Hurricanes focus on road game vs. Boston College Saturday before UNC showdown
It’s February, which means March is just a month away, which means every college basketball game seems a little more urgent as teams aim to build their resumes ahead of the NCAA Tournament.
The University of Miami, enjoying a resurgence under new coach Jai Lucas, is in position to vie for a berth but could use more wins with nine games remaining in the regular season.
The Hurricanes are in sixth place in the ACC standings with a 6-3 league record (17-5 overall) heading into the road game Saturday at Boston College. UM is coming off a heartbreaking one-point home loss to Cal and eager to notch a win before heading home for a Tuesday night ESPN game against 14th ranked North Carolina.
Lucas said his team is focused on the Eagles (9-13, 2-7 ACC) and not looking ahead to the Tar Heels.
“We’re not in any position to be worried about a trap game,” he said. “Every game for us is important. I’m just focused on Boston College and everything around here has been Boston College. I anticipate us firing on all cylinders Saturday, and then after that happens we’ll move on to whatever’s next.”
Miami will be without guard Tru Washington for the second game in a row as he deals with an unspecified personal issue. There is no timetable for his return.
“He’s still dealing with some personal stuff, and we’re just here to support him and whenever he’s ready to come back and rejoin the team, we’re here,” Lucas said. “We’re taking it day by day.”
He called the Boston College defense “one of the best in the league” and stressed that the Eagles have been in every game, with the exception of the Duke game last week, which they lost 67-49.
“That’s just the league this year, everybody’s made a big jump,” Lucas said. “Everybody’s a lot better. If you really get down to the nitty gritty, it’s one or two possessions go either way and they could easily be .500 or maybe one game over .500.”
Boston College has size, plays a physical style and relies on Fred Payne (15.1 points per game) and Donald Hand (13 ppg).
Miami’s leading scorers are Mailk Reneau (19.9 ppg) and Tre Donaldson (16 ppg). Freshmen Shelton Henderson and Dante Allen have also played key roles and center Ernest Udeh Jr. has been a force in the paint.
As a team, the Hurricanes rank fourth in the ACC in scoring with 84.7 points per game, fifth in defense (70.1 ppg) and fourth in winning margin (14.6 points).
Lucas feels his team is “right where we need to be” at this point in the season.
“I feel the team has done a good job throughout the season of getting better and dealing with adversity,” Lucas said. “We’ve won on the road. We’ve won at home. If you told me 10 months ago that we’d be in the situation where we are right now, top five, somewhere in there, this is where you want to be.
“Duke has kind of separated themselves from everybody, but we’re still right there, where we’re in position to compete for a championship.”
The challenge now, Lucas said, is keeping his players locked in every game.
“You try to eliminate the big picture because in February, a lot more people start paying attention to college basketball and there’s a lot more noise,” he said. “So, how do we keep them focused on the process? That’s my job. If we do that, we’ll be fine.”