He first stood courtside as boss in 1977, when he was 27 and coached a Division II school called American International College to an 82-68 win against the University of Massachusetts.
“Just to be clear, that was the University of Massachusetts in Boston,’’ Jim Larrañaga said, “not the University of Massachusetts that John Calipari coached.”
There were years before that when he played, and years before and after that when he was somebody’s assistant. But that marked his first win as a head coach. The stat sheet says 450 people attended the game.
“Probably our biggest crowd of the year,’’ he said.
No one has a road map to any of this, to where a career begins and eventually takes you, and so that young coach couldn’t see him staying on the sideline long enough to notch his 700th win on Saturday for the University of Miami 45 years later. Larrañaga knows what it all means, though.
“Honestly, when I started my coaching career in 1971 [as a Davidson assistant], I had a lot of friends who joined the coaching ranks during that period,’’ he said. “High school coaches. College coaches. NBA coaches. Friends who started in the business.
“Really what the 700 represents is the sustainability and longevity that I’ve been able to enjoy where a a lot of my peers retired or gave it up or were let go. I’m most proud I’ve been able to keep going as long as I have — to keep relevant.”
He’s 73 now. He doesn’t fish or golf or have any other hobby. The only interest he has beyond basketball is movies, and he’ll sprinkle scenes from “Kobra Kai” or “The Last Samurai” in his talks. Last year, in the NCAA Tournament, he delivered his team a line from “Braveheart,” the one where William Wallace says, “Are you ready for a war?”
Now it’s Monday afternoon and Larrañaga is stuck in a Connecticut hotel due to flight issues after a long weekend. There was his milestone win Saturday against Providence, the school he starred as a player and was inducted into its Hall of Fame. He wanted to talk about Sunday’s loss to Maryland just as much.
“One day you win, the next day you lose, that shows the ups and downs of life you better be ready to handle,’’ he said. “If all I ever did was teach players to dribble, pass and shoot my life would not be worthwhile.
“My job is to help kids when they’re done with college and with basketball to compete in what everyone refers to as the ‘real world.’ That competition lasts a long longer. You might play basketball into your 20s if you’re good, or for a select few into your 30s. For the rest it’s the real world.”
His Miami team doesn’t have any size, and Maryland had 18 more rebounds. That was the game.
“You could get rid of all the other statistics, and that one destroyed us,’’ he said. “We showed some rebounding statistics from practice. If you want to play more, rebound. They don’t see it that way. They look at scoring as the stat that matters. Rebounding matters on this team.”
This is how he’s been talking at the front of a room since those days at American International College. AIC, they call the school, though Larrañaga remembers joking its initials stood for “American Ice Company” or “Almost in College.”
Only 34 others coaches have reached 700 wins. Mike Krzyzewski, the retired Duke coach, texted congratulations. So did Cliff Ellis, one of Larrañaga’s coaching role models, and Bobby Cremins, who grew up in the Bronx with him before each began coaching.
Larrañaga just signed a contract extension with Miami and is asked how many wins he can get.
“No idea,’’ he said. “If I can keep being relevant, which I feel like our team is — it’s about our team — then I’m going to continue to challenge myself.”
As he talks, word comes it’s time to leave their hotel.
“I’ve got to run,’’ he said, and he’s off to the airport and win No. 701 that’s waiting out there.
