Miami no longer being overlooked
The Hurricanes made the NCAA Tournament last year in a big surprise and are now picked to finish fourth in the league.
Posted — UpdatedMiami was picked to finish at the bottom of the ACC last season and made the NCAA Tournament. Only Arizona State among teams from major conferences had a bigger turnaround than the Hurricanes, who went from 12 victories to 23.
Miami is no longer being overlooked, being picked fourth in the AC this season. But the team isn’t taking anything for granted.
“We have to keep that chip on our shoulder and play like we did last year,” senior guard Lance Hurdle said.
“We’re still hungry,” added leading scorer Jack McClinton. “We don’t want to just make the NCAA Tournament, we want to win some more games.”
Four starters, plus the top reserve, return and Miami adds a highly touted freshman in DeJuan Jones, a 6-foot-6 forward from Wheeler High School outside Atlanta.
The Hurricanes won their first 12 games last year to quickly establish their turnaround and beat St. Mary’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before losing by just three points to Texas.
Although Miami remains undersized, the Hurricanes have a budding star in McClinton, who averaged 17.7 points as a junior, and a hard-working supporting cast.
“We got a taste of success last year, but that just wet our appetites,” said coach Frank Haith, who received a five-year contract extension.
On going into the season nationally ranked: “It’s good for recruiting, but that’s all. You can’t get complacent.”
On the ACC: “No league is more experienced or more talented. Everyone talks about North Carolina being loaded, but the ACC as a whole has 72 percent of the players back. We had a lot of good young teams last season. Now we have a lot of good experienced teams.”
On freshman DeJuan Jones: “He’s the best player we’ve signed since I’ve been at Miami. He’s definitely as good as advertised. He’s going to have an impact on our team.”
On moving back the 3-point line after he hit 42.7 percent of his shots last season: “I don’t think it will make much difference. I can shoot from a lot farther out than that.”
On his free-throw success: “That line didn’t move. They’ve free, so you have to take advantage of your foul shots.”
On expectations for this season: “People know about Miami now. But we still aren’t where we want to be. We can get better.”
On McClinton’s shooting ability: “Get him the ball and he doesn’t normally miss. If he does, he usually gets foul and makes them pay anyway.”
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