CORAL GABLES — Jai Lucas had a clean slate when he arrived at Miami.

The first-year coach starting his head coaching career with the Hurricanes had the daunting task of building UM’s roster from the ground up. Not a single player from the 2024-25 team remains on the roster. But that gave Lucas the opportunity to build a roster from scratch, the way he wanted it.

“The way I built the team, I really wanted to … have great size,” Lucas said on Monday, the first day of preseason practice. “So we do have great size, great physicality. We should be able to be really good defensively and rebounding. And so the small things I felt that go into winning, I really wanted to attack that right away, especially this first year.”

Lucas imported his roster from a multitude of sources. He signed Shelt

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