Jim Larranaga on his contract extension, the ACC tourney and ‘dirty water hot dogs’
Some college basketball purists, especially those in the tradition-rich Tobacco Road region of North Carolina, may not be thrilled that the ACC men’s basketball tournament is being held this week at the Barclays Center, home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.
It is just the 15th time since the event began in 1954 that it is not being played in the state of North Carolina.
But University of Miami coach Jim Larranaga, a Bronx native, loves the idea. He is delighted to be back home with his fourth-seeded Hurricanes, who got a double-bye into the Thursday quarterfinals. They will play at 2:30 p.m. against No. 13 seed Boston College, which knocked out No. 5 Wake Forest 82-77 on Wednesday. The game will be on ESPN2.
“It’s great, I get to eat some pizza and eat some dirty-water hot dogs,” Larranaga said about the tournament being in Brooklyn. “The guys are going to enjoy it. I think it’s exciting. New York is really the mecca of basketball. The tournaments that are held in New York are always well-attended. The fans are great.”
Larranaga, 72, had another reason to be in a good mood on the eve of the game. UM announced that the coach had agreed to a two-year contract extension through the 2025-26 season. He is in his 11th season at Miami, is the winningest coach in school history and has also been an enthusiastic ambassador for the university.
In an interview with the Herald at the team’s Manhattan hotel Wednesday afternoon, Larranaga said the extension was the result of conversations he had with new UM athletic director Dan Radakovich, UM president Julio Frenk and members of the Board of Trustees.
“In recruiting, one of the most consistent questions I get is ‘Are you going to be here, or are you going to retire?’ ’’ Larranaga said. “My answer was always, ‘I love Miami. I’m going to be here as long as the university wants me.’ When I met with Dan and explained where I stood and how we were getting these questions, he was very comfortable in addressing the uncertainty of how long I would be here.
“Now I can tell those recruits and their families, ‘If you come here as a freshman, I will be here for the next four years.’ ”
That stability is especially important now, as UM is senior-heavy and will need to restock.
The Hurricanes (22-9, 14-6 ACC) practiced Wednesday at the cozy Leman Prep School gym in the Financial District as snow and freezing rain fell over the city. Larranaga joked that his undersized players looked bigger running up and down the small gym.
On Thursday, they return to the 17,732-seat Barclays Center, where they beat Fordham on Dec. 12. One reason Larranaga and his staff chose to play that game was to get the team acclimated to the surroundings. During that trip, Larranaga jumped off the team bus during a red light and grabbed a hot dog from a street vendor.
The stakes are much higher this trip, but the coach is still reminding his players to have fun.
“March Madness is now here, officially,” Larranaga said. “The marathon is over and now we begin the sprints. If you’re competing in the Olympics in the 100-yard dash you must win your heat to move on and that’s what we need to do. The ACC tournament is survive and advance, lose and go home. We’re ready to play our best basketball right now.”
“Our goal was to get this program back to where it needed to be, we’ve done what we needed to do to put ourselves in position to go back to March Madness, but we’re focusing on the ACC tournament right now,” said sixth-year senior forward Sam Waardenburg.
Asked if veteran players have been telling the younger players what to expect, Waardenburg said: “You can’t really tell them, you have to experience it yourself. The ACC tournament will have an amazing crowd, the cheerleaders and the band with us and the cheerleaders and bands from all the other schools, it’s going to be a completely different environment.”
Last year, after a disappointing regular season, the Hurricanes made a run in the conference tournament before losing to eventual champion Georgia Tech in the quarterfinals.
Regular-season champion Duke is the No. 1 seed this week and coming off a demoralizing loss to archrival North Carolina in retiring coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game after 42 years at the school. Notre Dame is the No. 2 seed followed by No. 3 North Carolina and No. 4 Miami.
Depending whom you ask, the ACC is either having a down year or there are so many teams with similar records because they are all good and beating up on each other.
Duke was the only ACC team to spend the entire season ranked in The AP top 25.
It is difficult to predict what will happen in the tournament because there have been so many inconsistent results through the regular season. Duke routed UNC by 20 in February and then lost by 13 to the Tar Heels at home. Florida State beat Miami twice, beat Duke and Syracuse in the regular season and then lost by 39 to Syracuse on Wednesday.
Miami has four sixth-year seniors, and that experience has proved vital time and again as the team never got rattled, twice rallying from 18 points down to beat Syracuse and making game-clinching shots in the closing minutes. That composure is a key reason the Hurricanes have had great success on the road. They are the only Power 5 team in the nation with 10 road victories.
Larranaga feels that gives his team an edge.
“The ACC tournament is not played on your home court, the NCAA tournament is not played on anyone’s home court, you’ve got to be able to travel well and play well away from home,” he said.
If the Canes beat Boston College, they advance to Friday’s 7 p.m. semifinal against the Duke-Syracuse winner.
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 6:17 PM.