It’s an early-season shocker in the college basketball world as Miami men’s basketball head coach Jim Larranaga has stepped down from his position.
Assistant Bill Courtney, the former Cornell head coach, will serve as Miami’s interim coach for the remainder of the season.
“There is never a great moment to step away, but I owe it to our student-athletes, our staff, and the University of Miami to make this move now when my heart is simply no longer in the game,” Larranaga said in a statement Thursday.
Larranaga leaves Miami after guiding the school to a shocking Final Four appearance just two seasons ago.
The 75-year-old also led George Mason to a Cinderella Final Four berth in 2006 as a No. 11 seed.
The Hurricanes are struggling to begin the 2024-25 season with a 4-8 record and have lost 18 of their past 22 games dating back to last year.
Miami attempted to overhaul the roster going into this season after losing 10 straight to close last season, bringing in 10 new faces, but that clearly hasn’t solved its issues.
Larranaga was on quite the run before things began unraveling in Coral Gables the past two seasons.
He led the Hurricanes to an Elite Eight appearance in 2022 and a Final Four in 2023. He posted a 274-174 record in his 14 seasons as the winningest basketball coach in school history.
Larranaga appeared particularly dejected on the sidelines after Miami lost to Mount St. Mary’s in overtime Dec. 21.
“We have the same issues since the start of the season, and that’s defense and rebounding,” Larranaga said, via 247Sports. “We’ve improved our rebounding a little bit and one of the reasons you can see the improvement is our guards, who really have not shown the competency to rebound. We ended up with 13 rebounds from our guards. … That’s the whole key, to get a total team effort, and I wish we could do that defensively.
“We’re right now ranked [21st] in the country in offensive efficiency, and you would never know that watching us play because we give up so many points and second-chance points, and the defense is — as much as we worked on it and I try to improve it — it’s been very, very challenging and frustrating for both the coaches and the players.”
Larranaga, a Bronx native who played for Archbishop Molloy HS, became part of March Madness lore in 2006 when he led George Mason to the Final Four, shocking UConn in the Elite Eight in one of college basketball’s biggest upsets.
He’s also coached at Bowling Green and American International.
