No. 15 Hurricanes will have hands full Saturday with Wake Forest guard Tyree Appleby
The 15th-ranked Miami Hurricanes are 14-0 at home this season and hope to keep that streak alive Saturday afternoon against Wake Forest.
To do so, they will have to figure out a way to contain Demon Deacons point guard Tyree Appleby, a Florida transfer who leads the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring with 18.6 points per game and assists with 6.2 per game.
Appleby is a 24-year-old graduate student and his experience shows on the court. He was named ACC Player of the Week last week after he averaged 25.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 8.5 assists and 1.5 steals in wins against North Carolina and Georgia Tech.
He scored a season-high 35 points and added 11 assists and seven rebounds against UNC. He set ACC records in free throws made (23) and free throws attempted (28), breaking a pair of records that had stood since the 1950s. Appleby played all 40 minutes against Georgia Tech, had 16 points and six assists in a one-point win.
Miami coach Jim Larranaga said it will take a group effort to keep Appleby in check. Nijel Pack will likely be assigned to cover Appleby at the start of the game, with defensive specialist Bensley Joseph and Isaiah Wong pitching in.
“He’s a handful for anybody, leading scorer in the league, also good at finding the open man,” Larranaga said. “He gets the big guys involved, gets them layups and dunks. Gets his shooters three-point shots. He’s a terrific all-around player. You’ve got to keep a fresh body on him all the time because he’s going to have his hands on the ball a lot.”
UM associate head coach Bill Courtney said Appleby “makes the Wake engine go” with his speed, crafty change of direction and shot making.
Another Wake Forest guard to watch is redshirt junior Damari Monsanto, a Pembroke Pines native who averaged 28.4 points and 11.2 rebounds his senior season at Davie Western High School. Monsanto is tied for the ACC lead in three-point field goals made with 80.
Wake Forest has more size than Miami with five players over 6-10 compared to just one for the Hurricanes, freshman Favour Aire, who plays sparingly. The Demon Deacons have a pair of seven-footers in 270-pound Davion Bradford and 250-pound Matthew Marsh.
The Demon Deacons will pose a challenge for Miami power forward Norchad Omier, who is the biggest Canes starter at 6-7 and 248 pounds. Despite being shorter than most of the ACC centers he has faced this season, the energetic Nicaraguan has made his mark since transferring from Arkansas State.
Omier leads the conference in field goal percentage (59.7 percent), ranks third in rebounds with 9.9 per game, has scored in double figures 23 times this season and has 11 double-doubles. He scored 21 points against Louisville and 17 against Duke.
Although he got in early foul trouble and had to sit most of the first half against North Carolina, Omier had a strong second half and limited preseason player of the year Armando Bacot.
The Hurricanes are 21-5 overall and 12-4 in the ACC, in third place, a half game behind Pitt and Virginia with four games left. Finishing top four is key as it means a double bye into the quarterfinals of the conference tournament, which begins March 7.