Jai Lucas was in the final moments of preparation for one of Duke’s biggest games of the 2045–25 season when the news started to trickle out.
As associate head coach for the nation’s best team, Lucas seemed primed to make the jump to his own program soon. And a job like Miami, a place that had been to the Final Four just two years before and where he could recruit at an elite level, would be impossible not to be excited about. But reports leaking out that Lucas was likely headed for Coral Gables, Fla., with his current team already on the Madison Square Garden floor warming up to play Illinois? That was less than ideal. Reporters scrambled to chase down Lucas’s agent (who was at the game) for more details; Duke head coach Jon Scheyer didn’t speak to specifics but endorsed Lucas’s candidacy for head coaching jobs postgame.
