Reeling UM men hope to rebound vs. Calipari-led Arkansas in SEC/ACC Challenge Tuesday
Coming off four consecutive losses, including one of the most embarrassing in recent program history, the Miami Hurricanes held a pair of team meetings during the weekend in hopes of righting the ship before Tuesday’s SEC/ACC Challenge game at home against Arkansas.
One meeting was with coach Jim Larranaga and his staff, the other was players only. The Canes had an honest chat about the team’s struggles and why they lost at home to Charleston Southern, a 2-7 team that is rated No. 301 of 364 teams in the KenPom rankings and had not beaten a Division I opponent this season.
“We talked about toughness, and saying what we needed to say to each other,” said freshman Austin Swarz, who scored a season-high 15 points on Saturday. “It was definitely needed and a great conversation we had about things we need to clean up and how we could help each other out. We’re expecting some changes coming into the next game.”
The main areas of emphasis were defense and rebounding.
“It’s been the same issues since we started practice in July; our defense and our rebounding are just not at the level we need to play at,” Larranaga said, pointing out that UM’s defensive efficiency is ranked No. 277 per the KenPom analytics. “We’re going to try some subtle changes.”
He is hopeful that problems can be corrected because UM’s 2022 Elite Eight team had similar defensive and rebounding deficiencies early in that season and was able to turn things around.
Miami’s offensive efficiency is ranked No. 24 in the nation, so scoring is not a problem.
“When you have 10 new guys and they all played defense at different schools… we have four freshmen learning everything for the first time and seven seniors who all came from different programs and played defense differently and our trying to learn our system,” Larranaga explained.
They will have their hands full against the Razorbacks, under the direction of legendary coach John Calipari, who is in his first season there. Arkansas (5-2) was ranked in the Top 25 until being dropped Monday after a loss to Illinois.
“I know Coach Cal for a very long time,” Larranaga said. “They’ve got a bunch of NBA guys. The first is the 7-footer [Zvonoimir Ivisic], whom we call Big Z. He’s an NBA stretch five men. He’s a very, very good three-point shooter. You’ve got to guard him at the three-point line.”
Arkansas’ roster also includes Adou Thiero, who followed Calipari from Kentucky and was on the Wildcats team that beat UM 95-73 last season. He is averaging 19 points and 5.9 rebounds for the Razorbacks. Larranaga compared him to NBA legend Karl Malone.
D.J. Wagner is another Kentucky transfer and Johnell Davis from FAU’s 2023 Final Four team is another player to watch.
But “the guy who makes them go” is freshman point guard Boogie Fland, Larranaga said. “He is lightning quick, plays almost the whole game and is an expert at using ball screens. The other players live off his creativity.”
UM guard Jalen Blackmon said: “Their guards are really good, really quick and can get downhill. It will take a full team effort to keep them out of the paint and take them out of rhythm on shots.”
The status of UM point guard and leading scorer Nijel Pack was questionable as of Monday afternoon. He injured his leg last weekend in the loss to Oklahoma State, played the next game vs. VCU, practiced on Wednesday and Friday, but did not feel up to playing against Charleston Southern.
Freshman Jalil Bethea started in Pack’s absence. He went 3-for-8, scored six points and had one rebound and no assists in 18 minutes.
How to Watch: Miami vs Arkansas in the SEC/ACC Challenge tips off at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
This story was originally published December 2, 2024 at 5:32 PM.