that’s already clinched a share of this season’s ACC regular-season championship and can claim it outright with a win Saturday at UNC.
But Miami’s dismal season will end Saturday with the Hurricanes (6-24, 2-17 ACC) in last place no matter how they fare against N.C. State in their noon game.
This is the first season not all league teams will qualify for the ACC Tournament as expansion to 18 schools led to the bottom three teams not qualifying. So Lucas has major work to do building his roster for next season beginning Sunday.
Plus, he’ll need to fill out a staff and start looking into transfer portal, where players will become available on March 24.
Scheyer repeated his opinion that this situation is “not ideal.” But it’s the way the sport is setup these days, so it left no other option. “This is one of those things where I think we can look at this and say it doesn’t make sense,” Scheyer said. “Our decision makes sense, but it comes from the timing, which it’s not ideal, frankly.
Even put aside hiring new coaches, the fact that the transfer portal will be open throughout the tournament. I understand why it is that way, but I think the focus should be on the tournament and the focus should be on the teams that are playing for something and have a chance.”
As for the Blue Devils, Lucas will coach with them in Chapel Hill on Saturday night then depart. That will leave Scheyer’s staff with associate head coach Chris Carrawell plus assistant coaches Emanuel Dildy and Will Avery.
Duke also has former Elon head coach Mike Schrage on staff in an administrative role as well as former Duke player Justin Robinson as director of player development.
So there’s plenty of knowledge. But to say Duke will be the same without Lucas would be unfair, Scheyer said. “I’m not going to sit here and say Jai’s not important to what we do,” Scheyer said. “Of course, he is. He’s smart. He’s great.
We have continuity. But really, at this point of the year, we’ve developed our identity already. So really, it comes down to the day to day preparation, the job with our players on the court. And that’s why you have a staff. That’s why it’s not just one guy.”