March 21, 2026, 2:16 a.m. ET
- Miami defeated Missouri 80-66 within the first spherical of the NCAA Tournament, tying a Division I report for the most important single-season turnaround.
- First-year head coach Jai Lucas rebuilt the roster, specializing in gamers from Florida to instill a way of state satisfaction.
- Veteran gamers, together with Malik Reneau and Tre Donaldson, led the staff with a mixed 41 factors.
- Miami’s 19-2 benefit in second-chance factors and a late 11-0 run have been important to securing the victory.
ST. LOUIS — Friday felt, Jai Lucas mentioned, tinged with the identical “anxious excitement” he felt the primary time he performed within the NCAA Tournament.
The butterflies, the nervous power. Miami’s first-year coach felt all of it once more, simply by means of a special lens.
“Same type of feeling,” he mentioned. “It was a neutral (site) but it really was a road game, so it made it even more exciting.
“It’s something that we’ve thrived in all year.”
Thrived. An acceptable phrase. It’s what Miami’s been doing since Lucas took over as head coach final spring and — after affecting what was basically a complete program rebuild — started essentially the most dramatic turnaround in school basketball this season.
Friday’s nightcap 80-66 win in opposition to No. 10-seeded Missouri moved the Hurricanes to 26-8, tying a Division I report for the most important single-season swing in win-loss differential. Miami now has gained 19 extra video games than it did a season in the past, and the credit score, its gamers say proudly, begins with their head coach.
“We’ve got,” main scorer Malik Reneau mentioned, “the utmost trust for coach.”
Centered on the Sunshine State
It was not misplaced on Ernest Udeh, the 6-foot-11 TCU switch from Orlando, that as Lucas pulled collectively his first roster in Coral Gables, he began with Florida gamers.
A Texas native, Lucas got here to Miami from Jon Scheyer’s employees at Duke. He began his personal roster construct with in-state gamers who spoke and walked with satisfaction on the concept of representing their dwelling state.
“It’s no secret that most of us (are) from Florida,” Udeh mentioned of the veteran core underpinning the Hurricanes’ success this season. “Everybody else that came in, we kind of built a culture around just letting other guys feel welcome, understanding that they are welcome.
“They play for Miami. This is their home now.”
Shoulder to shoulder with Udeh are fellow Sunshine State natives Reneau (Miami) and Tre Donaldson (Tallahassee), veterans who put on Lucas’ name for toughness as staff identification proudly.
They completed Friday evening with their affect throughout No. 7 Miami’s first-round win.
Veterans reinforce Miami’s identification
Udeh and Reneau type one of the crucial versatile frontcourts within the nation, one an elite rim protector finisher and the opposite extra versatile offensively than at another level in his profession.
It confirmed up within the type of 10 rebounds from Udeh — on an evening when Miami’s 19-2 benefit in second-chance factors made an amazing distinction — and 19 second-half factors from Reneau, the Indiana switch delivering lots of the recreation’s greatest buckets down the stretch in entrance of a rowdy pro-Missouri crowd.
“Just calming down,” Reneau mentioned, when requested what turned his night on. “Everybody telling me to be patient and letting the game come to you.”
The Tigers (20-13) rode their scorching hand after they came upon, Jayden Stone’s 21 factors his most in a single recreation in roughly six weeks
And Miami needed to make peace with Mark Mitchell’s 19.
Lucas helped recruit Mitchell at Duke and coached the Kansas City native there. He knew there was no shutting down Mitchell, simply making life as troublesome as potential.
“The way Stone started shooting the ball made it tougher,” Lucas mentioned. “But we never wanted (Mitchell) to be able to take more than two dribbles and not see somebody.”
For all that particular person success, no quantity informed the story of Friday’s recreation just like the almost 34 minutes Miami led — even by means of a turgid offensive first half and a few spotty free-throw capturing, the Hurricanes have been all the time Friday’s seemingly winner.
They obtained there ultimately, because of contributions from freshmen Shelton Henderson (15 factors, six rebounds, 4 assists) and Dante Allen (9 factors off the bench).
But it was becoming that these veterans round which Lucas common his first roster at Miami completed the night off.
Seniors ship Missouri dwelling
Donaldson scored 17 factors to enhance Reneau’s game-high 24. During the successful minutes contained in the second half’s last media timeout, throughout a stretch that determined the sport, that pair mixed to attain 16 of their staff’s 18 factors.
None larger than Donaldson’s end-of-clock 3-pointer simply inside 90 seconds to go, a again breaker that put Miami up 12. As he watched his final make fall, Donaldson turned in celebration, throwing three fingers synonymous with the sort of shot he’d simply made.
And the bench that Lucas assembled and became an prompt winner erupted another time, whereas a mob of black and gold behind them started submitting towards the exits. Missouri, followers realized, was about to develop into the most recent sufferer of one in every of school basketball’s finest tales this season.
All of it, beginning with the 37-year-old Lucas, the staff he constructed and the arrogance he infused it with.
“Just how relatable he is,” Donaldson, requested about his coach’s strengths, mentioned. “That gives us as a team the ability to be that close to our coach. It’s easy for us as a team and players to come together, and just understand why we’re all here.”
In the field rating, sure, Friday manifested a number of what Lucas has preached since Day 1.
Rebounding as an avatar for toughness. Veteran management as a cornerstone of a roster infused with satisfaction as a substitute and its function.
Strength within the face of adversity. Poise within the face of doubt.
Missouri examined that mettle Friday, hanging round as Miami missed free throws and Stone made 3s. The Tigers even grabbed a single-possession benefit as late because the under-8 timeout within the second half, 54-52.
Miami responded with an 11-0 run, leaving little question on the scoreboard or on the ground simply who could be more durable Friday evening.
Udeh noticed it type in summer time exercises, from particular person drills all the best way to 5-on-5 work. Nights like Friday, and wins like these, aren’t any shock to him now.
“When you bring a group of guys together who know how to compete and just want to push to make each other better, that’s already a sign you’ve got a great group,” he mentioned. “Us winning these games, these gritty games, where a team goes on a run, to the outside crowd, it may look like things are getting out of hand.
“But between us and our locker room, we understand what it is — just stay poised, stay together. Everything that we’ve worked on from the summer is just on display now.”
Hurricanes ‘combat’ for Lucas, as Sweet 16 approaches
It will have to be once more Sunday afternoon, when Miami performs No. 2 seed Purdue for a spot within the Sweet 16.
Miami, which gained seven video games final season, now stands only one away from the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. There has been no extra dramatic, extra spectacular reversal of fortunes within the sport this winter, and there needs to be no query as to the place it began.
Or, extra precisely, who began it.
“We’re just fighting for our lives,” Reneau mentioned. “We go out there and we fight for coach, every time we step on the court.”
