The University of Miami Hurricanes won nine games last year in the Atlantic Coast Conference, 19 overall. Through six ACC games and 18 contests overall this season, the Canes have won all six of those ACC games and 15 overall to put them atop the ACC standings in front of preseason favorite North Carolina State and perennial powerhouses Duke and North Carolina.
Sure, everyone’s preseason pick to win the ACC was Miami, right? Not quite. Seemingly everyone’s pick was that the revitalized Wolfpack of N.C. State would take home the ACC crown come season’s end. However, the Hurricanes have come from the middle of nowhere in second-year coach Jim Larranaga’s tenure with the embattled program.
In 2011, Yahoo Sports reported the University of Miami football and men’s basketball programs had received impermissible benefits stemming from convicted Ponzi schemer and ex-Miami booster Nevin Shapiro. Shapiro spoiled recruits of the two programs with sex, money, jewelry and even an abortion on one occasion. Some of these came with coaches of the two program’s knowledge.
Former Hurricanes’ coach and Elon graduate Frank Haith bolted for Missouri when the allegations arose while football coach Randy Shannon was fired. The football team, however, was not performing as it had in years past, and it was time for a change.
Larranaga left George Mason University, a team he took on an improbable run to the Final Four in 2006, to take on the challenge that was revitalizing the Miami basketball program. In just his second season, he seems to have done just that.
The streak the Hurricanes are on doesn’t come as any kind of fluke either. Yes, I understand they lost to Florida Gulf Coast University in the second game of the season, and yes, they fell to Indiana State University in overtime, but on Jan. 23, the Hurricanes welcomed the Blue Devils to Coral Gables, Fl. They didn’t get the memo that Duke was the top-ranked team in the country though, beating them 90-63. Most recently, Miami all but destroyed in-state rival Florida State, 71-47.
This week marks one of the bigger weeks of the conference schedule. The ACC’s second place team North Carolina State (5-2 in the ACC) takes on a stingy University of Virginia team in Charlottesville, Va. tonight looking to gain ground on the Hurricanes before the two teams matchup in their lone battle of the season on Saturday, Feb. 2, in Raleigh. Miami takes on struggling Virginia Tech tomorrow, Jan. 30, in preparation for the showdown in Raleigh.
If both teams continue their runs (and there isn’t any reason to think both wont), Saturday’s lone matchup between the two teams becomes a “must-win” game for the Wolfpack. It also becomes a “must-win” for the Hurricanes though for the reason that if they stumble down the stretch, they’ll still have an edge on the Wolfpack with the season series win.
If you told me in October that Miami against N.C. State would be one of the premier matchups of the ACC season, I would have brushed it off. The first of two premier matchups was thought to come three weeks ago between the Wolfpack and Duke. Now, the ACC could get some answers as to who the real favorite is this week. But hey, it’s the ACC. Wake Forest beat N.C. State last Tuesday, and Miami crushed the nation’s top team in Duke. Anything can happen between now and the beginning of March.
Hey Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame….you ready to join the madness next season?