Jim Larrañaga details big-name additions, hunger to make another Final Four

North Carolina’s Roy Williams coached his last game in 2021, and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski called it quits for good after Duke went to the Final Four in 2022. But Miami coach Jim Larrañaga, 72, has no plans to slow down yet. Larrañaga is fresh off leading the Hurricanes to a surprise Elite Eight run in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. Miami led Kansas 35-29 at the half, but the eventual national champions erupted in the second half to end Miami’s 26-win season just one step short of the Final Four.

“Yeah, it burns deeper now, no question in my mind,” Larrañaga said on the College Hoops Today podcast with Jon Rothstein. “When my staff and I arrived in Miami in 2011, our dream was to win the national championship. We saw what our football program has done with five national championships and what our baseball program has done with four national championships. We thought, ‘There’s no reason our men’s basketball can’t win one of those.’ We hope that this year or the next couple of years, we’ll have a chance to play for the national title.”

Miami has made moves to be a major ACC contender. The Hurricanes landed a top-25 recruiting class and a pair of prized talents out of the transfer portal in Kansas State sniper Nijel Pack and Arkansas State forward Norchad Omier. Couple that with the return of All-ACC guard Isaiah Wong and do-it-all wing Jordan Miller, and Larrañaga’s optimism is not misguided.

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Here’s everything Larrañaga said in the wide-ranging interview: