DALLAS (AP) — Miami coach Jai Lucas likes the confidence and belief that the No. 22 Hurricanes have brought into March of his first season with them.
“It takes a whole season to get there and get the guys to understand, but whenever you go into March, you want to be rounding into form,” Lucas said. “I think we’re rounding into form. We’re not still quite there yet, and it’s just little minor tweaks that I think can make us take another jump. It’s not anything big that I think is glaring, so that’s always what you want when you come down the stretch.”
The Hurricanes (24-6, 13-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) have won seven of eight games since the beginning of February, and in their first game of what they hope will be a long March on the court won 77-69 at SMU on Wednesday night. That ensured a double-bye into the quarterfinals of next week's ACC tournament.
Playing their first game as an AP Top 25 team since December 2023 after getting ranked this week, Tre Donaldson's 17 points led five players in double figures scoring as the Hurricanes matched the school record for most wins in a regular season. Their 17-win improvement over last season is the largest turnaround in Division I.
As for putting into perspective all of the accomplishments they already have, Lucas laughed at the thought of doing that now.
“I can't. The one thing I've tried to do is just kind of try to stay in the moment, so I really haven't thought about it,” he said. “Maybe after Saturday when this part of the season's over I may reflect a little bit. But, you know, it seems like a long season but it goes fast.”
The Hurricanes play their regular-season finale at home Saturday against Louisville. Their ACC tournament opener is five days after that.
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Miami was in the NCAA Final Four just three years ago, but followed that with back-to-back losing seasons — and wasn't even among the 15 ACC teams to make the ACC tournament last year.
Lucas is a first-time head coach after being at Duke the past three seasons on the staff of Jon Scheyer, and the start of his head coaching career. The 37-year-old son of former NBA player and coach John Lucas II played in college for Billy Donovan at Florida and Rick Barnes at Texas, and before becoming associate head coach for the Blue Devils was on John Calipari's staff at Kentucky for two seasons.
While the Hurricanes never trailed at SMU (19-11, 8-9) in their first game under Lucas as a ranked team, there were four ties before they went ahead to stay when the first of freshman guard Noam Dovrat's four 3-pointers snapped a 23-23 tie with 7 1/2 minutes left in the first half. They built a 16-point lead midway through the second half, but let SMU cut that in half, including Jaron Pierre Jr. twice hitting consecutive 3s while scoring 25 of his 27 points after the break.
“I felt like we started the game very sluggish, and for me, I can always tell with the rebounding. ... They were just kicking our butts on the glass, and then we kind of settled in the game,” Lucas said. “But for me and for us as a program, this is something we have to get comfortable in, and be comfortable with, because that is the goal. The goal is to be ranked, and the goal is be in the top half of the ACC, and be fighting for double-byes. ... You want them to be comfortable in these moments.”
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