UM men to open NCAA tourney against Spartans
CORAL GABLES – Minutes after his team secured its second consecutive NCAA Tournament berth, Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball coach Jim Larrañaga stood, turned to face both his players and the fans gathered at a Selection Sunday watch party on Miami’s campus and smiled.
“I don’t know if you heard [CBS college basketball analyst] Seth Davis say he’s looking forward to Kansas versus Michigan State in the next round,” the Miami coach said, his back turned to the tournament bracket popping up on a large television screen behind him. “I guess he’s never seen us play.”
Unlike last year when the then third-seeded Hurricanes were one of the favorites to make a deep run in the tournament, this Miami team knows it is a bit of an underdog as it prepares for its opening-weekend game against Michigan State in Tulsa on Friday at 9:20 p.m.
The No. 8 seed in the Midwest Region, the young Hurricanes (21-11, 10-8 ACC) have taken their share of lumps this season. And as a program, the Hurricanes don’t have the pedigree or tradition of the ninth-seeded Spartans (19-14, 10-8 Big Ten).
Sunday afternoon, though, none of that seemed to matter to Larrañaga or any of his players.
The Hurricanes, who grew up as they earned regular-season wins over ACC powerhouses North Carolina, Duke, and Virginia, are playing in college basketball’s championship tournament. And they believe they can compete with anyone, Tom Izzo’s Michigan State team included.
“I wouldn’t even care if we were a 10 seed or whatever. As long as we’re in the tournament, I’m happy,” Hurricanes senior forward Kamari Murphy said. “I like the matchup. Michigan State has great basketball history, but I think it’s time for people to put some recognition on Miami now.”
Added fellow senior Davon Reed, “It’s unfortunate that we’re not really looked at as a basketball school or a powerhouse. But coach L is changing the mode of this program. He’s doing a great job and I know he’s going to continue to do a great job. But at the end of the day, we can’t get too upset about it. We just have to continue to play great basketball. And we have a great coach, so we’ll continue to do that.”
The Hurricanes, who have made nine appearances in the tournament, are set to make their third under Larrañaga, who is in his sixth season at Miami.
The Spartans, meanwhile, have played on this stage in each of the past 20 years. They’ve appeared in nine Final Fours, most recently in 2015 when they fell to eventual champion Duke.
The two teams have limited history, with Miami besting then 13th-ranked Michigan State 67-59 in their only matchup, an ACC/Big 10 Challenge game in 2012 during Larrañaga’s second season at Miami.
The Hurricanes were unranked at the time of the win, but it served as notice they were a program to be taken seriously. They’d go on to win the ACC championship that season and make a run to the Sweet 16.
There’s nothing Miami would like more than to duplicate that success again, knowing that a win over the Spartans — who this year, some considered a bubble team — would help continue to prove that they are a consistent program on the rise, a program worthy of respect outside of South Florida.
“We need to earn the respect of the national media and the committee if we’re ever going to be mentioned as a team that [they] believe can move on,” Larrañaga said. “Everyone’s going to predict Kansas is going to move on, or Louisville is going on or Michigan State is going to move on because they’ve moved on so many times in the past. We’re getting closer because our last two trips to the NCAA Tournament we’ve reached the Sweet 16.”