Miami Hurricanes plays Clemson in ACC tournament opener. Here’s what you need to know
The University of Miami men’s basketball team, coming off a thrilling 69-65 overtime win over Syracuse, hopes to carry that momentum into the ACC tournament.
The ninth-seeded Hurricanes play No. 8 seed Clemson at noon on Wednesday (ESPN), with the winner facing No. 1 seed Florida State on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. Miami and Clemson have identical 15-15 overall records. The Canes finished with a 7-13 conference record and Clemson was 9-11 in conference.
They met once during the regular season, on New Year’s Eve at Clemson, and the Hurricanes won in overtime, 73-68. Miami is 13-14 all-time against Clemson, including 2-3 at neutral sites and 7-3 in coach Jim Larrañaga’s tenure.
Miami is expected to be without leading scorer Chris Lykes, who suffered facial injuries in the Mar. 4 game against Virginia and missed the season-finale against Syracuse. He was averaging 15.2 points for UM. Freshman point guard Isaiah Wong stood out in place of Lykes with 18 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals against Syracuse.
Senior guard Dejan Vasiljevic scored 17 in his final home outing and redshirt junior guard Kameron McGusty added 13. Clemson lost three of its past four games following a three-game winning streak. The Tigers, who have beaten the three highest-ranked teams in the league, are led by junior forward Aamir Simms (13 points per game, 7.1 rebounds).