Canes men’s basketball seeks to rebound vs. Nittany Lions in ACC/Big Ten Challenge
The University of Miami men’s basketball team, which went 1-2 against three tough opponents at the ESPN Events Invitational over Thanksgiving weekend, is back on the road against Penn State on Wednesday as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge (9:15 p.m., ESPNU).
Miami coaches learned a lot about their team at the tournament in Kissimmee during the weekend. The Hurricanes (4-3) were held to just one doubledigit scorer in a loss to tournament champion Dayton, which shot 57.9 percent from three-point range. They beat North Texas by six points and lost by 32 to top-10 Alabama.
Kam McGusty had an outstanding weekend with back-to-back doubledoubles — 18 points, 12 rebounds against North Texas and 21 points, 10 rebounds against Alabama. Through seven games, McGusty is averaging 17.6 points and 7.1 rebounds. His three double-doubles match his prior career total.
Isaiah Wong scored 42 points during the weekend.
“If we could bottle the defensive second half against North Texas and the first half against Alabama, we’d all be very happy with our defense,” UM associate head coach Chris Caputo said. “We’re still trying to find ourselves offensively, as a group, in terms of trying to continue to generate good shots. We’re doing a good job taking care of the ball and getting to the free-throw line.”
Three-point shooting has not matched expectations.
“We believe we’re a very good three-point shooting team from statistically in practice and from guys’ careers who just haven’t been able to either make or generate just enough good threes,” Caputo said. “That’s something we’ve got to continue to work on as the season goes on.”
Penn State is 4-2 under first-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry, a former Boston Celtics assistant who worked alongside Jay Larrañaga, the son of Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga. The Nittany Lions’ associate head coach is Adam Fisher, who worked at UM for eight
years.
Junior forward Seth Lundy and senior guard Sam Sessoms average 15.3 points per game for Penn State. Fifth-year senior
forward John Harrar chips in 9.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game, while senior guard Jalen Pickett ranks No. 18 among active Division I players with 491 career assists.
“They have a very strong starting five, guys that play a lot of minutes and have a lot of experience. They did very well in the tournament, losing to a good LSU team in overtime and then handling Oregon State pretty well, by 15,” Caputo said. “Tough, physical defensive team [and a] 3-point shooting team on offense. I think we’ve got to, again, be prepared to try to replicate those two halves defensively from Orlando for a game, if you want to win on the road.
“We enjoy those moments where you’re on a big stage, playing on national television and there are some bragging rights involved.”