Miami Hurricanes cruise past Delaware State as they prepare for tough road tests
The Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball team is trying to turn itself back into an NCAA Tournament contender as it was just three seasons ago.
The Hurricanes have checked a few boxes so far.
Their size and athleticism have made them one of the highest scoring teams in the nation, averaging 92.2 points per game through their first six.
And they know how to take care of business against overmatched opponents as they did once again on Sunday afternoon when Miami routed Delaware State, 97-41, at the Watsco Center.
The Hurricanes (5-1) won their second in a row following their 82-68 loss to defending national champion Florida on Nov. 16 in Jacksonville, and scored 97 or more points for the fourth time this season.
Even without two injured starters - center Ernest Udeh Jr. and guard Tru Washington - Miami dominated the Hornets thanks to Malik Reneau’s 24 points and 10 rebounds and Tre Donaldson’s 21 points and six assists. It was Reneau’s third double-double of the season.
Reneau and Donaldson also mirrored each other almost identically as each shot a perfect 100 percent from the field with Reneau going 10 for 10 and Donaldson going 8 for 8.
The Hurricanes overall shot 38 for 62 (64.5 percent) and dominated once again in the paint where they outscored the Hornets, 52-12.
“Our size and our height gives us the ability to do so much on the court,” Reneau said. “Just getting in space and going downhill helps us, and just being confident is going to be the next big step for us.”
Miami is playing with a completely new roster following a disastrous 7-24 season that saw longtime coach Jim Larranaga retire just a season and a half after leading the Hurricanes to their first Final Four.
This prompted Miami to start all over with Jai Lucas, a former assistant coach at Duke, at the helm.
As the Hurricanes’ five wins and their loss to the Gators has shown, Miami appears to be trending in a positive direction, but it is still a process.
“Part of it is getting them to understand that in these games, where the score gets out of hand, we have to stay true to who we are, no matter the opponent, no matter the score, it has to show every time we go on the court,” Lucas said. “We’re still a little too inconsistent for me, but we’re trending in the right direction.”
It remains to be seen how well the Hurricanes will fare down the road in the ACC, and against some of the tougher competition they are about to face over the next two weeks.
Miami will next compete in the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando where it will face No. 9-ranked BYU on Thanksgiving Day (5 p.m., ESPN). The Hurricanes would then face either Georgetown or Dayton on Saturday in either the tournament’s championship or consolation game.
After that, it’s a true road test on Dec. 2 at Ole Miss as part of the annual ACC-SEC Challenge.
“We’ve got three big-time games coming up that will prepare us for conference play,” Lucas said. “Sometimes you can tell them stuff as a coach, and you can give them the answers to the test, but they don’t understand until they go through it. I feel their response from the film and everything has been good. We’ve just had some injuries since Florida that have kept us out of whack in practice so hopefully we get those guys back.”
Udeh Jr. missed his second consecutive game, but Lucas said after the game, he didn’t expect either to miss significant time and has some hope they may be available to play this coming week.
Lucas said the Hurricanes emphasized their defensive effort Sunday, and it showed as Miami fed off 19 Delaware State turnovers, turning them into 35 points. It helped Miami deliver one of its best 3-point shooting efforts of the young season, going 10 for 23 from that range. Donaldson led that effort, going 4 for 4 from 3.
“It just shows how hard we’re working and the ability to execute and get the shots we want,” Donaldson said.
The Hurricanes showcased their depth on Sunday as 6-10 Turkish freshman Salih Altuntas stepped up off the bench with 13 points on 6 for 7 shooting. He also collected 11 rebounds for his first career double-double. Noam Dovrat, a 6-5 junior guard from Israel, also played over 25 minutes and finished with nine points and five assists.
“Noam just has to continue to get healthy,” Lucas said. “His shoulder has had him out for a little bit and he’s still not 100 percent...His experience from playing and his IQ is something that can help. We just have to get him healthy because he can be a good offset where sometimes we can move Tre off the ball and let him score a little bit more.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2025 at 3:54 PM.
