Larranaga has the Miami Hurricanes smiling on eve of NCAA Tournament opener vs USC
.JPG "Miami’s Charlie Moore (3) right, celebrates with Anthony Walker (1) left, and Sam Waardenburg (21) after making the winning shot at the buzzer to end second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Virginia Tech, Wednesday, Jan. 26 2022, in Blacksburg Va.")
Jim Larranaga has been coaching college basketball for half a century, experienced Sweet 16s and a Final Four run, and if there is one thing he has learned it’s that relaxed teams tend to win in the postseason.
So, on Thursday, the eve of the Hurricanes’ NCAA Tournament opener against Southern California, Larranaga was regaling reporters with amusing anecdotes and doing everything he could to make his players smile. When they finished their early afternoon practice at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Larranaga and his staff urged players to greet the UM faithful in the stands.
Isaiah Wong, Charlie Moore, Kam McGusty and Sam Waardenburg did a lap around the court and waved at fans. Jordan Miler, Deng Gak and Rodney Miller threw up the “U” and took selfies with fans. Then, the team gathered at midcourt for a group photo, and Anthony Walker showed off his dance moves to the tunes of the UM pep band.
“The biggest thing is for your players to really embrace the atmosphere, not to put a lot of pressure on themselves,” Larranaga said. “This is the culmination for them of all the hard work, all the dreams they’ve had and goals they’ve set and when you get to that moment, if you all of a sudden start putting a lot of pressure on yourself, then you’re not going to play nearly as well.”
All season Larranaga has been trying to get his players loose in tense moments, and they have responded.
When the Canes were down by seven with less than a minute to go on the road against Syracuse, Larranaga said he yelled out: “Run 13 with Sam in the middle!” McGusty misunderstood, thought he said “Kam in the middle” so he went to the middle, received Charlie Moore’s pass and hit a shot to close the gap to five and they called a timeout.
“At the time out, Sam said, ‘Coach, did you want me in the middle or Kam in the middle?’ And I said, ‘Well, I said Sam, but I must have meant Kam because he buried the shot. So, let’s try that again.’ ”
The players laughed.
“It helped them relax in the moment, Kam made two more of those, and we ended up winning the game,” the coach said.
He hopes his 10th-seeded undersized team will have that mindset Friday against the No. 7 seed USC, a tall team that likes to dominate the paint.
Isaiah Mobley, a 6-10 and 240-pound forward, is the brother of Cleveland Cavaliers’ NBA Rookie of the Year candidate Evan Mobley. Chevez Goodwin, a relentless rebounder, is a 6-9 sixth-year senior and South Carolina native who played at College of Charleston and Wofford before transferring to USC in 2020. He will be extra motivated playing in his home state.
The Trojans, who made the Elite Eight last year and have put six players in the NBA the past five years, started this season 13-0 and were ranked as high as No. 5 in the nation. But they lost three of their past four games. They lost their final two regular-season games to Arizona and UCLA and lost to UCLA in the conference semifinals.
Although USC beat Washington in the Pac-12 quarterfinals, they turned the ball over 23 times. Miami plays a similar defensive style as Washington, so the Hurricanes are determined to force the Trojans into turnovers and speed up the pace of the game.
“What we pride ourselves on is traveling ball screens, turning teams over, making them play faster, playing in transition, easy layups, transition threes,” McGusty said. “Our goal every night is turn the team over and play in transition.”
Larranaga is not worried about the size disadvantage.
“We’re probably the smallest team in the ACC, and we’ll definitely be the smaller team Friday, we have a very skinny team, yet we’ve been able to compete at the highest level against bigger, stronger, more athletic teams, and they’ve done it through teamwork, chemistry and skill level. They make good decisions.”
USC coach Andy Enfield, a former Florida State assistant and Florida Gulf Coast University head coach, has known Larranaga and his staff for three decades. He is familiar with UM’s playing style but says this Hurricanes team is tough to scout.
“Coach L has done a tremendous job at Miami with this team. … They’re so dynamic with the basketball, their guards, they spread you out, and they have a lot of three-point shooting,” Enfield said. “They’re their own team now and playing great basketball.”
Both teams are seeking national respect. Larranaga has talked all season about the ACC being undervalued. And Enfield said West Coast teams are often underrated.
“I grew up on the East Coast in Pennsylvania, I understand that no one watches our games,” Enfield said. “They’re too late. People are asleep. I never watched a USC game growing up. I don’t think it’s an intentional bias, I just think it’s a lack of awareness at times that the West Coast does have really good basketball players.”
The Canes say they are well aware of the Trojans’ talent, and they have faith in Larranaga to have a good game plan.
“He’s been around the game so long, seen every scenario,” Waardenburg said. “He’s well prepared for any moment that comes to us.”
And if things get tense, expect the Canes to come out of the huddle smiling.
This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 3:56 PM.