MIAMI — Jai Lucas kept his emotions in check all season as he rebuilt a University of Miami men’s basketball program that had fallen to the ACC basement a few years after its historic Final Four run.

But Sunday afternoon, in the bowels of the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, his players in tears after a hard-fought loss to Purdue in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Lucas’ eyes welled up and his voice cracked as he reflected on his first season as a head coach.

He thanked his players, “for believing in me, believing in a person who had never coached before, and everything they gave me this year, I’m forever in debt to them.”

He thanked his staff.

He thanked the university administration and the fans.

“I felt like this could be a special place, and that’s why when the job opened up, I did everything I could to get involved,” said Lucas, who left his position as Duke associate head coach to take over the Hurricanes’ program at age 36. “It’s the people that make the places. We had great people in the building with the players in that locker room; that made my job easy. We really have built a great foundation.”

That they did. The Hurricanes improved from 7-24 last season to 26-9, tying an NCAA record for Division I turnarounds. They went from last place in the Atlantic Coast Conference to third, and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament, where they trailed No. 2 seed Purdue by just four points with less than minute to go.

“Now it’s my job to keep it going and keep it rolling, so next year we’re talking about going to the Sweet 16, not just the season ended,” Lucas said. “That’s the goal, that’s the plan, until you win national championships.”

The Hurricanes will lose seniors Malik Reneau, Tre Donaldson and Ernest Udeh, Jr., the experienced backbones on which Lucas built this team.

The 10 other players on the roster are eligible to return, including junior Tru Washington and freshmen Shelton Henderson and Dante Allen, all of whom played major roles this season.

Henderson had a spectacular game against Purdue with a team-high 18 points on 9-of-11 shooting with eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block.

Purdue coach Matt Painter raved about Henderson after the game, calling him “a stud,” “an NBA player,” and “fabulous.” He joked (or half-joked) that Henderson “could play for the football team and the basketball team,” which is why Painter said he switched some matchups against UM because he didn’t want certain players to have to deal with Henderson’s physicality.

Lucas has a long history with Henderson, which is why the five-star recruit decommitted from Duke to follow Lucas to Miami. He attended Bellaire High School in Houston, Lucas’ alma mater, and has close ties with Lucas’ family.

Lucas is hopeful that Henderson and Allen, a Miami native whose father is Miami Heat assistant coach Malik Allen, will stick around for his sophomore season. Allen, known as a “connector” who makes his teammates better with his decision-making, and Washington, a tenacious defender with a nice shooting touch, were major contributors.

“Malik, Ernest and Tre set the foundation of what this culture is, what this work should look like,” Lucas said. “And then, for these younger guys like Dante and Shelton, my goal and my plan is for them to carry it on and hold it up. That’s how you become a real good team and real good program.”

He cited Purdue as an example. Three of their five starters are seniors who have spent their entire careers with the Boilermakers.

“They have [Fletcher] Loyer, [Braden] Smith, [Trey] Kaufman-Renn; those guys have been there for three and four years,” Lucas said. “It’s hard to build a program when you’re bringing in so much new. So, just having some continuity within the team is important to me. With Shelton and Dante being freshman, hopefully they can carry it on.”

Miami also landed five-star recruit and Florida Gatorade Player of the Year Caleb Gaskins, a 6-8 power forward from Miami’s Columbus High, which produced Duke’s Boozer twins, Cameron and Cayden. His former coach at Columbus, Andrew Moran, is on Lucas’ UM staff.

On Saturday, Gaskins scored 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Columbus to this year’s Throne national championship after beating Long Island (NY) Lutheran (LuHi), 66-55 in the final in East Rutherford, N.J.

Henderson, Washington, Allen and Gaskins would provide a strong nucleus for the 2026-27 team, along with the other returning players and whoever Lucas can get from the transfer portal.

Painter praised what Lucas did in his debut season, stressing how difficult it is and what challenges lie ahead.

“So, you have those connections, and that’s what helps us all, right? Having those connections and being able to get some of those guys to stay home, get some of those guys to follow him,” Painter said. “And that’s what you want to be able to do.

“The issue is if you have to do it every single year…being able to keep those guys. It used to be a seven or eight-man nucleus. Now you’re just trying to have, like, a three, four, five-man nucleus. So now when you go into year two, now you have that nucleus to build from. The guys that amaze me the most are the guys that can turn it over every year and still be damn good. That is really hard to do.”

Year 2 of the Lucas Era begins today.

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