ACC TEAM PREVIEW #8 MIAMI HURRICANES

Miami enters this season with a new head coach for the first time in 14 years. They hired former Duke associate head coach Jai Lucas to replace the legendary Jim Larranaga. There's almost nowhere to go but up at this point for the program. Miami finished dead last in the conference last season with a 3-17 record in ACC play. That shouldn't be the case this season, as Miami went out and got one of the best transfer portal classes in the conference.

Projected Lineup

G Tre Donaldson (Michigan transfer)

G Tru Washington (New Mexico transfer)

F Shelton Henderson

F Malik Reneau (Indiana transfer)

C Ernest Udeh (TCU transfer)

It's a full-factory reset for this Miami program. This season's team should be led by two transfers out of the Big Ten Conference: Tre Donaldson from Michigan and Malik Reneau from Indiana. Donaldson was Michigan's starting point guard last season and put together a pretty nice season, starting all 37 games while averaging 11.3 points per game and 4.1 assists. Malik Reneau was a huge loss for Indiana this offseason. He averaged 13.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game for them last year. Reneau isn't a great shooter, but he's been one of the best post players in the Big Ten the last two seasons.

The supporting class should be pretty solid. Tru Washington comes over from New Mexico where he averaged 11.1 points per game. Ernest Udeh was TCU's starting center last season, and he averaged 6.6 points per game and 7.5 rebounds. Incoming freshman Shelton Henderson will be a big determinant of this team's success next season. He's ranked as the #26 freshman in the class by 247 Sports. The bench is very inexperienced. Miami has a total of 7 incoming freshmen in its 2026 class, including Henderson. This includes three international guys in Timotej Malovec, Salih Altuntas, and Noam Dovrat. They've also got two more four-star recruits in Dante Allen and Treyvon Maddox, along with three-star John Laboy.

It's tough to predict how good this Miami team will be next year. I think Reneau will have a nice season, and I like their backcourt tandem of Donaldson and Washington. But it's an entirely new team and a first-time head coach, so it's hard to see them finishing towards the top of the conference.

Prediction: 13th in ACC