Hurricanes face Spartans in opener.

CORAL GABLES — As he watched his team go through some of its early practices, Jim Larrañaga didn’t exactly have high hopes.

The Hurricanes men’s basketball team, adjusting after the losses of veterans Sheldon McClellan, Angel Rodriguez and Tonye Jekiri, were too young and inexperienced, Larrañaga thought, to make any kind of postseason run.

But in the months since,

the Hurricane’s men’s basketball team grew up. And the wins started coming.

Seniors Davon Reed and Kamari Murphy did what they were asked, and more. They mentored a talented core of freshmen that included Bruce Brown, Dewan Huell and sharp-shooter DJ Vasiljevic.

Young players from last season’s Sweet 16 team such as Anthony Lawrence and Ebuka Izundu developed.

And through injuries and suspensions, the Hurricanes — who have just nine scholarship players on their roster — powered through, notching wins against Duke, North Carolina and Virginia in the process.

Now Miami finds itself in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year and the third time in the past five seasons under Larrañaga, who took over at Miami in 2011. The Hurricanes will open play in Tulsa, Okla., late today as a No. 8 seed against traditional powerhouse Michigan State, a No. 9 seed which some college basketball analysts have already pegged as the favorite to advance despite its bubble-team status.

No matter what others may think, though, the Hurricanes believe they’ve already put together a special run — and they aren’t quite ready to have their season end just yet.

“I think this was really a special year for me and the staff and the players, going into the season with basically six very inexperienced players and only three veterans,” Larrañaga said before his team left for Tulsa. “You can have six inexperienced veterans if you have four or five veterans. We only had nine scholarship guys this year. There were games we only played seven. We had one player suspended three games and we won those three games. We’ve overcome a lot of adversity and I think we’re hitting our stride right now and hopefully we’ll play very well Friday night.”

While Michigan State (19-14, 10-8 Big Ten) enters the tournament with tradition and pedigree on its side, the Spartans have lost three of their last four and could have easily seen their streak of 20 straight tournament appearances come to an end after an up-and-down season.

But some of their weaknesses — and strengths — mirror Miami’s.

Both teams have notched big wins and head-scratching losses. Both have talented freshmen leading the charge, with Miami’s Brown averaging 11.9 points per game, while Huell and Vasiljevic are logging significant minutes. The Spartans, meanwhile, have Miles Bridges, Joshua Langford, Nick Ward and Cassius Winston each notching at least five starts, averaging a combined 43.7 points and earning recognition as the most productive freshman class of coach Tom Izzo’s 22-year tenure at Michigan State.

And then there’s Larrañaga and Izzo, two veterans that know each other — and the tournament — well.

The duo has coached against each other multiple times and it was Miami’s 67-59 win over then-13th-ranked Michigan State in 2012 that served notice the Hurricanes were a team on the rise.

Miami went on to win the ACC championship that season and make a run to the Sweet 16.

The Hurricanes (21-11, 10-8 ACC) would like nothing more than having another victory over Michigan State spark another memorable run, this time one that starts a little later in the year.

They also wouldn’t mind if that win garners them a little bit more national respect, something they’re still fighting to earn while playing against yet another one of college basketball’s powerhouse programs.

“We have to stick to our game plan,” Murphy said. “In the tournament, we have less days to prepare for teams, so we have to stick to what we do. But we’ve played in the best conference in America, so I think we’re prepared for any team we’ll have to play and their style and matchups. And we have great coaching as well. … Michigan State has great basketball history, but I think it’s time for people to put some recognition on Miami now.”

STEVEN CANNON/AP UM’s Davon Reed, left, and Kamari Murphy, (21), really stepped up as team leaders late in the season after the Hurricanes lost several players to injury.