Jai Lucas has been working exhausting this offseason, and now he has made his largest splash of the recruiting cycle up to now. Shelton Henderson, the nation’s second-best small ahead, in line with 247Sports, has flipped to the Hurricanes after out of the blue decommitting from Duke final Thursday.
The Texas native selected the ‘Canes over each Texas and Texas A&M, amongst different colleges. Henderson signed his letter of intent in November to Duke after being recruited by Jai Lucas, who additionally attended Bellaire Excessive College in Texas. Now he’ll observe him to Miami.
Henderson, the most effective participant from the Longhorn State, has all of the bodily instruments to be an elite participant on the subsequent degree. 247Sports Director of Scouting Adam Finkelstein had this to say in a July 2024 analysis of Henderson:
“He performs an attacking model, getting downhill, absorbing contact on his technique to the rim, and sustaining the road of his drive by congestion. He’s so bodily imposing that he doesn’t at all times get sufficient credit score for his really feel for the sport…can actually change the sport on the defensive finish of the ground the place his size, physicality, and motor are all main property.”
Although not an ideal shooter, he does match the invoice of most of Lucas’ class. Main with sturdy effort, physicality and protection, he’ll match proper in each stylistically and culturally for Lucas’ program.
It has been an eventful offseason for Lucas, who has been at work to rework this roster present process a whole lot of turnover. Between underclassmen like Jalil Bethea transferring out after a disappointing 12 months and dropping their total highschool recruiting class following the departure of Jim Larrañaga, the way forward for this system seemed murky. Now, with Jai Lucas on the helm, Miami now boasts a top-20 recruiting class, in line with 247Sports.