Hurricanes on a nine-game losing streak heading into ACC tournament opener
It was a quieter sendoff this year as the University of Miami men’s basketball team headed to Washington, D.C., for the ACC tournament, which tips off Tuesday at the Capitol One Arena.
Last year the Hurricanes were the No. 1 seed and ranked No. 14 in the nation with a 24-6 record after clinching a share of the league championship. The marching band played, and a crowd of fans cheered as the Canes boarded their bus. The big question was whether the Hurricanes could match their 2022 Elite Eight run. They did even better, reaching the Final Four.
There was not as much fanfare for the start of this year’s postseason.
Heading into Tuesday’s firstround game against Boston College (7 p.m., ACC Network) the injury-plagued Hurricanes are the No. 14 seed with a 15-16 overall record and a 6-14 record in the ACC. Miami ended the regular season with nine losses in a row, including a pair of losses to Boston College and a season-ending road loss to Florida State.
The Eagles beat the Hurricanes 85-77 in Boston on Feb. 17 and 67-57 last week in Coral Gables. Both times, the Canes had no answers for the Eagles’ 7-foot, 23-year-old center, Quinten Post. He scored 23 points against UM in their first game and 19 in the second. Post helped BC to a 17-14 record,
8-12 in the ACC.
“He’s an NBA guy,” UM coach Jim Larrañaga said of
Post. “He probably won’t get drafted because he’s older, but he can shoot the three, he can post up, he’s got a great jump hook, he rebounds, and he knows how to play.”
Larrañaga is hopeful his team can stay healthy and make a tournament run.
“The regular season is a marathon. Now the ACC tournament is a sprint,” he said. “Survive and advance. Win and move on. Or lose and go home.
“So, everybody falls into that same situation. It’s a clean slate for everybody. Hopefully we’ll be healthy and play really, really well this week…try to cut down those nets.”
History is not in their favor. The lowest-seeded team ever to win the ACC tournament was No. 7 seed Virginia Tech in 2022.
Larrañaga said there was not much carry-over from the Final Four experience as this group of players tries to make an ACC tournament run.
“Last year was last year,” he said. “It was great fun. We got to the Final Four. We all got to experience something for the first time. It was exciting for the players, coaches, university, and community.
“But this year’s been very, very different. We’re disappointed that we were not able to play better, not able to stay healthy at all — so many of our starters missed key games.”
The Final Four team “was able to stay focused and healthy”, the coach said, with just two games missed by a starter all season. This season at least one starter has been missing from 13 games, he said. “That’s a big difference. Now we have to refocus all our energy on the ACC tournament.”
The winner Tuesday will play sixth-seeded Clemson (21-10, 11-9) on Wednesday (9:30 p.m., ESPN2/ESPNU) in Round 2.