A look at the five Miami Hurricanes starters who have catapulted UM to the Sweet 16
The Miami Hurricanes’ remarkable ride into the Sweet 16 stands as a testament to the players fighting through early-season adversity and overcoming a consistent height deficit, the group’s willingness to embrace Jim Larranaga’s swarming “scramble” defense, and the coaching staff’s ability to lift a program that had been decimated by injuries for two years.
But it’s also a credit to UM’s player development and continued mastery of the transfer portal.
The development aspect is evident in how senior center Sam Waardenburg and third-year sophomore guard Isaiah Wong have grown their games here.
And throughout Larranaga’s tenure, UM repeatedly has eyeballed and snagged transfers who have led to winning.
Charlie Moore and Jordan Miller (both in their first years at UM) and Kameron McGusty (in his third year) now join Shane Larkin (who signed at DePaul but never played there), Kenny Kadji, Sheldon McClellan, Angel Rodriguez and Kamari Murphy as transfers who helped catapult UM to the Sweet 16 under this coaching staff.
Associate head coach Chris Caputo, who has done good work with the program as Larranaga’s right-hand man for 11 years here and 20 years overall, offered insight on a group of starters that has led Miami to the Midwest regional semifinals on Friday against Iowa State (9:59 p.m., TBS).
▪ Moore, playing for his fifth school in four years (after stints at California, Kansas and DePaul), has been everything the Hurricanes could have hoped and more.
His scoring has dropped a bit from his two years at DePaul (15.5, 14.4 to 12.8) but that’s because he has more offensive talent around him.
His efficiency has never been this good; he’s shooting 37.7 percent on three-pointers and 51.4 percent on two pointers, both easily career highs. A player who never shot more than 40.1 percent in a season stands at 45.7 percent.
“We’ve been more balanced offensively as a team, and that created some easier shots for him from three,” Caputo said. “He hasn’t taken a ton of real difficult ones.”
What’s more, his 4.6 assist average is second highest of his career and his 1.5 steals are a career high.
“The way we’re playing defensively, he’s done a great job pressuring the ball and being disruptive,” Caputo said.
The player that Larranaga called “our Chris Paul” was named to the ACC’s All Defensive team, and his calm, steady stewardship of this team has been instrumental.
CBS’ Jim Nantz spoke of his infectious smile, and Caputo raved about his maturity.
“He reminds you of Angel Rodriguez in that sense,” Caputo said. “We were joking that he has played in more arenas than anyone in the history of college basketball.”
So how did UM land him?
Caputo said UM immediately recruited him when he entered the portal, and Larranaga already had his phone number from an earlier pursuit. Third-year UM assistant coach Bill Courtney had previously worked at DePaul and “had known Charlie,” Caputo said.
UM also had to answer this question internally: “If you’ve been at a couple schools, you get painted with the brush, is that guy a good guy?” Caputo said.
“In Charlie’s case, every move made sense. At Cal, he had a great freshman year but the coach leaves. At Kansas, which is a great program, he can’t really find his footing there. Then he goes to DePaul to be closer to home and then their coach is let go. And with COVID last year, he felt, ‘I want to take advantage of this’” and find a new opportunity in his final college season.
▪ Miller, the 6-7 combo forward who’s averaging 10.1 points, hasn’t needed to score as much as he did at George Mason, where he averaged 15.8 points last season.
But like Moore, he has been more efficient, raising his shooting percentage from 46.3 last season to 55.3.
“He’s such a crafty finisher near the rim and while he’s not a traditional post player, he plays so well along the baseline area,” Caputo said. “He’s shooting 70 percent in the restricted area. Great touch. Has a knack for offensive rebounding. All the things we didn’t have in the starting group, he has brought.”
Like Moore, his steals are way up, from 1.0 per game last season at George Mason to 1.8. UM beat out Virginia Tech for Miller last offseason.
“Jordan was an all conference player in the Atlantic 10 and a guy we were familiar with because of our time at George Mason,” Caputo said.
Grabbing a player with that skill set was essential after UM lost Matt Cross and Earl Timberlake in the transfer portal.
▪ UM assuredly wouldn’t be in this spot if Wong and McGusty had opted to turn pro last year.
With neither viewed as certain NBA draft picks, they wisely returned to school and scored 21 and 20, respectively, in the 79-61 win against Auburn on Sunday.
Wong’s scoring is down - 17.1 to 15.5 - but that’s because he has more offensively-skilled players around him than a year ago.
And like most everybody else on this team, his efficiency is up: He’s shooting 45.7 from the field, compared with 41.6 and 43.1 his first two seasons, and his turnovers are down.
Named to the All-ACC third team this year, Wong has shot better overall from the field even though his three-point shooting oddly has dropped every season, from 37.3 to 34.7 to 30.4 this year (45 for 148).
Wong is at his best “getting into traffic, raising up and shooting,” Caputo said. “He’s among the best mid-range jump shooters in America statistically. He has really done a great job.
“His ability to understand, ‘I want to be on a winning team and prove I can be a really good player on a tournament team, Sweet 16 team’ [is key]. I give him credit for buying into the way we’re playing offensively. His usage might be down. If he wasn’t such a great teammate and person, it wouldn’t have worked as well.”
And Canes fans saw his athleticism with his electric dunk against Auburn.
▪ McGusty has matured from a skilled but raw player for two years at Oklahoma to a first-team All-ACC player this season, his third at Miami.
McGusty, a sixth-year senior, led UM in points per game (17.5) and averaged 4.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.8 steals. He is the third player in program history to earn All-ACC first-team honors.
“The biggest thing this year is he really worked at his body and being in the best shape possible and that allowed him to have a year when he was really healthy,” Caputo said.
“Two years ago, he was ACC player of the week and... had a big game here against Duke and he gets hurt in that game. Last year, gets hurt against Florida Gulf Coast.”
▪ Waardenburg, a skilled 6-10 shooter from New Zealand, has developed a defensive bent during his time at UM, which has been critical playing in a starting lineup without any other player taller than 6-7 (Miller).
Waardenburg had a dynamic block against Auburn and averaged 1.3 blocks this season, after averaging 0.4 and 0.3 his first two seasons.
When he first got here, “you could tell he was not void of athleticism and quickness for a guy his size, but... he was very typical of a 17 or 18 year old kid [in that] he needed to get a lot stronger,” Caputo said.
“He may not look that strong physically, but he’s a strong guy and can leverage his athleticism. Excellent pick and roll defender, smart defender. He’s a different from a lot of stretch fours and fives; he also has some incredible defensive versatility.”
This Moore, McGusty, Wong, Miller, Waardenburg starting group is a special quintet, one that has exceeded all reasonable expectations with this postseason run.
“Putting five guys on the floor that can pass, dribble and shoot makes it very difficult to defend at times when we’re able to spread you out,” Caputo said. “The ability to share the ball, be selfless, the group has really taken to that.
“Defensively, the effort given by the guards and the versatility of Jordan and Kam to trap and defend on the perimeter and defend around the basket has helped. It’s a veteran, versatile group.”
