Hustle at the hoop
’Canes feel good going into FSU game.
CORAL GABLES Even after the Hurricanes fell to unranked Georgia Tech, after it blew a late lead against Duke and after losing three of their first five in Atlantic Coast Conference play knocked them out of the Associated Press Top 25, there was no real panic.
Not from men’s basketball coach Jim Larrañaga, anyway.
“It’s kind of interesting to me that the media portrays a loss as you’re in a slump, whereas coaches look at as, ‘OK, we might need to make some adjustments,’” Larrañaga said. “We don’t look at the opponent and not give them credit. The opponent deserves credit when they win, but I felt there were things we needed to do better.”
To that end, last week, the Hurricanes used some of their downtime last week to work on fundamentals. Players, too, took accountability, holding a team meeting without their coaches not to point fingers, but to figure out how they could make each other better.
Since, the Hurricanes (15-4, 4-3) have picked up a pair of much-needed, hardfought conference wins, including an 86-81 road win at North Carolina State and a 78-75 overtime win over Louisville on Wednesday.
It’s marked the first time since conference play began that Miami has won backto-back games. Now with momentum, they head to Tallahassee to face instate rival Florida State in search of their first three-game win streak since early December.
They know the Seminoles — whom they beat 80-74 earlier this month — will pose a challenge, especially at home, where Florida State has gone 9-1 this season, losing only to Louisville on Jan. 10.
Since, FSU has notched a double-overtime win over Syracuse at the Tucker Center and beaten the same Georgia Tech team that beat the Hurricanes.
Add in that the Seminoles (15-5, 4-4) will likely be looking to avenge that loss to Miami on Jan. 7 and the Hurricanes are expecting another challenge.
“It’s going to be tough going into their arena and try to win,” said sophomore Dewan Huell, who had 18 points and 12 rebounds for his fourth double double of the season against Louisville on Wednesday. “Of course, it’s always tough to be on the road. We lost there last year, so I’m pretty sure the team wants to win there this year.”
Added freshman Lonnie Walker, who had 25 points in the win over Louisville and sent the game into overtime with a layup that came with 4.8 seconds left in regulation: “They’re a very aggressive defensive team. They’re always going to ... stick on their man when they’re trying to pass the ball … We just have to take care of the ball and attack the offensive and defensive rebounds. We have to have more rebounds than that team. I feel like if we take care of the ball and share the ball and be the better rebounding team, we can take that win.”
As confident as the Hurricanes may be feeling after their past two wins, there are still things they know they have to work on, particularly on the free-throw line and under the basket.
The Hurricanes were 22-of-31 from there against Louisville and 23-of-32 there in the win over Florida State. And while Miami bested the Seminoles earlier this month, FSU’s tall lineup was physical, outrebounding the Hurricanes 44-32 in that first meeting.
Both of those things have to continue improving, while the Hurricanes continue building on what they’ve been able to do in their recent wins, Larrañaga said.
“It’s not like we’re playing good and we’ll go into the next game and win,” he said. “This is two teams that are both very good battling. I think we’re kind of on the borderline of the Top 25 right now and they’ve been in and out of the Top 25 themselves, Florida State. … The one thing is teams in this league are very similar right now. … Everybody’s got good players.”
ccabrera@sun-sentinel .com, Twitter @ChristyChirinos