Twitter Gold: Jai Lucas With His Team After Miami Lost To Purdue In The NCAA Tournament
A sad but ultimately positive video of Miami’s locker room after losing to Purdue ee
ST LOUIS, MISSOURI - MARCH 20: Head coach Jai Lucas of the Miami Hurricanes celebrates with his team after beating the Missouri Tigers during the first round of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament held at Enterprise Center on March 20, 2026 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) | NCAA Photos via Getty Images For people who pay attention to such things, Jai Lucas has been on the radar for some time. People have said for a long time that he has that hard-to-define “It” quality.
We sort of caught on when we saw him seriously coaching at a Coach K Fantasy Camp game. Everyone else was relaxed, but Lucas was seriously coaching. It was pretty cool to watch.
People got a better idea about him at Duke, where he was an ace recruiter and also did great work with Duke’s defense. And then he got the job at Miami, where, in his first season, he finished third in the ACC, and then gave #2 seed Purdue all it wanted in the NCAA Tournament. And that’s all most of us saw – until now.
This is video of Lucas in the locker room with his team after the loss to Purdue. He understandably gets emotional, and you hear guys crying throughout. But listen to how he addresses his team, and, just as importantly, how obvious it is that they respect him.