UM routs Stetson 102-61, rolls into showdown vs. No. 10 Florida Gators on Sunday
Time will tell how good this University of Miami basketball team can be under first-year head coach Jai Lucas, but this much is clear through the first three games: the Hurricanes are big, tough, scrappy, and bound to create headaches for opponents this season.
Miami trounced Stetson 102-61 on Monday night at the Watsco Center to improve its record to 3-0 with its first major test looming Sunday night against the 10th-ranked Florida Gators in Jacksonville in a nationally-televised ESPN game.
It was the first time Miami scored 100 points in back-to-back games since February 1989, when the Canes hit the century mark three games in a row. The Hurricanes’ 28 assists were one shy of a school record.
Malik Reneau, a Miami native and Indiana transfer, led the Hurricanes with 22 points in 23 minutes on 9-of-15 shooting. He also was UM’s leading rebounder with 10 and contributed three assists.
As a 6-9 forward with an excellent shooting touch, Reneau spreads the floor and creates mismatches. The senior has scored 20-plus points in all three games since joining UM, the first time in his career he had three straight 20-point games.
“We were just sharing the ball a lot, getting downhill, getting to the corner, attacking the rim,” Reneau said. “My teammates find me a lot, a lot of situations where I’m in the middle and I’m the facilitator and so I’m able to assist and score points in those areas.”
Lucas predicted after the season-opening win over Jacksonville that Reneau would emerge as the team’s leading scorer this season.
“[Opponents] have to figure out how to guard him,” Lucas said. “What are you going to do in the ball screens? What are you going to do when he’s on the block? Watching college basketball these last couple of years, I think size has been a separator. When you watch the teams that were really good last year, Auburn, Florida, how we were at Duke, Houston, UConn, those guys played big.
“If you want to be able to compete right away, you’ve got to play big. Malik gives us a lot of versatility, and you can see how talented he is offensively.”
He challenged Reneau to rebound more, and on Monday he obliged.
“I’ve been on Malik about rebounding,” Lucas said. “He can score the ball. That’s his talent that he has naturally, but he’s got to rebound. That’s his next step to becoming a really good player. I told my my goal for him is to try to be an All-American, and part of doing that is rebounding at a high level.”
New Mexico transfer Tru Washington scored 17 points. Michigan transfer Tre Donaldson did not start due to a minor injury but entered the game early and did not look hampered as he finished with 15 points, a game-high 10 assists and five rebounds.
“Part of Tre’s reccruitment here was becoming a real point guard, not just a scoring point guard, making himself more of a pass first point guard and I think he showed a little bit of that [Monday],” Lucas said.
Freshman Shelton Henderson, a Houston-area native who decommitted from Duke to follow former Blue Devils assistant Lucas to Miami, went 6-of-8 for 15 points with five rebounds.
Lucas promised in preseason interviews that this UM team would rely on size, physicality and tenacious defense and that is proving to be true.
UM has outscored opponents 158-76 in the paint this season. On Monday, the Canes outrebounded the Hatters 45-31 and held them to 33 percent shooting.
“Miami’s got a lot of bodies, a lot of size, a lot of athleticism, and that really impacted our guys,” said Stetson coach Donnie Jones. “It’s hard to create that type of atmosphere for us on a day to day basis until they see it here…we just don’t have those type of bodies and Miami uses that size to their advantage.”
But the real test will come against the Gators on Sunday (8:30 p.m., ESPN).
“How can we not be excited when you get the opportunity to play the defending national champion, a top [10] team, and like I told the guys, it’s not going to be a basketball game, it’s a war, a fight,” Lucas said.
“It will be the first time we see somebody whose size and physicality matches ours, and I’m excited about the opportunity to play and for our guys to see how good we really are and how we stack up. I like my team. I like my guys. And this first early test will be a good one for us.”
Reneau is just as pumped.
“I’m expecting a fight, a war, like Coach said in the locker room,” Reneau said. “I’m expecting to go out there and give my blood, sweat and tears. I hope they’re ready.”
This story was originally published November 10, 2025 at 10:38 PM.