Must Win Looms Tomorrow in Atlanta

The Hurricanes are out of options. If they want to snap a six year streak of being absent from the NCAA Tournament they must win tomorrow and then beat either Maryland or Duke next week to even be remotely considered a bubble team. A loss tomorrow would likely mean Miami would have to beat BOTH Maryland and Duke, something I believe the readers would agree with me is less than highly unlikely.

This puts a lot of pressure on Miami to "steal" road games. With an embarrassing home loss to bottom feeder Florida State already recorded, the Canes have no choice but to beat Seminoles on the road and to probably run the table against a weak remaining road slate. Miami hasn't been blown out yet this season but has lost repeatedly in the last seconds of games or in the last minutes.

Miami's earlier meeting with Georgia Tech has a deceivingly close score, because Miami was never threatened in the 2nd half. However, considering how poorly Tech shot the ball from outside that day, and how well they have done since that matchup they have to be considered the favorites.

Miami's perimeter defense is the worst in the ACC. In fact it may be one of the worst in the country. The lack of quickness exhibited by the Hurricanes guards has been exposed time and time again and repeatedly it seems like Miami falls short in games where they dictate the pace and control the paint. This is a trend we see more and more of in College Basketball as the three point shot has become almost too easy a weapon to come back on a team whose perimeter play is suspect.

Tomorrow the Canes must shut down Antony Morrow, Lewis Clinch and Matt Causey all excellent three point shooters. Causey himself won a game for Georgia Tech on road in Charlottesville a few weeks ago. His performance in the first game against Miami was awful and he even hurt his team by fighting with Dwayne Collins and firing up the Bank United Center crowd. Jeremis Smith has become a lethal weapon for the Jackets after years of fighting injuries.

The game Sunday is on Raycom and as usual has been picked up by WBFS/my 33 locally.