It’s been three seasons now since Jim Larranaga and Miami did the unthinkable and claimed both the ACC’s regular season and tournament championships. The Hurricanes had been picked to finish fifth in the conference before the season, so it’s not like expectations were low. But to dominate the likes of Duke, North Carolina and NC State from January through early March, well, it was a season that many in Coral Gables believed they’d never see.
Miami basketball is experiencing its fairy tale success all over again
Jim Larranaga and Miami are rising again after a powerhouse first two weeks that included victories over ranked teams like Butler and Utah.
Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
The succeeding two seasons have to have left some Miami fans wondering if the fairy tale season actually happened or if it was just a coping mechanism to deal with the fact that the ‘Canes have still never played in a regional final.
After losing all of their frontcourt experience as well as all of a dynamic starting backcourt that included first team All-American Shane Larkin, Miami understandably took a monster step back in 2013-14. Larranaga's team fought through its talent deficiencies to finish with a winning record, but that 17-16 mark still left them without a postseason. A rough non-conference run that included losses to Green Bay, Providence and Eastern Kentucky ultimately doomed a 2014-15 Miami squad that was one of the first four teams left out of the NCAA Tournament despite having 90-74 road win over eventual national champion Duke on its resume.
The snub left a handful of folks in Coral Gables wondering if the “one of the best coaches in the game” hype surrounding Larranaga was truly justified. After all, this is a sport with a March measuring stick, and Coach L and company have spent three of their four seasons at The U watching the Big Dance from the comfort of their homes.
Larranaga addressed the state of his program as well as the totality of his accomplishments on a local radio show earlier this month:
When my staff and I got here five years ago, there were several goals that we had. One was we wanted to beat the perennial powerhouses — Duke and Carolina — and we've done that. We've won twice in Cameron Indoor Stadium. We've won twice in Chapel Hill, North Carolina against the Tar Heels. We have winning records against both of those programs.
One of the other goals was to win a regular season championship or an ACC tournament championship and we've done both of those. One of the other goals that was gonna take a little longer — and we knew — was to create the kind of excitement here in Coral Gables and in Miami to get the fans behind this program from the start of the season to the end of the season and now with less than 500, close to 400 season tickets left — and we're selling 50 a day — we expect that before the end of the month we will be totally sold out at the Bank United Center for every home game this season... That's something that everybody told me was impossible. No one could imagine that we could do that but with the help of a great coaching staff and a terrific group of young men — players who really have elevated this program — we're gonna do something for the first time in school history and we're really proud of that.
Our goals are always high, our expectations are always to compete with the best teams in the country and in the ACC and win championships. We're all about excellence.
Through the first week and a half of the 2015-16 season, it certainly appears as though those Miami fans who had faith in Larranaga’s quest for excellence are about to be rewarded.
Perhaps no team in America has been more impressive thus far than the Miami Hurricanes. While the defining storyline of the season has been power conference teams suffering shocking losses to mid- or low-major opponents, the ‘Canes have rolled through the toughest portion of their non-conference schedule with next to no resistance.
After dispatching UT-Rio Grande Valley and preseason Sun Belt favorite Louisiana-Lafayette by a combined score of 179-136, the ‘Canes traveled to San Juan for the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, where one of the best early season tournament fields was waiting for them. Miami humiliated super freshman Malik Newman and Mississippi State on the first night (105-79), treated No. 16 Utah the same way in the semifinals (90-66), and then boat-raced No. 22 Butler (85-75) to claim the tournament’s championship.
“It’s only November,” Larranaga said Sunday night. “Teams are going to get better. The really great teams are going to improve dramatically between now and March. And we want to be one of those teams.”
Given the makeup of this Hurricane team, being “great” by March seems more plausible than not.
At times last season, it seemed like Kansas State transfer Angel Rodriguez was uncertain of how to best handle the dual role of team captain and offensive star. Larranaga had cast him as such before the start of the season, but when fellow junior Sheldon McClellan began to emerge as the team's most consistent scoring threat, Rodriguez appeared uncertain about how to handle it.
A year of experience and an important offseason have done wonders for the backcourt duo, which figures to have a claim for being the ACC’s best. Rodriguez spoke often during the summer about deferring more to the players around him, while the soft-spoken McClellan acknowledged his need to emerge as more of a leader.
The adjustments have resulted in both players giving defining performances when the early-season lights have been the brightest. McClellan, as expected, is the team’s leading scorer at 17.4 points per game. He dropped 27 points in the win over Utah on 10-of-12 shooting. Rodriguez is still putting the ball in the basket, but he’s also improved on both his assist and turnover numbers from a year ago. He scored 19 points in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off championship win over Butler, and wound up being named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
“My goal is to be more consistent, and have a great assist-to-turnover ratio,” Rodriguez said of his evolved game. “We have a very good chance of doing something special, but we have to be consistent and make sure we make it about the team rather than the individual.”
It's not just the improved play from the star guards that has made Miami one of the most talked about teams of the season's opening two weeks. Big man Tonye Jekiri is averaging a double-double, senior forward Ivan Cruz Uceda is proving to be a capable scorer from any spot on the floor, and both Ja'Quan Newton and Davon Reed have proven themselves to be capable of lighting up the scoreboard on a night when McClellan and/or Rodriguez are just a bit off.
Despite returning nearly everyone from a team that many believed should have finished its 2014-15 season in the NCAA Tournament, Miami has spent the first part of 2015-16 without a national ranking attached to its name. That’s unlikely to be the case for the rest of this calendar year. Having already cleared its toughest non-conference hurdles with room to spare, there’s a very real chance that The U will begin ACC play on Jan. 2 with a sparkling 12-0 record.
On Sunday, Larranaga dismissed the notion that at least part of his team’s hot start was due to the fact that it was playing with a chip on its shoulder.
“Whether we’re ranked or not ranked is not the motivation,” Larranaga said.
The motivation for Miami, according to its head coach, has been and remains excellence. Through 10 days of play, no team has been more excellent than the Hurricanes.
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