Jim Larrañaga steps down at Miami, Bill Courtney takes over to finish season

The AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll is back every week throughout the season! “I’ve tried every which way to keep this going.” Larrañaga joins a long line of prominent college basketball coaches — Virginia’s Tony Bennett and Villanova’s Jay Wright among them — who have left their jobs in recent years citing the changes in the game and the challenge of coaching in the Name, Image and Likeness era of college sports. “And the answer is it’s become professional.” The decision by Larrañaga ends a 14-year run as coach of the Hurricanes — and, presumably, a 41-year college head-coaching career that saw him win 744 games at Miami, American International, George Mason and Bowling Green. I think I was equipped to do the job here the old way — that’s who I am and that’s how it was.” Larrañaga’s decision to step aside makes him the latest big-name veteran coach to leave the ACC in recent seasons, following the departures of some other giants within the sport — North Carolina’s Roy Williams in spring 2021, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski a year later and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim to end a 47-year tenure in 2023, and Bennett earlier this year. It’s also the second sudden retirement for Miami’s basketball programs in 2024: women’s coach Katie Meier surprised many around the Hurricanes when she stepped away this past spring after 19 seasons in Coral Gables.