Why Anthony Walker can help fix some of the Miami Hurricanes’ most persistent problems
From his perch at the end of the Miami Hurricanes’ bench, Jim Larranaga watched his team on the other end of the court miss one layup, and then another and then another until, just four minutes into the season, he summoned Anthony Walker and sent the forward to the scorer’s table to be the first substitute of the season.
The coach likes a lot about this Miami team — two NBA-caliber scoring guards, a true point guard to run the show, a potentially eight- or nine-deep rotation — but he knows its ceiling will depend on what sort of interior presence it can muster.
“What I told the team after the game,” Larranaga said Tuesday, “is one of the things we have to be committed to is getting points both inside and outside.”
On opening night, the Hurricanes (1-0) delivered, led by Walker’s 14 points. Miami scored 42 of its 76 points in the paint Tuesday, which helped it survive a seven-point game from star shooting guard Isaiah Wong, 29.4-percent shooting from three-point range and a 14-of-22 performance from the free-throw line.
It was a promising start, albeit against an opponent with only one rotation player taller than 6-foot-8. The Hurricanes will get a more indicative test Saturday at 1 p.m. when they host the UCF Knights at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables.
Although it hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2019, UCF (1-0) has a potential NBA forward in C.J. Walker, and Knights center Cheikh Mbake Diong blocked five shots in their season-opening win Wednesday. Miami won’t simply have a massive size and athleticism advantage this weekend, which will make the task a bit more difficult for Walker, who has always thrived on his athleticism.
On Tuesday, the third-year sophomore’s energy sparked the Hurricanes off the bench, and he wound up playing starter’s minutes. At first, he settled for jumpers. Once he started to get downhill, Walker became a go-to scoring option.
He made a layup with 1:37 left in the first half to push Miami’s lead up to 34-29 and then he went 2 for 4 with nine points in the second half. While he still shot three threes, he also took six shots in the paint and attempted seven free throws for only the fourth time in his career. He was the type of player Larranaga needs him to be.
“I put a lot of pressure on defenses when I’m in the paint,” the 6-9, 215-pound athlete said Tuesday, “so he wants to put me in a spot where I do well at and I excel at.”
It’s the reason Larranaga turned to him as his sixth man on the first day of the season. He called for Walker right after Sam Waardenburg — the lone forward in a four-guard starting lineup — missed an easy shot at the rim. Walker brings a dimension the Hurricanes lack in their starting lineup.
Wong and fellow guard Kameron McGusty are both tough-shot makers, who can get to the rim, but are also content to fire up jumpers. Charlie Moore is a true point guard and only 5-11. Jordan Miller, a 6-7 guard, mostly does his damage near the rim, but he’s still a guard. Even Waardenburg, who’s 6-10 and missed all of last season with a foot injury, takes nearly 40 percent of his shots from three.
As the rotation is currently constructed, Miami will get most of its outside scoring from its starting lineup and its inside scoring from Walker and backup center Rodney Miller Jr.
“They can do it differently. You don’t have to do it all the same way,” Larranaga said. “Anthony Walker’s going to do it with his athletic ability.”
Miller, who scored eight points after missing most of last season with a knee injury, was the one traditional center in the Hurricanes’ rotation Tuesday. Walker is the reserve who can give Miami different identities.
For the most part, he will be a power forward and he primarily played next to either Waardenburg or Miller on Tuesday, but he also spent nearly three minutes at center late in the second half, surrounded by four guards.
Walker has sometimes been too reliant on his streaky jumper and he has averaged only 6.6 points and 2.0 free throws per game in his career. The Hurricanes don’t need him to be an offensive engine, though. They just want him to go hard to the rim. When he does, the offense can look different — more balanced — than it did last year.
“We’ve got to get as much inside scoring as we can,” McGusty said Tuesday. “We have guards that can really shoot it off the bounce, and catch and shoot, so we’re definitely going to need that contribution off the bench and just from the bigs in general.”
