Only one men’s program has made the NCAA Elite 8 each of the past two seasons – incredibly that program is Miami, who despite having some very solid teams through the years (including teams that won the Big East and the ACC) had never been past the Sweet 16 previously.

It’s no fluke either as both Miami teams of the last two seasons have been “loaded” so-to-speak and if anything unluckily lost a disproportionate number of close games.

I fell in love with college basketball as a student at the University of Florida in the mid 1990’s, but I have stayed a college basketball fan because of the ACC (I have stopped watching the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and College Football since college, and truthfully probably only watch soccer because I make a living in the sport – in other words ACC Basketball is the only sport I voluntarily watch).

What’s striking about Miami is the transition they made to the ACC in basketball, competing hard regularly, winning the conference multiple times and pushing for the title on a few other occasions. This is contrasted with the traditionally famous football program which I understand is a bit of a laughing stock in the ACC.

In fact, Miami’s decade-long “small ball” approach of spreading the floor and having guards drive to the basket has caught on throughout the country – Coach Jim Larranaga’s offensive principles are now en vogue everywhere, but the Hurricanes still are a step ahead of most in executing the system. It’s in Miami’s DNA while other programs are playing catch up to the Canes in playing this way.

Miami has made four of the last ten Sweet 16’s (Florida State has made three others meaning an ACC school from Florida has finished in the top 16 in the country, seven of the last ten seasons which were completed…can football claim that?) and are most certainly as top national program. But this season presents some challenges, which we will get into.

• Last season: 29-8 (15-5 in the ACC)
• Postseason: Lost in National Semifinal to Connecticut
• Last ten full seasons postseason appearances: 6 NCAA, 1 NIT
• Miami has made 4 Sweet 16’s since 2013
• Last NCAA miss: 2021
• Last league title 2023 (regular season) 2013 (ACC tournament)
• Coach: Jim Larranaga (255-149 in 12 years at Miami, 725-483 overall in 39 years)

The Team

Miami has to replace two huge holes this season. Isiah Wong who won ACC Player of the Year and Jordan Miller who in my opinion should have won ACC Player of the Year both left for the NBA.

Replacing Wong will be a difficult task but Miami still has a very strong back-court and Wooga Poplar could make the jump to all-ACC level this season. In the case of Miller, a ready-made replacement has arrived in the form of last year’s leading scorer for Florida State, Matthew Cleveland. Yes the same Matthew Cleveland that made an epic game winning shot for Florida State in Coral Gables last year and then trolled the crowd with an upside down “U.” This transfer may seem odd, but despite Florida State beating Miami three times in the last two seasons (all by one point, incidentally) there is no question Cleveland is moving from a struggling program somewhere toward the bottom of the ACC to one of the best teams in the nation currently.

Additionally, Miami had two key reserves transfer – Anthony Walker to Indiana and Harlond Beverly to Wichita State. Both were highly-recruited players who had been starters early in their Miami careers but found themselves in a numbers crunch as the squad improved.

Miami’s returning back-court duo outside Poplar, are Nijel Pack and Bensley Joseph. Pack is an erratic ball handler but a deadly shooter, whereas Joseph is steady ball handler, a great perimeter defender whose offensive game needs improvement.

Poplar, in my mind could be one of the best players in the ACC this year, not only because he’s an explosive scoring guard but also because he’s an unusually good rebounder in critical moments of big games on both ends of the floor for someone his size.

The front-court contains several question marks beyond Cleveland and Center Norchad Omier who is among the top five big men in the college game. It’s difficult to put into context how good Omier is, but I’ll just say he reminds me of the great Udonis Haslem at the University of Florida back in my days of college – in fact I think at this stage of his development he might be better! One key for Miami is keeping Omier out of foul trouble. Of Miami’s five ACC loses last season, three came when Omier had foul trouble (in the other two loses either Wong or Pack were injured).

Basically, if he stays on the floor, the Hurricanes win. Knowing this, in the Elite Eight matchup with Texas, Coach Larranaga took no chances, sat Omier for large portions of the game to keep him out of foul difficulty and allowed his big man to make the difference down the stretch in a come-from-behind win.

On the Canes bench, Canadian Freshman big man Michael Nwoko has tremendous potential and along with AJ Casey who needs to make a big jump this season, they will spell Omier when he needs a rest or gets into foul trouble.

The starters will be good enough but depth is a major question mark. Miami is going to need one of the following three players, Christian Watson, Paul Djobert or Kyshawn George to step up and provide critical minutes.

The Season Ahead

The ACC is a minefield as always, but Miami tends to play well against both North Carolina and Duke. In fact, last season’s impressive win in Chapel Hill was the game that turned my head in terms of thinking Miami might be a national title contender. The Hurricanes have loaded up the non-conference slate, facing Georgia and Colorado in neutral site games, going to Lexington to face Kentucky (talk about a big-time November matchup!) and playing the annual trap game with UCF the first weekend of the season.

Prediction

Miami won the ACC Regular Season title last season but if anything were an unlucky team due to foul troubles and untimely injuries impacting multiple close games they lost. But in the NCAA’s everyone was healthy and the Canes were within touching distance of the national title – in fact they were arguably the best team outside maybe UConn, in the tournament until they lost to the Huskies in the national semifinal. This season the team won’t be as good and is lacking overall depth. However, the starting five is still among the top 10 in the country. Due to the lack of depth the Hurricanes probably don’t make another Final Four run. Stil they will be in the NCAA tournament and near the top of the ACC, still, however.