Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Aiming for ACC
Hurricanes hope to bounce back.
Jim Larrañaga learned basketball on the courts of New York. Kamari Murphy, too. And Rodney Miller.
Davon Reed wasn’t exactly too far away from the city, perfecting his game in nearby Ewing, New Jersey.
This week, all will be in Brooklyn with a singular goal — help the Hurricanes men’s basketball team again stun some Atlantic Coast Conference powerhouses en route to a conference title.
The Hurricanes, who dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25 after a pair of losses in the final week of the regular season, understand it won’t be easy. They know their underdog status. They enter the tournament as the No. 9 seed — where they were pegged to finish the year before the season started.
But after growing up during the regular season and notching wins against ranked conference foes such as North Carolina, Virginia and Duke, the Hurricanes (20-10, 10-8) believe in themselves — and
in their ability to make some noise in March, both in Brooklyn at the ACC Tournament and beyond.
They’ll have their first chance today when they open tournament play against Syracuse at noon.
“Despite our loss the other night, we’ve been rolling,” said Reed during the final week of the regular season. “We’ve caught our stride and we’re playing at a very high level, I feel like. I think we’re going to continue to grow and take some good steps forward.”
Even after their losses at Virginia Tech and Florida State to end the regular season, the Hurricanes enter the conference tournament having won six of their last nine. They posted another 20-win season and notched 10 wins against ACC opponents during a season in which many college basketball experts expect the ultra-deep conference could send as many as 10 teams to the NCAA Tournament.
Miami accomplished all of that while adjusting to the losses of Sheldon McClellan, Angel Rodriguez and Tonye Jekiri, three starters from last year’s team that made a run to the Sweet 16. The Hurricanes found themselves regularly putting three freshmen into their rotation. And late in the year, they were without point guard Ja’Quan Newton, who was suspended for three games during a critical stretch.
Still, there was improvement. There were wins. And there were lessons learned.
Now, the Hurricanes say, it’s time to put all of that together, against one of the teams they faced early in conference play when they weren’t quite at their best yet.
When Miami and Syracuse (18-13, 10-8) met in January in what was the Hurricanes’ ACC road opener, the Orange snapped Miami’s sevengame win streak. Syracuse’s famed zone defense gave the Hurricanes problems, with Miami shooting just 21-of-54 from the field. And the Orange have, traditionally, been a tough out for Miami, with Syracuse holding a 17-7 lead in the all-time series.
Still, the Hurricanes have improved since that game. Freshmen Bruce Brown, Dewan Huell and DJ Vasiljevic have become invaluable contributors. Veterans Reed and Kamari Murphy are playing well. And the Hurricanes’ defense has helped them notch some key wins of their own.
So the Hurricanes expect they’ll be able to improve their seeding in the upcoming NCAA Tournament with their play in Brooklyn. And several of them have a motivation all their own.
They want to put on a show for their hometown friends and family from around New York.
“As far as I’m concerned, kids from New York City, decades ago, invented the game of basketball,” Larrañaga told reporters in New York this week. “Dr. [James] Naismith is the inventor, but the guys who perfected it are the kids who grew up in the streets of New York. And I include myself as one of those guys who learned the game by playing against other really great high school players.”
Added Reed: “To be able to finish my ACC career in Brooklyn, close to home, will be a great feeling. I’m sure I’ll have a lot of friends and family there, but I’ll be looking forward to handling business. We’ve been kind of fighting an uphill battle a little bit and being the underdog all season. We know what we’re capable of doing. We know what we set out to do in the beginning of the season and we’re looking forward to executing.”