Sources: Miami’s Larranaga in talks to step down

  • Jeff Borzello Close Jeff Borzello ESPN Personnel Author Basketball recruiting expert. Signed up with ESPN in 2014. Graduate of University of Delaware.Pete Thamel Close Pete Thamel Senior Citizen College Sports Insider College Football Elder Author for ESPN. Expert for College

    Gameday.Dec 26, 2024, 11:09 AM ET Miami and males’s basketball coach Jim Larranaga are in talks about him stepping down right away, sources confirmed to

ESPN on Thursday.Larranaga, who turned 75 in October, took over at Miami in 2011. In his 14 seasons at the helm, he led the Hurricanes to six NCAA tournaments and 4 Sweet 16 appearances– including a Last 4 run in 2023. Miami went 11-6 in NCAA competition games during Larranaga’s tenure and won two ACC regular-season championships.Veteran assistant Bill Courtney is anticipated to become the interim coach, per a source. In his 14 seasons at the helm, Jim Larranaga led Miami to 6 NCAA tournaments and 4 Sweet 16 looks– including a Last 4 run in 2023. Getty Images The 2022-23 season was the best in program history, as the Hurricanes won the ACC regular-season title and reached the program’s first Final 4– one year after going to the program’s very first Elite Eight. Miami earned a 5-seed in the NCAA tournament, but then knocked off No. 4 seed Indiana, No. 1 seed Houston and No. 2 seed Texas en route to the Final 4, where it lost to ultimate nationwide champ UConn.Since that Final 4 look, though, it has had a hard time. The Hurricanes got in last season ranked No. 13 in the preseason AP survey however missed out on the postseason entirely after going 15-17. They lost their last 10 games of the campaign.Miami is simply 4-8 this season, with losses in 8 of its previous 9 games, consisting of home defeats to Charleston Southern and Mount St. Mary’s.

Jalil Bethea, who became the program’s highest-ranked hire in almost 40 years when he committed in September 2023, has actually begun simply one game.Before taking over at Miami in 2011, Larranaga was the head coach at George Mason for 14 seasons. He directed the Patriots to a Final Four appearance in 2006 as a No. 11 seed– beating the similarity Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn along the way. He won four CAA regular-season championships and three conference competition titles at George Mason, making 5 trips to the NCAA tournament.The New York native also spent time as the head coach at Bowling Green and acted as an assistant coach at Davidson and Virginia, where he coached three-time national player of the year Ralph Sampson.Larranaga ends up being the sixth longtime ACC coach to step down because April 2021, following North Carolina’s Roy Williams, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Notre Dame’s Mike Brey, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim and Virginia’s Tony Bennett.The Miami Herald initially reported that Larranaga prepares to step down as early as Thursday.

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