UM men rise to No. 22 ahead of tournament opener

CORAL GABLES — The Hurricanes men’s basketball team knows it didn’t play its best against North Carolina in last week’s ACC Tournament. Players and coaches acknowledged as much Sunday night after learning they’d open NCAA Tournament play Thursday against Loyola-Chicago in Dallas.

But as they prepare to head west, the Hurricanes will still take with them a top-25 ranking, one even better than they had last week.

Despite an 82-65 loss to North Carolina in the ACC quarterfinals, Miami rose two spots to No. 22 in Monday’s AP Top 25. The jump marks Miami’s highest ranking since mid-January when the Hurricanes were ranked No. 18 heading into an eventual 72-63 loss to Clemson.

Still, as the Hurricanes — who closed out the regular season with four straight wins — head into the tournament, they know it’s not seedings or rankings that matter at this point. And they understand unranked Loyola-Chicago poses a challenge.

“I was absolutely thrilled when we won four straight to end the regular season and to earn the No. 3 seed in the ACC Tournament,” Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga said. “I just was disappointed we didn’t play better in the ACC quarterfinals against [North] Carolina. I thought we were very capable of playing better and advancing, but we just didn’t.

“Now, we have to bounce back and play much better come Thursday against a very fine Loyola-Chicago team. They’re out of the Missouri Valley Conference and anybody that knows the MVC knows it is not a football league. It’s a basketball league. You go to their arenas, they’re selling out, 10,000-strong. It’s a basketball conference. … I think probably, for our players and our staff, the major concern is anybody that can go on the road and win in Gainesville, in the non-conference and beat the University of Florida on their home court, that says an awful lot about their capability.”