Malik Reneau’s path back to Miami has hit a wall, and the Hurricanes are already looking like a team better served by what they have in house.
Reneau filed a lawsuit in an attempt to return to college basketball, but the Tenth Circuit granted the NCAA’s stay request, which blocked Judge Charlotte Sweeney’s nationwide injunction. The 23-year-old has still been seen around the Coral Gables campus, but Miami’s roster picture is pointing in a different direction.
The cleanest reason is simple: the Hurricanes need their younger core to keep growing. Shelton Henderson and Dante Allen are both returning sophomores who are expected to take on much bigger jobs.
Last season, they were behind Reneau, Tre Donaldson and Ernest Udeh Jr., learning from that group while building toward larger roles of their own. Now, both are projected full-time starters Jai Lucas can lean on.
Henderson, in particular, looks ready for the stage. The five-star recruit with first-round potential averaged 13.8 points on 56.7 percent shooting, 4.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.1 steals across 35 games, all starts, as a freshman.
In Miami’s two NCAA Tournament games, he was at his best. Against Purdue in the second round, Henderson posted 18 points on 81.8 percent shooting, grabbed eight rebounds and added four assists and two steals.
The talent is there. What he needs now is the runway.
Allen also gave the Hurricanes a steady lift late in the year. From Jan. 1 through the NCAA Tournament, he played 16 games and averaged 6.7 points on 47.7 percent shooting, along with 2.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists. He still has plenty of room to develop, but the late-season stretch showed enough to believe he can stretch the floor and chip in scoring.
Keeping those two on track matters, especially if Reneau’s return would cut into their minutes.
There’s also the question of how Reneau fit on the glass. He scored in bunches, but his rebounding came and went.
Udeh Jr. handled the main responsibility inside, and Reneau wasn’t always as forceful as Miami needed. He had nine games with at least 10 rebounds, but also 12 games with five or fewer.
Then there’s the playmaking issue. Reneau was Miami’s primary scorer last season, but when defenses sent extra attention his way, the offense didn’t always have a clean answer.
He wasn’t the kind of forward who could consistently create for others or organize an attack around his passing. Reneau had six games without an assist, and his single-game high was five.
Miami’s frontcourt is crowded already. The Hurricanes brought in eight transfers, two high school recruits and one international prospect, and eight of those additions are frontcourt players. A Reneau return would only make that logjam tighter, and those newcomers came to “The U” expecting a real shot at minutes.
Reneau mattered in Jai Lucas’ first year guiding the program, but Miami may be wiser to move forward with the roster it has assembled and let the next group take shape.
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Saban also used the conversation to return to a familiar point about conference strength, expressing skepticism about how the ACC stacks up against the SEC and pointing to the difference in the number of top 25 teams. For Miami, the endorsement matters because it comes from one of the sports most successful voices and because Cristobals pitch has already translated into on-field progress. The bigger question now is how far that recruiting edge can carry the Hurricanes as they try to turn recent gains into something even more lasting. [Read more 🡒]