Jon Scheyer shuts down rumors of Jai Lucas leaving Duke to take Miami job

In the transfer portal era, it's not just players who might jump from team to team. Indeed, rumors of Duke assistant coach Jai Lucas moving on have circulated. The scuttlebutt suggested that Lucas had already committed to leaving Duke to become the next head coach at Miami. But Duke coach Jon Scheyer laid waste to those rumors —or at least the timing of the rumors.

Scheyer denies immediate Jai Lucas to Miami takes

"Clearly this [rumor] wasn't thought out well enough. Jai and I-- he's one of my best friends in the world. Me and him are always going to be great. Me and him are always going to be able to navigate this. He's a terrific coach, a terrific person. But there's more that's involved than Jai and I.... Our thing is to really block it out and stay in the moment until anything becomes final, if and when that happens. But it's not ideal."

Jai Lucas history

Jai Lucas has grown up around basketball. His father, John, was an NBA player and coach. Jai played college basketball at Florida and Texas. He got into coaching soon after he retired from international basketball.

Lucas was an assistant at Texas from 2016 to 2020. He had a brief tenure at Kentucky, where he and Jon Scheyer went head-to-head in recruiting. When Scheyer was chosen to follow Mike Krzyzewski, he immediately hired Lucas at Duke.

Lucas is just 36 years old, but the only real item missing from his resume is a head coaching turn. It's interesting to note that Scheyer did not deny the substance of the Lucas rumors, but merely the timing. Given Lucas's prominence in Duke's recruiting effort, it's almost certain that the young star will get his head coaching shot. But not this second, clarified Scheyer.

Scheyer and Duke

Scheyer is 78-21 at Duke. it's a record that would be the envy of most coaches, but at Duke, the lengthy shadow of "Coach K" still lingers. Scheyer is still seeking his first Final Four at Duke after Coach K led the program there five times in the first 21 NCAA Tournaments of the 21st century.

Miami situation

Miami has struggled through a pair of down seasons, but it's easy to forget that 2022 and 2023 were the program's best NCAA Tournament showings ever. As a No. 10 seed in 2022, Jim Larranaga took the Hurricanes to the Elite Eight before Miami fell to No.1 seed Kansas. In 2023, Miami was a No. 5 seed and reached its first Final Four before falling to UConn.

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