Miami Basketball Season Wrap Up

Jack McClinton scored 38 points in Miami's first round NCAA win/US Newswire

A year ago on the All Canes blog I wrote how upbeat I was about Miami Basketball despite the horrible season, the first twenty loss season by the Canes in well over a decade. Rebuilding takes time and patience, and that’s something I hope Hurricane Football fans understand because when it comes together from the ground up right in front of your eyes, it’s like seeing a baby grow up into an adult. This year’s Miami team grew in front of our eyes through tough times last year and unlike so many teams with a losing record, they fought until the final horn sounded in every game. That’s what brought this unit together and solidified one of the best teams in the recent history of UM Basketball.

Hurricane Basketball doesn't exactly have the proudest of traditions. But the program isn't as irrelevant on the national stage as many in south Florida seem to think. Between the 1994-95 season and 2001-02 season Miami was one of only eleven programs in what we call a power conference (ACC, Big East, SEC, Big Twelve, Big Ten, Pac Ten) to post a winning record every season. Duke and North Carolina both posted losing records during that period as did Florida, twice. The Hurricane program was in outstanding shape until it was trashed by former Coach Perry Clark who it is reported showed up to games in limousines instead of on the team bus and who was so obsessed with recruiting "athletes" to the U that he abandoned the foundation of his predecessor Leonard Hamilton and stopped recruiting south Florida.

The results as our readers know were disastrous. Not only did the program slip into oblivion under Clark, but when he was fired the team didn't have a single player from the state of Florida on scholarship. While Clark recruited some national three and four star recruits they were simply athletes without a position or any sort Basketball sense. Frank Haith inherited this mess and within four seasons got Miami back to the tournament and won a game in the NCAAs to boot. In addition he turned some of the raw leftovers from Perry Clark like Rob Hite and Anthony Harris into legitimate Basketball players.

The press has been filled all season with stories about Jack McClinton, and why not? This year he had arguably the best season any UM player had since Tim James in 1999. His performance against St Mary's in the NCAA Tournament ensures his mark will always be on the UM program. He will truly always be remembered fondly as one of the titans in UM Basketball history. But contrary to the press stories the Canes were not a one man band in the 2007-08 season.

Last season, Brian Asbury was arguably the best Hurricane on a bad team. This year he was a mediocre to poor player on a good team. What happened to Asbury? My guess is he's mentally fragile and lost confidence in his ability to go to the basket and finish. Too many times early in the season we saw Asbury miss layups and thus later in the year if he drove the lane he'd pull up and take a poor jump shot or disappear all together. Asbury is the one player on the Hurricanes who can play really strong man on defense. However, due to Coach Haith's orientation as a protege' of Rick Barnes, the Canes play zone, especially the matchup zone an awful lot. That's not to say the Hurricanes don't have some man to man set. They do, but when Miami wants to shut a team down we usually see the zone. (Which is the same with Texas where Rick Barnes coaches.)

Dwayne Collins showed more explosiveness and post presence this season than he did as a Freshman a year ago. But the way Collins ended the season after a spectacular stretch which included a 26 point outburst in the historic win over Duke, leaves some doubt as to how effective he'll be next season as the primary scorer in the paint. Anthony King's graduation may not affect the Hurricanes at all if Collins returns to his mid-season form, but if he performs as he did in the ACC and NCAA Tournaments, The Canes could be in trouble. King for his part struggled especially after gifting away a game in Raleigh against NC State in January. It seemed King wasn't mentally there for the remainder of the regular season often times taking wild jump shots instead of posting up and losing his man on defense. However, being a fifth year senior who needed a medical waiver last year to return for this season, King embraced the Canes NCAA tournament bid and played his best Basketball of the year in the two tournament games.

Jimmy Graham is quite possibly the best hustle player in the ACC. The big man provides energy off the bench and it seems like Miami is always much better when he's on the floor. Graham's problem however is over aggressiveness which often times leads to serious foul trouble and reduced minutes. Senior Ray Hicks bounced back after a suspension plagued season to standout as role player in his final season. Hicks brought a defensive intensity and a strong work ethic to the floor every night.

Lance Hurdle was the difference maker in this year's Miami team. The JUCO transfer settled down the point guard situation after Frank Haith choose to dismiss troublemaker Denis Clemente after last season. Hurdle's quickness and good on the ball defending as well as his critical role in the matchup zone, helped Miami immeasurably this year. Without getting this prized JUCO transfer, Miami likely would have ended up in the NIT yet again rather than the NCAAs. Freshman Eddie Rios came in with lots of publicity but only showed flashes of what was expected. However, in two key games late in the season, at Virginia Tech and home to Duke, Rios handled the ball well when called on and limited his turnovers.

James Dews finished the season as Miami's second leading scorer but Dews who started the season on fire cooled off when the battles of the ACC began. Often times Dews was unsure as to whether he wanted to be long range sharpshooter ala Jack McClinton, or whether to use his Basketball instincts to drive the lane. While Dews has a good midrange shot from about 12 to 15 feet, he seemed hesitant later in the season to take guys off the dribble and shoot from that range. Nonetheless, Dews is a solid player and provided key scoring and ball handling for the Hurricanes this season. The Hurricanes depth was hurt by the injury to Adrian Thomas against Providence in the Puerto Rico tip off classic. However, Thomas an explosive swingman was granted a medical redshirt and will be back next year.

In this day and age more and more games in College Basketball seem to be lost at the free throw line. A major factor in Miami's success this season was late game free throw shooting.The Hurricane guards shot exceptionally well from the free throw line all season. Other teams in the ACC shoot a high percentage from the line, (except Clemson whose horrible FT shooting did them in during the NCAAs) but nobody I would venture to say in the nation shot as well from the line late in close games as Miami did this year. The Hurricanes ACC victories over Clemson, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Duke and Virginia could all be credited to the team collectively shooting over 85% from the line in the last four minutes of extremely tight league games. Miami's victory in December over the SEC West Champion Mississippi State Bulldogs in Starkville also owed itself to Miami's clutch free throw shooting and the Bulldogs poor shooting from the line late in that game.

After stumbling to a 2-6 ACC record (which put Miami within a half game of last place in the league) including two heartbreaking giveaways losses to inferior teams (NC State and Wake Forest), the Canes won six of seven and locked down an NCAA birth. Much like last year when Miami was playing for pride and could have easily mailed it in (as the team often did under Perry Clark), the team fought through adversity and this season they ended up securing an NCAA birth before the conference tournament began. The remarkable turnaround not just from last season but within this season was due to the coaching of Frank Haith and the never say die attitude of the players. Several times this season we saw the Hurricanes seemingly buried in games come storming back to either steal a win or almost get over the mountain. The NCAA tournament loss to Texas was a great indicator of the character and fight this team had: they never give up on a game and hardly ever give up on an individual possession or play. That fighting spirit represents the difference between good teams and bad teams in College Basketball. Miami's talent level is not currently much higher than it was when Perry Clark was leading the school down into the Big East gutter. But what is different is the attitude, the character and the winning spirit around the program. That's precisely why Miami made the NCAA Tournament this year and the future for Miami Basketball is as bright as it has ever previously been. With four returning starters and the most prized recruit of the Haith era, DeQuan Jones entering the program next season, Miami should be able to return to the NCAA tournament. But the ACC is never an easy haul and much like this season the Canes will have to come to play every night in America's most passionate Basketball league.