Livescore
Miami men’s basketball coach Jim Larranaga is stepping down from his role as head coach amid the Hurricanes’ worst start to a season in more than three decades, the school announced on Thursday. Larranaga, 75, is less than two years removed from coaching Miami to its first-ever Final Four appearance but has the team off to a 4-8 start after a 15-17 season last year. Associate head coach Bill Courtney has been tabbed to take over the team in an interim role.
The Hurricanes lost to Mount St. Mary’s in overtime last week, dooming it to a 4-18 record in their last 22 games dating back to last season. The 2023-24 season crashed and burned with 10 consecutive losses to end the season, prompting an offseason roster overhaul that has seemingly only made matters worse.
“After more than fifty years in college coaching, it is simply time,” Larranaga said in a statement. “There is never a great moment to step away, but I owe it to our student-athletes, our staff and the University of Miami to make this move now when my heart is simply no longer in the game and I owe it to Liz, Jay, Jon, and my grandchildren to be a greater part of their lives. The University needs a new leader of the program, one who is both adept at and embracing of the new world of intercollegiate athletics. It has been the honor of a lifetime to be a part of the Hurricane Family and to represent this world-class institution. Most importantly, I have been so blessed to have coached the hundreds of young men who chose to wear the UM jersey and who have gone on to flourish in their respective journeys. I will always be a Cane.”
Larranaga is the winningest coach in program history and in the midst of his 14th season coaching Miami, where he has accrued a 274-174 overall record. His head-coaching resume dates back to the 1980s where he first became head coach at Bowling Green.
“It is hard to fully articulate just what Jim Larrañaga has meant to the University of Miami,” Miami president Joe Echevarria said. “His contributions go well beyond the wins, the championships and the Final Four run in 2023. He has elevated our athletics program and increased the visibility of our institution by championing our educational mission. Perhaps most importantly, he has recruited tremendous young men to Coral Gables who earned their degrees and who impacted the community, and we are grateful for his service. As a University, we will honor his legacy by continuing to invest in our men’s basketball program and by pursuing a new leader of our program who will take us to unprecedented heights. With a world-class institution, incredible fans and a commitment to championships, I am confident in what comes next.”
After leaving Bowling Green in 1997, Larranaga became the head coach at George Mason where he later famously led the Patriots to a magical Final Four run in 2006 in one of the most memorable Cinderella runs in March Madness history.
He was hired as Miami’s coach in 2011 and continued his run of historic accomplishments, leading the Hurricanes to four second-round appearances, their first-ever Elite Eight appearances in 2022 and 2023 and a Final Four in 2023.
Across more than three decades of head coaching experience at the college level, Larranaga will step aside in a move that will likely end his head coaching career with 716 wins to 483 losses. He had winning records at each of his four college stops, which includes a stint in the 1970s with American International, and finishes with a winning percentage just shy of 60%.
The move also will mark just the latest major coaching move in the ACC following in the footsteps of Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim, Mike Brey and Tony Bennett, who all retired the last three years.
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