Coach Jim Larranaga headlines University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame class for 2023

No coach has accomplished more for the Miami Hurricanes’ men’s basketball program than Jim Larranaga.

Now the greatest basketball coach in program history is going into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame as the headliner of the 2023 class.

Larranaga, 73, set the Hurricanes’ all-time wins record last season and led them on their deepest ever run in the NCAA Tournament. He also took Miami to the Sweet 16 in 2013 and 2016, meaning he has been responsible for half of all the Hurricanes’ Sweet 16 runs in just a little more than a decade in Coral Gables.

The other inductees for the 2023 UM Sports Hall of Fame class are Kevin Brown (baseball 1998-2001), Lela Cannon (golf coach 1984-2010), David Gil (baseball 1997-2000), Aaron Moser (track and field 1996-2000), Doris Glenn Easterly-Richards (diving 1994-1998), Riquana Williams (basketball 2008-2012).

Football will be represented by former tight end Willie Smith (1984-1985) and former kicker Todd Sievers (1998, 2000-2002), with longtime popular head trainer Vinny Scavo — assistant athletic director/athletic training 1983-1987, 2008-present) — also being inducted.

Larranaga’s 226 wins at Miami are six more than former coach Bruce Hale. Of his 696 career wins, 668 have come at the Division I level, placing him in a tie 29th in history and ninth among active coaches.

This upcoming season will be his 12th at Miami.

Larranaga began his coaching as an assistant for the Davidson Wildcats in the 1970s, and worked as the coach at Division II American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts, and an assistant coach for the Virginia Cavaliers before getting his first D-I job with the Bowling Green Falcons in 1986. He spent 11 years at Bowling Green, leading the Falcons to the National Invitational Tournament three times and a Mid-American Conference regular-season championship in 1997 before jumping to George Mason 1997.

With the Patriots, Larranaga became an icon, leading George Mason to four Tournaments and, most famously, the Final Four in 2006. The Patriots were a No. 11 seed in the 2006 NCAA Tournament and upset the Michigan State Spartans, North Carolina Tar Heels, Wichita State Shockers and UConn Huskies to reach the Final Four.

At the time, George Mason was only the second No. 11 seed to make the Final Four and the only previous No. 11 seed to make it there was the LSU Tigers — a power program, unlike the mid-major Patriots. George Mason is still tied for the lowest-seeded team to reach the Final Four — one of just five No. 11 seeds to make it.

Larranaga won the Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award in 2006 and spent five more seasons in Fairfax, Virginia, before the Hurricanes hired him away in 2011. He quickly revitalized Miami, leading the Hurricanes to their first Atlantic Coast Conference championship in his second season and guiding them to the Sweet 16 for only the fourth time in program history. He won the Henry Iba Award and Adolph Rupp Cup, and AP College Coach of the Year and Naismith College Coach of the Year awards for his performance in 2013.

It started off the best decade in Miami history, with four trips to the NCAA Tourney, three runs to the Sweet 16 and the first-ever Elite Eight last year.

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Now in his second decade in South Florida, Larranaga is in position to sustain it. The Hurricanes just missed a spot in the preseason AP Top 25 on Monday — they’re receiving the third most votes of unranked teams, effectively making them No. 28 — and, with star guard Isaiah Wong back for his senior season, expect to make the Tourney for the second straight season.

With one more trip to March Madness, Larranaga will be responsible of half of all Tournament appearances in Miami history.

The Hurricanes open the 2022-23 college basketball season against the Lafayette Leopards next month at the Watsco Center.