Larranaga on UM men’s basketball team: ‘We have a very, very, very long way to go’
The Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball team, which enjoyed a promising 3-0 start, is eager to rebound from a humbling trio of losses at the Charleston Classic last weekend.
Defense and rebounding are the two areas of focus after UM was exposed during an 80-69 loss to Drake, 80-74 loss to Oklahoma State and 77-70 loss to VCU.
Miami aims to win at home on Saturday afternoon against a struggling Charleston Southern team that is 1-7 overall and 0-6 on the road. The 2 p.m. game is UM’s first at home in almost two weeks.
UM coach Jim Larranaga said before the Charleston Classic that he was eager to see how his team performed against taller and stronger competition. He was pleased with the Canes’ offensive output in the first three games but said the team’s defensive struggles were a major concern.
The three losses did nothing to ease that concern. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
“Two things we knew right from the first week of practice were going to be an issue, defense and rebounding,” Larranaga said. “We have 10 new guys, lot of different moving parts, guys coming from other programs that do things a little differently and trying to get them to communicate on defense.”
He added that the freshmen are too quiet.
“They’re really nice kids, we need them to talk more. We need the upperclassmen to set the example, but we’re not getting the communication we need to defend properly.”
The other problem, Larranaga said, is “We have a lot of guys who think offense but don’t think rebounding. So, when the shot goes up, rather than blocking out and going after the ball, they tend to think, `Hey, someone else will get the rebound and I’m going to run down the floor and score.’”
Larranaga said one player who is doing well defensively is Nijel Pack, the only player left from the 2023 Final Four team. He is averaging 15.2 points and 4.7 rebounds, and defending well.
“Nijel is playing the best defense he has since coming here, but the transfers are not where I’d like them to be,” he said.
A third area of concern is poor three-point shooting. Larranaga said some players are over dribbling and taking shots off the bounce rather than finding an open man. The Hurricanes shot 6-of-24 (25 percent) from three-point range against Oklahoma State and 6-of-23 (25 percent) against VCU.
“We’ve got a very, very, very long way to go right now,” Larranaga said. “Habits are very, very hard to break. Developing new habits take a very long time. Our habits right now hurt us at both ends of the court. It is surprising that we’re not able to understand some of the simple fundamentals of blocking out and switching certain plays.”
Despite Charleston Southern’s record, Larranaga expects a tough matchup because of their size and offensive rebounding. Charleston Southern has three 6-10 players and all are in the 230-pound range.
“They have a kid named [Taje’] Kelly who is 6-7, 240 pounds and we don’t match up well with him,” Larranaga said. “He’s their leading scorer (14.9 ppg), rebounder (7.1) and best player. They do a lot of switching in man to man and pressuring, which we struggled with against Oklahoma State and VCU. They’re probably the best offensive rebounding team we’ve played against.”
Drake outrebounded UM 14-5 on the offensive boards and VCU shot 61 percent from the floor.
Things will get no easier after this weekend. Up next is a home game against 19th ranked Arkansas on Tuesday in the ACC-SEC Challenge (7 p.m., ESPN2).