’Canes now a force in hoops under Larrañaga
DALLAS — When Jim Larrañaga took the job as head basketball coach at Miami in 2011, they told him he was essentially wasting his time.
“Yeah, when my staff and I arrived in 2011, there were three things that everybody said we wouldn’t be able to do,” Larrañaga said. “No. 1, we’d never be able to beat Carolina or Duke; No. 2, we’d never win an ACC regular-season or tournament championship; and No. 3, we’d never be able to draw consistently good crowds to our home arena because people didn’t have that much interest in basketball.”
So much for the speculation.
During seven seasons with Larrañaga, Miami — a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament set to face off with No. 11 seed LoyolaChicago at American Airlines Center — has defeated Duke and North Carolina 11 of the 21 times the two teams have played each other.
Under Larrañaga’s direction, the Hurricanes have also won ACC regular-season and conference tournaments, posted 25-win seasons three times and are making their third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.
“Well, we’ve been able to compete pretty well with Duke and Carolina. We’ve won our share. Second, we’ve already won a regular season and a tournament championship. And for the third year in a row, we’ve been sold out for every home game,” Larrañaga said. “This is now our third straight NCAA Tournament appearance, so we feel like we’ve laid the foundation for a successful basketball program, and we’re trying to build on that tradition.”
Senior guard Ja’Quan Newton has been a big part of the resurrection. UM was 17-16 the year before Newton arrived. Since then, the Hurricanes have four consecutive 20-win seasons and have won 95 games.
“Yeah, when I first came in my freshman year, like the games were different. They weren’t like sold out how they are now, and I think me and my teammates, we did a great job of leading on the court, just trying to get fans there by winning games,” Newton said. “And my sophomore year we went to the Sweet 16, and then my junior year, we went back to the tournament.
“I think we turned this program around a lot, and I think the best is yet to come.”
For now, Larrañaga and the Hurricanes would settle for a victory over a Loyola-Chicago team that went to Gainesville in December and knocked of then-No. 23 Florida.
“My staff and I have watched that game repeatedly to see how Loyola approached the game, how they played the game,” Larrañaga said “Maybe the most impressive thing about it was [junior guard] Clayton Custer got hurt in the first half and didn’t even play in the second half, and they still were able to pull out the victory.”
Should Miami get past Loyola in the first round, the Hurricanes will face the winner of today’s early game between No. 3 Tennessee and No. 14 Wright State.
“… It doesn’t matter if we play Loyola or any other team, we’re always going to have that chip on our shoulder like we’ve had all year,” Newton said. “Like I told another reporter, we’ve got a lot of respect for [Loyola,] watched film and they’re really talented.”