UM men open ACC tournament against Wake Forest on Tuesday
Coach Jim Larranaga usually has more time to prepare his team for the Atlantic Coast Conference, but this season, for the first time since he took over the program eight years ago, the Hurricanes have to play their first-round game on Tuesday.
That is the price they pay for finishing 5-13 in the conference and 13-17 overall. The Canes are the No. 12 seed and play 13th-seeded Wake Forest (11-19, 4-14 ACC) at noon at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The game will be on ESPN.
The Hurricanes and Demon Deacons split the series during the regular season, and Miami’s loss on Feb. 26 was one of its most painful in recent memory. Chris Lykes scored 26 points as UM led by 10 with less than two minutes to go, but wound up losing 76-75 after a collapse in the closing minutes.
Miami has a chance to avenge that loss on Tuesday and extend the season at least one more day.
The Hurricanes had to play with a depleted roster of seven scholarship players all season, and that took a toll.
“This was the probably the most challenging season I’ve had as a head coach because it was very difficult to do what we like to do in terms of practice and game preparation,” Larranaga said. “We had some serious adversity from the start of the year. Nobody likes to lose, but the guys had a great attitude.”
The winner Tuesday advances to a second-round matchup against No. 5 seed Virginia Tech on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. The Hokies beat the Hurricanes 84-70 in the regular-season finale last Friday.
Wake Forest also lost the last game of the regular season, 65-57 to Florida State.
Senior Anthony Lawrence has come on strong for Miami the past five games, averaging 14.7 points, nine rebounds and 3.9 assists. He scored a career-high 27 points and had 11 rebounds and four assists in a victory over Pittsburgh on Senior Night. Despite some struggles of late, Lykes is the Hurricanes’ leading scorer with 16.2 points per game. Senior Ebuka Izundy has been the lone center the entire ACC season, and will be a key player against Wake Forest.
This story was originally published March 11, 2019 at 5:28 PM.