It's about that time again. Since Coach L arrived at the University of Miami in April of 2011, excitement and optimism has been on full tilt. From courting arguably the best Canes basketball team of all time led by Shane Larkin, to earning numerous wins over Duke and UNC, all the way to making a big game in Miami for the college squad a hot ticket seeing the likes of Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, and Rick Ross just to name a few, Coach L has shown us what it is truly like to be able to trust and believe in a good coach by fielding results. Here is a little somethin on Coach for those of you that live under a rock...
------As of February 2011, Larrañaga's 271 career wins at Mason makes him the winningest coach in the history of both the school and the CAA. He has won CAA Coach of the Year twice, in 1999 and in 2011. The latter award came after the Patriots reeled off a school-record 15 straight wins to finish the regular season, remaining undefeated at the Patriot Center, setting a school record for regular-season wins (25), and securing the No. 1 seed heading into the CAA tournament.------
------In his second season, Larrañaga led the Hurricanes to their most wins since the revival of the basketball program in 1985, and the most since the Rick Barry era. They won the ACC regular-season title (the first time in 11 years, and only the fourth time in 32 years, that a team from North Carolina had not won at least a share of the title). The highlight of the season was an unprecedented 90-63 rout of #1 ranked Duke. That win was Miami's first-ever defeat of a top-ranked team, and the largest margin of defeat for a #1 team ever.-----
-----On March 17, 2013, Larrañaga coached the Hurricanes to the ACC tournament title—the first tournament title in the program's history — with an 87-77 win over North Carolina. On April 4, 2013, Larrañaga was voted the Associated Press' college basketball coach of the year.[7] In the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament, they lost to Marquette. He claimed Hurricanes had not enough energy to win the game because of Reggie Johnson's injury and Shane Larkin's sickness.-----
Last year, The Hurricanes finished the season 25-13 (10-8) to finish in sixth place. They advanced to the second round of the ACC Tournament where they lost to NC State. Snubbed from the NCAA Tournament, The Canes lost in overtime in the NIT tournament final.
The previously mentioned teams were completely different from what we are going to see this year. I expect a very smart and well coached basketball team that doesn't make too many mistakes while still maintaining a high flying and 3 point shooting offense. Guess now would be a good time to take a look at the roster.
0 - Ja'Quan Newton - So - Guard
1 - Rashad Muhammad - Jr - Guard
3 - Anthony Lawrence Jr - Fr - Forward
5 - Davon Reed - Jr - Guard
10 - Sheldon McClellan - RsSr - Guard
12 - James Palmer - So - Guard
13 - Angel Rodriguez - RsSr - Guard
15 - Ebuku Izundu - Fr - Center
20 - Mike Robinson - Fr - Guard
21 - Kamari Murphy - RsJr - Forward
23 - Tonye Jekiri - Sr - Center
33 - Ivan Cruz Uceda - Sr - Forward
35 - Chris Stowell - So - Forward
Good mix of upper and under classmen, with plenty of senior leadership. Newton showed a ton of promise at point guard last year so I look for him to be heavily involved at point guard with Angel Rodriguez.
Sheldon McClellan is all set to have a monster year, and if he improved the outside game at all over the offseason, look out for him to be one of the more talked about players in the ACC.
Tonye Jekiri will be a monster underneath and his offense has improved each year he has been on the floor.
Notable Games:
Tues, Dec 8 - Coral Gables - Florida comes to town. The BUC will be sold out.
Tues, Jan 12 - @ #6 UVA ... We are 1-4 vs UVA in our last 5 meetings.
Wed, Feb 3 - Coral Gables - Notre Dame
Sat, Feb 20 - @ UNC on CBS
This is a team with a final 4 ceiling. This is also a team that can be snubbed early in the tournament. Bottom line? Tournament team all day long. Lets pack the BUC this season and let Coach L guide us to yet another dream season.
The first game is tomorrow, Fri. November 13 vs. UT-Rio Grande Valley with a 700 ET start time. This game can be seen on ESPN3.
"We'll talk about it at 10:30"
