The ACC lost yet another longtime men’s basketball coach on Thursday amid reports that Miami’s Jim Larrañaga would step down effective immediately.
Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald first reported the stunning news, writing that an announcement should come that same afternoon.
“The Hurricanes play at Boston College on New Year’s Day,” Kaufman concluded. “They will have a new coach.”
Larrañaga took over the Miami program in 2011-12, just five years after he led George Mason to the Final Four. He won the regular-season conference title in his second season with the Hurricanes after a 15-3 run through the ACC, and Miami split that same honor with Virginia just two years ago.
Larrañaga reached the Final Four once again in that latter season, just one year after he and his team went to the Elite Eight. Between 2021-22 and 2022-23, the Hurricanes compiled a 55-19 record with seven NCAA Tournament victories. The final game in that run came just 19 months ago.
In the season-and-a-half since, the Hurricanes have won 19 of their 44 games. Miami ended the 2023-24 campaign on a 10-game losing skid, and after three wins over Fairleigh Dickinson, Binghamton, and Coppin State to start this year, the Hurricanes have lost eight out of nine.
Larrañaga’s decision comes just weeks after longtime Virginia head coach Tony Bennett announced his surprising retirement shortly before the season began.
The Blue Devils play Miami twice this season, first a home game in Durham on January 14 before heading south for a road trip on February 25.