Miami men’s basketball coach Jim Larrañaga’s time with the Hurricanes appears to be coming to an end.
According to the Miami Herald, Larrañaga, 75, is expected to resign and an announcement could come as early as Thursday afternoon. According to ESPN, the interim coach will be Bill Courtneya longtime assistant and former head coach at Cornell.
The Hurricanes are 4-8 so far this season, after going 15-17 during the 2023-24 season.
The downturn came after Miami made a surprising run to the Final Four in 2023. The Hurricanes went 29-8 and won the Midwest region as the No. 5 seed with wins over No. 1 seed Houston and No. 2 seed Texas. Miami fell to eventual national champion UConn in the Final Four. The 72-59 loss was UConn’s closest game in the entire NCAA Tournament that season.
Miami looked far from a Final Four team in the opening stages of the 2024-2025 season. The Hurricanes started the season 3-0 before losing seven straight games. Those losses include losses to Drake, VCU and Charleston Southern, along with losses to power conference teams like Arkansas, Clemson and No. 1 Tennessee. The Hurricanes broke the streak with a 94-75 win over Presbyterian, but entered their Christmas break with a 78-74 overtime loss to Mount St. Mary’s on December 21.
Miami blew a 10-point lead to the Mountaineers in the second half before being outscored 12-8 in overtime.
The 2023 Final Four appearance was the Hurricanes’ first in school history and came a season after Miami reached the Elite Eight as a No. 10 seed after defeating No. 2 Auburn in the second round of the tournament.
The old coach spent fourteen seasons at Miami. He came to the Hurricanes from George Mason. He spent 14 seasons at George Mason, followed by 11 seasons at Bowling Green.
Larrañaga was at the helm at George Mason when the Patriots made one of the most improbable Final Four runs in modern college basketball history in 2006. George Mason defeated three top-seven seeds before defeating No. 1 Connecticut in the Elite Eight. The Patriots lost to eventual national champion Florida 73-58 in the national semifinals.
George Mason made the NCAA Tournament five times during Larrañaga’s time with the team. Miami has also made five appearances in the NCAA Tournament during his tenure.
Overall, Larrañaga’s teams have a 716-483 record since his head coaching career began during the 1986-87 season. He has posted a winning record at all three schools and both George Mason and Miami have won more than 60% of their games under him.
When he officially steps down, Larrañaga will be the second ACC coach to leave the job before the calendar turns to 2025. Virginia’s Tony Bennett resigned in October, saying he was “no longer the best coach to lead this program in this current environment. .” Bennett’s Cavaliers won the 2019 national title a year after losing in the first round of the tournament as a No. 1 seed.
