Jim Larranaga: At least 5 UM players plan to leave, roster turnover ‘very frustrating’

A year ago this week, a giddy University of Miami coach Jim Larranaga and his team embarked on a thrilling NCAA Tournament ride that culminated in the first Final Four in school history.

On Monday morning, the coach was in a more serious mood as he met with reporters at the Watsco Center, reviewed the injury-plagued Hurricanes’ disappointing 2023-24 season and lamented that they did not earn a visit to the tournament this year. UM finished in 14th place in the ACC with a 6-14 conference record and was 15-17 overall.

He also expressed frustration with the state of college basketball, where the trend is to bolt for the NBA or the transfer portal before coaches have a chance to develop promising players.

Larranaga revealed that all five of the players he has met with so far told him they plan to put their names in the NBA Draft or the transfer portal. He had more player meetings scheduled for this week and did not know how many planned to return. A year after celebrating a Final Four, he and his staff might have to start virtually from scratch next season.

Sophomores Christian Watson and AJ Casey made their intentions to transfer known over the weekend, freshman Michael Nwoko and junior Bensley Joseph also entered the portal on Monday, per 247Sports and on3.com.

Norchad Omier and Nijel Pack tested the NBA waters last spring, came back, and have not announced their plans for this year. Junior Wooga Poplar and freshman Kyshawn George might put their names in the NBA Draft.

“It’s a popular thing to put your name in the transfer portal; there are approximately 4,000 Division 1 players and there are going to be 2,000 in the portal, which means half the players in college basketball are looking for a new destination,” Larranaga said. “Does that make any sense to anybody? It doesn’t to me.”

He said young players want instant gratification and when they don’t get it, they go elsewhere, whereas in the past, athletes were more willing to be patient, work on their game and reap rewards as upperclassmen.

“When you recruit a young man, you have a picture of what he’s going to able to do during the course of his career, but the problem exists if it’s not immediate satisfaction, if they don’t play immediately. Then they get discouraged very, very quickly and their mind is not on getting better, it’s on `Where am I transferring to?’ and so you have a battle,” Larranaga said. “Because commitment means both feet in, not one foot in and one foot out.”

He said he learned over five decades of coaching that players tend to get better each year, as did Isaiah Wong, who was “an OK player as a freshman” and wound up a star on last year’s Final Four team and an NBA draft pick by the Indiana Pacers. He feels many of today’s players “give up on themselves” at one school and move before they have a chance to evolve.

“If these guys that are transferring were to stay and play next year, the year after, could they fall into that category [like Wong]? Yes, sure, but I can’t make those decisions for them,” Larranaga said. “There are so many voices in their ear with opinions. We always had parents with opinions, but now you have agents, AAU coaches, high school coaches, friends, roommates, guys they played high school ball with. And social media, oh my god. You have so many factors that determine a kid’s mind-set.”

He went on to say players who leave for greener pastures often don’t fare as well as they expected. “How many guys have transferred out of here and enjoyed greater success, either their team won more, or they became the star of the team like they envisioned when they left?” he asked. “Look at the four that transferred last year and tell me what you think.”

Anthony Walker averaged 5.1 points and 2.3 rebounds at Indiana this season. Favour Aire averaged .6 points and 1 rebound at Penn State. Danilo Jovanovich averaged 1.2 points and 1.1 rebounds at Louisville. Harlond Beverly made the biggest impact at his new school with 11.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists for Wichita State.

Several of Larranaga’s coaching peers have left the sport the past few years, partly because of the player turnover.

“A lot of the coaches have realized coaching is not as much fun,” he said, explaining that it is “very disappointing, very frustrating” to invest time and energy in a player for the player to then say “thanks, but I’m going to put my name in the portal.’ I think that’s why a lot of my friends in coaching just said there is no sense in doing this anymore because they’ve taken the joy out of it.”

But Larranaga still loves coaching and plans to continue.

Despite the obstacles, Larranaga remains optimistic for next season. UM has the sixth-ranked recruiting class (according to 247Sports) with McDonald’s All-American Jalil Bethea, Isaiah Johnson-Arigu and Austin Swartz. He and his staff will hit the transfer portal hard and try to get more size on the roster.

“I love coaching, love being around the players, I love practice,” he said. “Practice is my favorite time of the day, so I’m going to keep doing it until practice is no longer my favorite time of the day.”