Hamilton Beats Haith Again; AGAIN IN OT

Well our old coach continues to trump our current one and our team continues to lose to its rival. For the 3rd consecutive year Miami's seeding in the ACC Tournament took a beating thanks to a final game loss to the FSU and for the 2nd straight year the game was in overtime.

The Hurricanes took very little positive from the game today. Lance Hurdle had a real nightmare of a day and James Dews as has been the case the entire 2nd half of the season was non existent. The referees were awful but they were equally bad both ways, so that is little excuse.

The key moment in the game was Dwayne Collins picking up his fourth foul. Collins had a poor first half but was dominating Ryan Reid and Uche Echefu in the paint early in the 2nd. But for whatever reason Coach Haith felt even late in the game he'd rather have Anthony King who doesn't set proper screens, tends to play too deep and has serious mental lapses instead of Collins. Jimmy Graham and Ray Hicks as usual played with a great deal of passion and intensity, but it wasn't enough.

Florida State wins despite Jason Rich fouling out. Where does this loss leave Miami? Probably still in the Tournament, but in a situation where if a few Cinderella teams win their league tournaments, Miami could be easily chopped. 8-8 in the ACC with an 4-5 record against the teams below them in the standings. That is simply not good enough. Miami's record against the better teams on its schedule is decent: 4-3 against the first division of the ACC; 4-1 against likely postseason bound non league opposition. That non-league schedule is what is saving Miami right now, thanks to the continued struggles against the likes of Florida State and Wake Forest. Miami also has dropped three one possession games on the road this year in league play to teams below us in the standings. This is simply unacceptable. We may make the tournament but until we learn to win those types of games we'll never be a title contender or even a consistent first division team in this league.

Florida State wins its fifth straight against probable NCAA team Miami and has won three of four against two time defending national champion Florida. Maybe Coach Hamilton deserves to keep his job after all. Miami will not either finish as the #5 or #6 seed in the ACC and will face NC State, Boston College or Virginia on Thursday. Miami had a chance to get a bye and blew it. Now we must sweat out the ACC Tourney and realize we aren't going to make a run at the league title so we need to just get a win the first day and then let whatever happens after that happen.

NOTES

• Miami has now lost six consecutive OT games, all six to ACC opponents.
• NC State has reached the finals twice in the ACC Tournament in the last Eleven years when they were the lowest seeded team in the field. Miami does not want to face them.
• Virginia is playing extremely well right now. If Virginia beats Maryland, Miami will be the 5 seed and face either BC or NC State. If Virginia loses, Maryland will be the 5 seed, Miami the 6 seed and Miami could face NC State, BC or Virginia. BC plays Georgia Tech right now on ABC.