No Shame Whatsoever

The Hurricanes 2007-08 season ended this afternoon in Little Rock but not before a valiant comeback effort against an outstanding Texas team fell just short. Today's game was one of Miami's best all season, after a rocky start. The Hurricanes seemed focused from a defensive standpoint on taking away DJ Augustin's dribble penetration but were forced to change defenses after Texas lit up from three point range.

Obviously Jack McClinton's cold shooting for much of the game hurt Miami, but the bottom line on Miami's exit from the NCAA tournament is that after having an outstanding season, Dwayne Collins disappeared when he picked up his fourth foul in the final regular season game against Florida State. Collins scored a total of ten points in Miami's four postseason games, a far cry from a guy that was averaging double figures in ACC play prior to the Florida State loss. In addition, today Collins got free near the basket several times against Texas' zone which seemed more concerned about preventing McClinton from toughing the ball than anything else. Had Collins provided anything beyond missed dunks and blown layups, Miami would be preparing for Stanford in Sweet 16 right now.

Dwayne Collins is a big athlete who is still learning how to play Basketball. Next year as a Junior much improvement will be expected from the big guy. He has to become a better rebounder and less awkward under the basket. Jimmy Graham provides the energy and the spark off the bench up front. Collins has to provide the muscle.

Anthony King today played one of his better games of the season. He like Ray Hicks who nearly became a legend of Miami Basketball today, finished their somewhat conflicted careers on high notes. Ray Hicks is a Texas kid who was Frank Haith's first recruit to Miami. Haith had watched him in High School while serving on Rick Barnes Longhorn staff, but Hicks wasn't good enough to play for Texas. But when Perry Clark was fired, Miami lost an entire recruiting class and Haith offered Hicks a scholarship on the last day possible.

Hicks has always been undersized for a big man and too slow to play on the perimeter. I recall him prior to today hitting only one three pointer in his career: a shot against Wake Forest as a Freshman. Three years later he hit two great threes to pull Miami within an eyelash of the Sweet 16. Hicks, like Graham is a front line energy player, but today in his last College game he showed he could do anything for the sake of the team.

Lance Hurdle played an outstanding game today. I don't recall him turning the ball over once and his ability to beat Texas' zone off the dribble and get to the basket was instrumental in the Canes comeback. Next year with the entire Canes back court returning, big things will be expected.

This season's team will forever live in the memories of Miami Basketball fans as the team that brought the Canes back to the point we were at before Perry Clark destroyed our program. These kids re-established Miami as destination school for recruits and made the ACC elites take notice that bringing Miami into their snobbish club for Football purposes meant we could crash the party in Basketball. This team will go down as an unforgettable bunch and they went down today fighting: even in a loss the way we want to remember our teams.

Some other thoughts:

• The Hurricanes seemed to be outplaying Texas early in the 2nd half even as the Longhorns lead grew to 17 points. It simply seemed a matter of time before the Canes made a run, but the time ran out eventually on the Canes.
• I thought the foul called on Ray Hicks underneath as the shot clock expired with about seven minutes to go in game was awful. Miami had played thirty four seconds of great defense and had it all go to waste on that call. To complicate matters the Horns got two more possessions out of it when the Canes couldn't grab a rebound.
• Speaking of bad foul calls DJ Abrams absolutely shoved off on Jack McClinton when the referee whistled the foul on Miami with three seconds left on the shot clock and under four minutes to go in the game. That particular call may have cost Miami the game.
• I've seen some criticism of Miami tonight for not employing the press earlier. The reality is Miami has several times this year fallen far behind in games only to claw their way back by going to the basket on offense and drawing fouls (thus scoring with the clock stopped) at the same time as playing lockdown defense. That formula worked again today and the press Miami employed, while effective isn't the way Coach Haith likes to play.
• Miami had the great season they did because of free throw shooting. That was on display again today late. Put Miami on the line late in games and your conceding two points. Put Texas on the line and anything can happen.
• Later this week I'll have a season recap and look at ahead to next season.