With 5-game win streak entering ACC play, Miami has ‘no doubt’ it can make run at Tourney
After three straight losing seasons and Marches mostly spent at home, the Miami Hurricanes made it through non-conference without doing anything to cripple their chances to make a run at a return to the NCAA Tournament in 2022.
With an 82-72 win against the Stetson Hatters in Coral Gables, they’ll also go into the meat of the Atlantic Coast Conference schedule playing as well as they have all year and it’s enough to have Miami starting to think about bigger goals.
“There’s no doubt in my mind,” guard Kameron McGusty said, “that we can make the actual NCAA Tournament.”
The Hurricanes’ win Monday was their fifth in a row, matching their longest winning streak since 2019, and all five victories have been various degrees of encouraging.
The streak started Dec. 1 with a road win against the Penn State Nittany Lions in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, continued Dec. 4 with a win against the Clemson Tigers to open conference play and is still going after three straight wins against mid-major opponents by an average of 11.7 points.
With one game left before the calendar flips to 2022, Miami (9-3, 1-0) is only one victory away from matching its full-season win total from a year ago.
“I thought our guys handled the competition very well,” coach Jim Larranaga said. “Overall, 9-3 at this stage of the season is a step in the right direction for us.”
Considering the way the last three years went, it’s a leap.
The Hurricanes won just 10 games last year, 15 games the year before and 14 the year before that. This year, they’ll have a chance to get double-digit wins before New Year’s Day.
With losses to the UCF Knights and Dayton Flyers last month, non-conference play was far from perfect for Miami, but its nine-point average margin of victory during this winning streak is a vast improvement from the first seven games, when the Hurricanes were outscored by nine.
“We’ve improved a lot,” guard Charlie Moore said.
Miami’s defensive play against Stetson (4-7) left Larranaga a bit frustrated. Its offensive play fit right in with the winning identity the Hurricanes’ have established.
Miami, which is now averaging 15.2 assists per game during the winning streak, matched a season high with 20 assists in front of 2,232 at the Watsco Center. The Hurricanes went 14 of 29 from three-point range — setting season highs in makes and attempts — and scored at least 72 points for the fourth straight game.
They played nine players in the first seven minutes after mostly being stuck playing seven last year. They got 12 points from forward Sam Waardenburg, 10 rebounds from guard Jordan Miller and eight assists from Moore—none of the three played for the Hurricanes last season. Their lead was 13 at halftime, grew as large as 19 and never shrunk to single digits in the second half.
McGusty led the way with 27 points, cracking 20 for the fifth time this season, and star shooting guard Isaiah Wong even shrugged off a 2-of-8 start from the field to finish with 16.
Miami hadn’t played since Dec. 12 because of finals and didn’t miss a beat on one end of the court. On the other, the Hurricanes suffered through too many lapses, Larranaga said, and let the Hatters shoot 49.1 percent from the field and 13 of 26 on threes.
Another long break now lies ahead. Miami will take the rest of the week off to let players go home from Christmas, then return with the actual important part of the season looming. This homestand wraps up with three games against the NC State Wolfpack, Wake Forest Demon Deacons and Syracuse Orange in the next two weeks.
The Hurricanes’ start has been good enough to keep their Tournament hopes alive. Those three games might reveal how realistic those hopes are.
“We’re 1-0, we’re playing pretty well,” Larranaga said, “but we have three very strong opponents coming in.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2021 at 8:51 PM.