Miami’s Larranaga finds path to success
Coach incorporates midmajor tactics, thrusts Hurricanes onto basketball map
Billy Donovan once gave simple advice to an in-state rival.
It was 2011, and Jim Larranaga had just been hired as the new men’s basketball coach at Miami (Fla.). Donovan’s Florida team was coming off an Elite Eight finish in the NCAA tournament.
Hurricanes assistant Chris Caputo recalls a conversation with Donovan upon their arrival in South Florida. “He said, ‘You’re going to have to find a way to develop a home-court environment in the state of Florida. And sometimes it’s difficult,’ ” said Caputo, who has been on Larranaga’s staff since his time at George Mason. “But this year we’ve really been able to do a great job with it.”
This season, Miami (25-7) sold all of its season tickets at 8,000seat BankUnited Center for the first time. The Hurricanes went 19-1 at home, and five of their wins were against top 25 teams.
“Ten years ago, no one would have imagined we’d sell out every game at the BankUnited Center,” Miami athletics director Blake James said. “Probably four years ago, five years ago no one would have imagined it.”
Now, as the Hurricanes spend the rest of the season away from home, they take with them something crucial: an identity.
Miami is not Duke. Miami is not North Carolina. Miami is not Virginia or Syracuse or Louisville. But since Larranaga has been in charge, the Hurricanes — a program with little basketball history or cachet — have a winning record against the Blue Devils (4-2) and a split series vs. the Tar Heels (4-4). In 2013, Miami won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Before Larranaga arrived, the Hurricanes had never had a winning record in the ACC.
Since that ACC title season of 2013, the financial support for the program has increased exponentially. Aside from ticket sales, Miami has received donations and capital gifts from $250,000 to $1 million, James said.
“Carolina, Duke, Louisville, they get those gifts all the time, I get that,” James said. “Those were big (for us).”
But how has a relative ACC newcomer — Miami joined the league in 2004 — been able to not just win big but do so consistently? By using a midmajor formula. “As great as this league is, the reality is you’re going to have guys leave,” Caputo said. “Typically the guys in the (NBA draft’s) first round are underclassmen, and I don’t know the exact numbers, but 15 to 20 guys over the last five to seven years are out of the ACC. We’ve found a way to be older.”
Transfers have helped. Three are starters on the current Miami team: Sheldon McClellan (Texas), Kamari Murphy (Oklahoma State) and Angel Rodriguez (Kansas State), who sat out a year in residence before becoming eligible this season.
“If you can, find a way to be older and maintain some continuity in your roster when some other teams in the league don’t have continuity in their roster,” Caputo said.
A knock on Miami in the past, Caputo says, was its location. It had great weather going for it, but its location at the southern tip of Florida was too far from home for some prospects.
But Caputo thinks older players are mature enough that either they don’t go home that much or they understand a two-hour drive is the same thing as a two-hour plane ride.
“So whereas at 18 they may not be as interested, at 20, 21, when they transfer, we become maybe more appealing,” Caputo said.
There’s starting to be a trickledown effect to high school players, too. Miami has three fourstar recruits among its 2016 class.
The other part of the success, of course, is Larranaga. He’s the reason many players come to Miami.
The 66-year-old New York native dances in the locker room and is a proven commodity with a .600 career winning percentage that includes a 2006 Final Four run with George Mason.
“You’ve got to give all credit to Jim. Jim is a pro,” James said. “We talk on a regular basis about things he might need for the program, and usually I try to say yes. I think what he would say if you asked him is we’ve been able to do the little things that have helped him be able to continue to grow the program.”
Those little things include charter flights to away games and recruiting visits — something that didn’t used to happen for this basketball program — and upgrades to facilities.
“This is a business where the bar is constantly being raised and obviously we’re going against some of the best programs in the country,” James said. “So us being the new kid on the block in a lot of ways, it was important for us to elevate our game — not only on the court but away from the court.”