Here’s what UM Hurricanes said after beating Auburn to reach first Sweet 16 since 2016
Miami Hurricanes guard Isaiah Wong sprinted through three Auburn defenders, made a strong move to the basket, soared over 6-10 Jabari Smith and slammed an emphatic one-handed dunk over the Tigers’ future NBA Lottery pick Sunday night as if to say: “The Canes are for real!”
A day earlier, it was Smith’s dunk that went viral on social media and most experts had No. 2 seed Auburn headed to the Sweet 16, but the undersized and underdog 10th seeded Hurricanes were determined to prove they belonged and that they did.
Miami is headed to the Sweet 16 after a 79-61 win over the Tigers. It is the Hurricanes’ third trip to the Sweet 16 under Coach Jim Larranaga and first since 2016. The Canes (25-10) will play 11th-seeded Iowa State (21-12) in Chicago at 9:45 p.m. on Friday.
The Hurricanes had 10 steals, scored 17 points off 13 Auburn turnovers, and had 17 assists with just four turnovers themselves. They held Smith to 10 points on 3-of-16 shooting with suffocating defense that took his space away and forced him out of his shooting rhythm.
The largely Auburn crowd of 14,316 at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, which had been deafening in the opening minutes of Sunday’s NCAA Tournament second-round game, quieted down in the final minutes while a corner of green and orange clad UM fans went berserk. “ACC! ACC!” the Miami fans chanted in the closing minutes, reacting to talk all season that the ACC conference was having a down season.
Wong led UM with 21 points and six rebounds. Asked to describe his dunk, Wong smiled and said, “I had an open lane and I was imagining dunking it and I came in, got my two steps in, and I was in the air and saw a big man try to jump with me and I was like `Ooh, I hope he jumps with me,’ and he he did and I dunked it and it felt like an amazing experience when I did that.”
Kam McGusty had 20 points, five rebounds, four assists. Charlie Moore had 15 points with nine rebounds and eight assists, and Jordan Miller scored 12.
“We’re typically known as a football school, so to take our team to the Sweet 16 is just amazing,” said McGusty. “This is for the school, the staff, anybody who’s had any part of our journey. Charlie and I have been in college for six years, for real, I had only been the tournament once and lost in the first round, so this is a dream come true. As a kid you watch these college games in March all day, you dream of making a run in the tournament, and this is the start of our run. I love these guys so much. We have to keep our good energy up and take it to next game on Friday.”
Larranaga cleared the bench and put in all the subs in the final minute as the starters hugged on the sideline. When the final whistle sounded, the UM players ran across the court and celebrated with fans.
The coach joked at the opening of his post-game press conference that before the game he heard TV announcer Charles Barkley, an Auburn alum, say that he would take off his shirt if the Tigers won. “I thought to myself, `Man, nobody wants to see that, Chuck,” Larranaga said, smiling, “so we did everything possible to make sure he wouldn’t have to do that.”
Over the two games this weekend, Miami had 33 assists and just seven turnovers. The Hurricanes’ points off turnover ratio was 39 to 6, and they were 42 to 5 in fast breaks.
“If we don’t turn over the ball, they can’t beat us,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl declared courtside just before the game.
The Tigers’ Walker Kessler turned the ball over on the game’s opening possession, Miami took the lead on another steal and dunk by Miller at the other end and 10 minutes into the game Auburn had six turnovers and the Hurricanes capitalized with a nine-point lead.
Miami led 33-32 at halftime after five steals, forcing the Tigers into eight turnovers and scoring eight points off those miscues.
Larranaga used a line from the movie “Braveheart” during his halftime speech: “I used a William Wallace quote…his community was destroyed, he lost his wife and family, and recruited an army and asked them `Are you ready to go to war? Are you ready to fight for everything we stand for?’ That’s what I asked the guys at halftime. I said, `Look, it’s a one point game. Auburn is an outstanding team. We need to know what we’re made of? Can we go out and battle them for the next 20 minutes and keep our dream alive?”
The answer was a resounding `Yes.’ They swarmed the Tigers from the first minute of the second half, and never let up.
“Miami’s experience, speed and quickness showed right from the jump, they had us,” Pearl said. “We got disrupted. We haven’t been outplayed like that all year, hadn’t been hit in the mouth like that. We just did not respond.”
The game featured an intriguing matchup between Miami’s veteran, savvy, guard-heavy lineup against Auburn’s younger, bigger roster, which includes the dynamic duo of Smith and Kessler.
Smith, a 6-10 and 220-pound freshman, is a candidate for National Player of the Year and could be the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft. Kessler, a 7-1 sophomore, leads the nation with nearly five blocks a game and is a likely first-round NBA pick, as well.
Larranaga had said Auburn had “a one-two punch that most teams just don’t have.”
The Hurricanes countered with a wily group that includes four sixth-year seniors, three of them in the starting lineup. “My best player’s 18” years old, their best player is 25,” Pearl joked before the game (actually, Miami’s oldest players are 24 years old).
Miami players insisted they were not intimidated by the Tigers.
“We all know Auburn’s a good team, they’re pretty big,” Miller said before the game. “But we’ve been playing teams that are pretty big our whole season. We play small ball five out. If we play how we’ve been playing this whole year, especially toward the end of season, I think we should walk away with a favorable outcome.”
McGusty agreed.
“I feel like we can match up with them well, if we just do what we’re supposed to do, we can definitely give them a run for their money.”
Miami forward Sam Waardenburg, who had a monster block on a Smith shot Sunday, compared Auburn to Duke and pointed out that the Hurricanes beat the Blue Devils on the road and took them to the wire at the ACC tournament last week.
“This is the happiest I’ve ever seen Coach L since I’ve been here,” Miller said. “He’s had the biggest smile on his face. His biggest message, although we came here as a business trip, is to enjoy it. We have a lot of older guys on this team. It may be their last year playing college basketball, so play for them, leave it all on the court. You’re not going to have any regrets if you leave it all on the court.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2022 at 11:37 PM.