For a Basketball program whose transition to the ACC has been shaky at best, Miami has found its own personal punching bag: Maryland. For the sixth time in seven meetings since joining the league the Canes beat the Terps who won the 2002 National Championship and 2004 ACC Tournament Championship. Now if we could only figure out how to beat Florida State!
I was disappointed by the crowd today. Getting to the arena somewhat late, I was still able to get down to the 3rd row of General Admission. That should NEVER happen for an ACC game. Anyhow, the Canes played with a remarkable amount of intensity all game long and even when they underwent lapses like the one late in the first half and then one about five minutes into the second half, they pulled out of it with some intense defensive work and real quick hands to slow down the Maryland break. Dwayne Collins continued his strong play of the last two weeks today as did Lance Hurdle whose development as a ball handler is the single biggest factor as to why Miami has won four straight after losing six of seven league games. Another key has been the re-emergence of Brian Asbury as a scoring threat and defensive stopper.
The Canes are now 6-6 in the league and 19-7 overall with an RPI certain to be in the high 20s tomorrow morning when the new ratings are released. This puts Miami in the tournament if the season ended today, but it doesn't and the Hurricanes were notoriously poor closers in their first two ACC seasons when we began 6-5 and 6-3 respectively but crashed to 7-9 both years. The Hurricanes began this ACC campaign 2-6 but have a good shot of finishing better than 7-9.
Much more on the RPI, and the final four regular season games as well as a new podcast with our RPI "expert" renowned blogger Michael James in the next few days.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
NEVER FEAR THE TURTLE: Canes Rolling
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6 comments:
King was once again weak and awful.
GO CANES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great win guys! Let's keep it going!
If we can keep building on this momentum we will not only finish strong but could surprise in the ACC tourney and the big dance as well. So much for all the hate Haith was getting a few weeks ago. Nobody had the patience to wait the season out. Where are you now folks?? Where are you to say that Haith didn't stand up enough during the game or there wernt enough towels on the bench. Anything else you negative idiots want to chime in about???? I'll take your silence as a NO.
LETS GO CANES!!! See ya in the big dance baby!!
I'd like to see a lot less fans from the opposing team, especially when they have 3rd row seats.
Still, the atmosphere at the games is definitely improving. The student section was rocking again today (esp. in the 2nd half), and even some of the paying crowd was getting into it.
Lets give it up for Jack to finding other ways to score, again.
ANNND...using his left hand in the paint.
You really see the difference in his handles and confidence with the basketball. I dont think I have seen him trip in the last three games. Plus, that crossover has been devastating for the other team.
Basketball feels MUCH better there than in the AAA right now. The vibe has moved to CG. I was stunned at the high turnout of Maryland fans, but they left early when the game got out of hand. They got outyelled easily though. Student section was solid, much better than in the Miami Arena days of old. I am SO happy to see this team have a college atmosphere there. Haith didn't seem to make any mistakes or do anything astounding, but the talent won out. Maryland had alot of the breaks, both on tipped balls, ref calls, and basket falls, until the end of the second half. The 3 point halftime lead should not have been so close though, but we rushed our shots and gave them a chance to finish with 5 points. The Maryland PG was whiney, and their coach was on the court nagging the refs MUCH more than Haith. Haith only went to talk to them after consecutive plays where our guy got knocked down for a no-call folloed by their guy tripping on his own feet for a foul call. I will say that the visit must have been effective, because nothing so BLATENTLY bad happened after that.
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