CORAL GABLES, Fla. – University of Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga was honored as a 2024 Joe Lapchick Character Award recipient Friday afternoon at an award luncheon in New York hosted by the Joe Lapchick Character Award Foundation.
The Joe Lapchick Character Award is presented annually to basketball figures from all levels who have demonstrated honorable character, much like the legendary Coach Joe Lapchick.
Larrañaga is one of four honorees at this year’s luncheon, alongside Fran Dunphy, Lon Kruger, and Dianne Nolan.
Larrañaga completed his 40th season as a head coach and 13th at Miami in 2023-24 and holds a 740-500 all-time head coaching record. He currently ranks first among active Division I head coaches in career games coached (1,240) and seventh among the same group in career victories (740).
The winningest coach in program history, Larrañaga has posted five 25-win seasons at UM – the only Miami coach to do so even once – and seven in his career. He has also recorded eight 20-win campaigns at Miami and coached the program to four of its five Sweet 16s, its Elite Eight trips, its first Final Four, its ACC regular season titles, and its first ACC Tournament crown.
Larrañaga has been named the Associated Press, Naismith, USBWA, and Henry Iba National Coach of the Year, twice the ACC and USBWA District Coach of the Year, and the 2013 NABC District Coach of the Year.
In 2023, Larrañaga was inducted into the UM Sports Hall of Fame & Museum and named a first-time nominee for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Past recipients of the Joe Lapchick Character Award include Leonard Hamilton, Nancy Lieberman, Jay Wright, Mike Krzyzewski, and Larrañaga’s high school basketball coach, Jack Curran.
More About the Joe Lapchick Character Award Foundation
The Joe Lapchick Character Award Foundation is committed to encouraging and promoting good character in basketball.
Each September, the foundation recognizes a group of iconic basketball figures from all levels of men’s and women’s basketball who have demonstrated honorable character throughout their careers, much like the legendary Coach Joe Lapchick.
Courtesy of Miami Athletics
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