Canes face high expectations for next season

CORAL GABLES — Considering the preseason projections — Miami was picked to finish ninth in a loaded Atlantic Coast Conference — and where the Hurricanes wound up, Jim Larranaga was pleased.

“We didn’t know where we were in that pecking order,” he said Wednesday in a review of a 21-12 season, which ended with a blowout first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Michigan State.

“When we looked at our roster and said we have two seniors and one junior ... we’re going to need these young guys, the freshmen and the sophomores, to step up.”

After a year in which the Hurricanes overachieved, expectations will be much higher entering Larranaga’s seventh season in Coral Gables.

Miami loses guard Davon Reed and forward Kamari Murphy, and returns guard Ja’Quan Newton as the only senior on the team. Center E buka Izundu and wing Anthony Lawrence will be juniors.

But the strength of the team should be the underc l a s s me n , w i t h s o p h o - mores-to-be Bruce Brown and Dewan Huell ascending to primary roles, D.J. Vasiljevic making shots off the bench, center Rodney Miller potentially emerging as a force in the middle — and perhaps the best recruiting class in program history joining the team this summer.

The group, rated sixth by ESPN, is headlined by fivestar shooting guard Lonnie Walker with point guard Chris Lykes and power forward Deng Gak.

Forward Sam Waardenburg enrolled in January and redshirted.

Walker, whom Larranaga called a “high-octane opencourt player” and an “outstanding 3-point shooter,” is listed at 6 feet 4 and 192 pounds. ESPN rates him No. 18 overall in the 2017 class and No. 3 among shooting guards.

Like Brown, he has clear NBA potential. Larranaga went as far to say Miami expects it could lose both to the draft after next season. Should Huell become the player Larranaga expects — “a double-double guy,” he said — few would be surprised to see him go pro, too.

Last month, Brown (6-5, 200) told The Post he needs to work on his ball-handling and outside shooting, among other skills, before he’s ready for the draft. Larranaga wants to develop him into a readyto-play NBA point guard.

“It’s not that you don’t develop while you’re in the NBA through age, experience and skills, but if you go there and you’re ill-prepared, then you sit at the end of the bench, [or] they send you to the D-League,” he said. “And none of those guys who are going think they’re going to the D-League.”

Walker, Larranaga said, will need to learn how to be “a lockdown defender, because at your size, you’re going to play against some of the greatest players in the world, who are 6-5, 6-6, who have been in the NBA for five, seven, 12 years. ... NBA All-Star-caliber players.”

Larranaga said those players can’t wait to meet Lykes (5-7, 160).

“He’ll be the Energizer bunny,” L arranaga said. “Guys will like playing with him. Ja’Quan, Lonnie, Bruce, they’ll all want him on the court because he’s a ball of energy.”

Lykes, a flashy ballhandler and scorer, can dunk despite his small stature. Like most freshmen, he will need to learn to play college-level defense, but he won’t be rushed. “His job is to be Chris Lykes,” Larranaga said.

Larranaga said Gak (6-10, 195) needs to get stronger but profiles as a Huell-type power forward. Waardenburg (6-9, 200) is a stretch four.