ACC Preview #8 - Miami
Can the ‘Canes bounce back from a disappointing season?
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When Jim Larrañaga came to Miami in 2011, we wondered, at 60, if he was too old.
Nope: now 74, the man has displayed a ton of energy and not only that, he has transitioned to the NIL/portal era pretty well. He has also made Miami a very dangerous ACC team - although not last year so much.
The Hurricanes finished last season at 15-17 including a 10-game losing skein to close out the season. That team had some talent too but also some injuries throughout the season. Still, a 10-game losing streak is hard to accept.
And to make matters worse, Miami lost several key players to the portal. Norchad Omier, who was terrific as an undersized post player, will be at Baylor (along with Jeremy Roach). Wooga Poplar went back home to Villanova. Bentley Joseph is at Providence. AJ Casey is off to St. Louis, where he’ll team up with his old high school pal Robbie Avila. Christian Watson is at Southern Miss. Michael Nwoko is off to Mississipi State. Michael Nook and Jakai Robinson are gone too, to parts unknown, and Kyshawn George was taken by the Washington Wizards with the 24th pick of the 2024 NBA Draft.
Omier, Poplar, Joseph and George might all have started. That’s a lot to replace. Can Larrañaga do it?
It won’t be easy...but Miami might be okay.
Only three players return: 5-11 Nigel Pack, a senior, Matthew Cleveland, a 6-7 senior, and Paul Djobet, a 6-7 sophomore by way of France.
It’s nice having two solid senior guards back and presumably both healthy. Pack is a scorer who could go off at any time, while Cleveland is a more versatile player. He can score, rebound, pass and defend.
As for Djobet, he is unproven, but he is fairly athletic and he has a 7-0 wingspan. He got in the rotation last year and has a chance to stake a claim to a bigger role this time around.
The post should be in good hands with transfer Lynn Kidd, who is, we think, the first player to ever play for three ACC schools (he started at Clemson before transferring to Virginia Tech).
Brandon Johnson, a 6-8 grad student, transfers in from ECU. The Raleigh native put up 14.8 points and 6.6 rebounds last season. He probably won't do that at Miami, but he can help.
Kiree Huie, a 6-9 senior from Idaho State, should shore up the interior defense.
Yussif Basa-Ama is a 6-8 grad student from Yale where he didn't play much. He won't play much for Miami, but he gets a last year of college basketball, some NIL money, time at the beach and a leg up on his graduate school career. As Mark Cuban once said about former NC State guard Adam Harrington, somebody has to get the doughnuts. It’s not a bad way to finish your college basketball career.
AJ Staton-McCray, a 6-5 junior, transfers in from Samford, and that name may ring a bell: remember the controversy from Kansas’s near-loss to Samford in the tournament? A blocked shot that was ruled a foul?
He’s that guy. And yeah, he got screwed. So did Samford. He’s an excellent defender, as we saw in March, and he’ll definitely help.
Jalen Blackmon, a 6-3 transfer from Stetson, knows how to find the basket. He averaged 21.3 ppg and racked up 43 points in the ASUN championship victory over Austin Peay. So he should find minutes too.
Larrañaga brings in an excellent freshman class as well, starting with 5-star Jalil Bethea. The 6-4 native of Philly has a bright future. He’s a three-level scorer who can also hit his free throws and he's pretty athletic. We’ll have to see about his defense, but he’s going to be good.
Isaiah Johnson-Arigu is a 6-7 Minnesotan who is used to winning: he’s a three-time state champ. He’s versatile and the three point shooting on this team should open up lanes for him. He can also defend multiple positions.
Austin Swartz, a 6-4 native of Concord, is also a gifted scorer. He’s been compared to former ‘Cane Isaiah Wong. Like Bethea, he can score from pretty much anywhere. His high school coach also says he’s a terrific passer.
Finally, there’s Divine Ugochukwu, a 6-3 combo guard from Sugar Land, Texas and yes, he’s a pretty sweet guard. He can play both spots and like Johnson-Arigu, he comes from a winning team: Clements finished last season 32-1 with the only loss coming in the state championship game.
So putting it all together, Miami now has a very solid center, some pretty athletic forwards and a bunch of guards.
You can probably pencil in Kidd, Pack and Cleveland. After that?
Since it’s Larrañaga, he’s going to go guard heavy - and he kind of has to.
Let’s look at those guards again. The numbers are just to illustrate the depth:
- Nijel Pack
- Matthew Cleveland
- AJ Staton-McCray
- Jalen Blackmon
- Jalil Bethea
- Austin Swartz
- Divine Ugochukwu
You’d have to think he’s thinking three guard offense, at least, with Cleveland the bigger guard and Pack and whoever emerges from the scrum. It’s weird to think that a 5-star like Bethea has no certainty he’ll start, but he doesn’t.
On the other hand, there are two factors to keep in mind from Larrañaga’s point of view: first, he’s got plenty of players to in case he has to deal with injuries. And second, in the NIL/portal era, if players are essentially free agents, the old deal is over. As Jay Bilas likes to point out, players have been denied freedom of movement.
Not anymore.
The price for that though is that coaches don’t have to be as loyal to their recruits as they used to be and in fact, most cannot be. You can’t really look several years down the road. You can only look at the year in front of you and get what talent you scrape together to keep your job.
At least four of those guards will be out of eligibility next season and Bethea might hit the draft. Transfers?
Who knows.
It’s a brutal calculus but some guys will play and some won’t - and they’re all fairly talented. But the glut won’t last for long.
What’s more interesting is who will emerge from the forwards.
Djobet has experience, Johnson has more bulk, while Johnson-Arigu probably has the most long-range potential.
The best solution for Larrañaga may be to just crank the pace up and move players in and out relentessly, similar to what fellow septuagenarian Leonard Hamilton likes to do. He’s always been a guard-oriented coach and he’s blessed with a ton of perimeter talent. Watching him solve that puzzle is going to be one of the more interesting things in the ACC this season.