CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The Miami Hurricane men’s basketball team is in trouble. Head coach Jim Larranga’s retirement has left many questioning who will be the next head coach.
There are a few names already being thrown around for who to follow in the footsteps of Larranaga but there is still a stretch of the season left to be played. Interim head coach Bill Courtney will try to turn around the program for the time being but these are the names that should be apart of the newest coaching cycle.
A familiar name and face as the current Drake head coach has already played the Miami Hurricanes this season in the Charleston Classic where he led his team to win the tournament and now has a 12-3 record leading one of the best teams in the mid-majors.
He can recruit talent that many might not be able to see and with the NIL that the Hurricanes could provide, his time of possession style of offense, and the talent that he can recruit, he could be the one to shock the system of the ACC.
Before coaching the Bulldogs, McCollum spent the past 15 seasons as the head coach at NCAA Division II power Northwest Missouri State University where he won four national championships (2017, 2019, 2021, 2022) including three tournaments in a row (the 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled due to COVID-19).
McCollum finished with a record of 394-91 (81.2 win percentage) at Northwest Missouri State and earned five NABC Division II National Coach of the Year awards, the most for a single coach in Division II history. McCollum also garnered nine Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) Coach of the Year awards and was a 2024 Missouri Sports Hall of Fame inductee.
A familiar and welcoming face in the former Miami’s Associate Head Coach. Caputo has had experience and youth that could bring what the Hurricanes have been missing for quite some time. A chip off the old block as he is a skilled scout, recruiter, and Xs and Os tactician who served as the team’s defensive coordinator (which they desperately need now) he helped coach the Hurricanes to seven postseason berths, five NCAA appearances, three Sweet 16s, and the Elite Eight.
Miami was ranked as high as No. 2 in the national polls during his tenure, while numerous coaching peers and outlets have identified him as a premier assistant and soon-to-be head coaching star, highlighted by a CBS Sports poll of 100-plus college coaches who ranked Caputo as one of the three assistants in the nation most likely to someday become a coaching star. He has at George Washinton and could be even bigger with a return to Coral Gables.
One of the bigger names in the coaching market will be Miller. The tenured head coach has the same type of resume as Larranaga just without the accolades. With a record currently sitting at 9-6, his second stint with the Musketeers has not been as smooth as many would have hoped when he returned to the program after the 2021 season.
Miller is a four-time conference Coach of the Year who has made the NCAA Tournament 12 times – five times at Xavier and seven at Arizona. At Arizona, he gathered a 302-109 record but was often seen as quick outs in the NCAA Tournament. The long-time head coach is coming off a disappointing 2023-24 season where his team, battered by injuries, finished below .500 for the first time in his 20-year career.
Yes, 20 years.
