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Sam with too many minutes. Today he was utterly abysmal and soft.

He played well for one stretch this season but now he’s nothing more than a liability.

Coach L being stubborn and doghousing Walker is costly
 
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Red Rifle said:
It's almost as if their two best players were out and they had to rely on two freshmen.
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Lmao at the **** excuses. I’m telling you it’s a recurring theme. I’m not here for excuses. There is absolutely no reason why out of a timeout Beverly takes 9 seconds to get across half to hand off to vasil for a 40 footer. I’m proud of these freshman stepping up. I’m not happy with the X’s and O’s Coaching of our staff regardless if we only have 7 players
 
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Allabouttheu95 said:
Lmao at the **** excuses. I’m telling you it’s a recurring theme. I’m not here for excuses. There is absolutely no reason why out of a timeout Beverly takes 9 seconds to get across half to hand off to vasil for a 40 footer. I’m proud of these freshman stepping up. I’m not happy with the X’s and O’s Coaching or our staff regardless if we only have 7 players
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There was no coaching before that play. That was awful.
 
Allabouttheu95 said:
Lmao at the **** excuses. I’m telling you it’s a recurring theme. I’m not here for excuses. There is absolutely no reason why out of a timeout Beverly takes 9 seconds to get across half to hand off to vasil for a 40 footer. I’m proud of these freshman stepping up. I’m not happy with the X’s and O’s Coaching or our staff regardless if we only have 7 players
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Outside of intentionally turning the ball over, I'm not sure how the design of that last possession could have possibly been worse.
 
Allabouttheu95 said:
Wardenburg went from lights out from deep his freshman year to a 15% shooter from deep in year 3. Thats a testament to strength and conditioning IMO

I have never witnessed a team so bad at finishing games. It’s a recurring theme under L: missed free throws, can’t get defensive boards, turnovers, and awful shot selection.

That sequence to finish the game: Beverly takes 9 seconds to get across half only to hand the ball off to vasil for a 40 footer. Just WOW

I believe vasil has regressed noticeably. Teams have figured him out no doubt. But his shooting has been horrendous, it’s carried over to the line in crunch time as well
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We are now 6-2 in single digit games. We were 6-9 last year, but 12-7 two years ago.

Struggling to finish games has not been a recurring theme under L. This is just what college basketball looks like late in a game.
 
ALLoverCANE said:
We are now 6-2 in single digit games. We were 6-9 last year, but 12-7 two years ago.

Struggling to finish games has not been a recurring theme under L. This is just what college basketball looks like late in a game.
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How many of those games were blown late leads
 
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Single digit wins are a bit misleading as a stat. We beat UCF by single digits, but were up 15 late. Hardly what one would call a great Coach L finish. Today's finish (and other critical plays and inbounds after timeouts that make one scratch their head) seem to be a bit off, to put it mildly.
 
casualcane said:
The 3 point miss by Sam (again)
DJ misses the front end of the 1 and 1
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Those were the key plays, IMO. We desperately needed to extend up to 3 or 4 point lead when things were going well. Sam didn't connect.

Then second game in a row DJ barely hits the rim on the front end of 1 and 1. At this point I trust Rodney more on a late free throw than DJ.

I have no idea why anyone is upset about the final possession. DJ launching from anywhere was absolute guarantee. Time remaining or distance of the shot doesn't factor in his thinking at all.

Defensive rebounding in the second half was so laughable we never should have been in the game against a competent ACC opponent.
 
It is hard to practice late game situations if you are not able to scrimmage in practice.
In order to scrimmage in practice, a coach must have 10 players.
Miami has 7 healthy players and 2 walk ons. I don't know if Brooks is practicing but if he is then that would be 10.
Barely ten but it is ten. Remember, Miami is down 5 players. 3 players are injured and 2 unused scholarships.
 
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Allabouttheu95 said:
How many of those games were blown late leads
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Idk - you tell me!...This is a pet peeve of mine: rather than do the research to make your point, you just asked me a rhetorical question. If you think blown late leads are over-represented in that rather large sample of games, show me. Don't just ask a question you don't know the answer to.

But off the top of my head...Clemson was a come back win, and Temple was back-and-forth, with both teams taking 4-8 point leads at various points in time. I would hardly categorize yesterday's game as a "blown lead", since our biggest lead was only a few points. So I count 2 games where we came back late (Clemson, Temple) and only one (FSU) where we blew a lead and lost. We've been just as likely to blow a lead as we are to come back from a deficit.

And looking back over the past 3 years, that seems to be the case overall, based on my memory of the games. I noticed a few losses where we had leads we couldn't hang on to (multiple times last year, vs. Duke the year before) and several others that we had to make plays late to win (vs. BC Lykes' freshmen year, Lonnie's big game vs. Lville).
 
jkdood said:
Single digit wins are a bit misleading as a stat. We beat UCF by single digits, but were up 15 late. Hardly what one would call a great Coach L finish. Today's finish (and other critical plays and inbounds after timeouts that make one scratch their head) seem to be a bit off, to put it mildly.
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Any individual single digit win can be misleading, but not when you look over the course of the season, and especially, over the course of multiple seasons.

Included in that larger samples of single digit wins/losses are games where Miami blew a lead, where Miami held a lead, where Miami made a come back, and where Miami failed to make a comeback. There are games that were tight for the majority of the game that became less tight by the end (like vs. UCF, where we trailed a few minutes into the 2nd half), and games that were blowouts the whole game that had us on the edge of our seats at the end (like vs. Illinois).

Single digit wins are therefore a good proxy for late game execution, even if they're not perfect. If you want to use the score at the 5 minute mark to define a close game, be my guest. I think that's probably a better metric. Go ahead and put in the time to pull those numbers if you'd like. But I doubt you want to do that, so single digit wins seems like the best option.

My overall point is that our late game execution has been consistent with our overall execution. Yes, we've had tons of blunders. We have tons of blunders at all points in all games. That's because we're not very good overall, not because we're any worse late in games. And if you watch other college basketball games (esp. those involving mediocre teams), that's just what late games look like. Winning a game in college basketball doesn't mean you execute well and make spectacular plays. It usually means you avoided disaster while the other team shot itself in the foot.

Of all of the things to complain about this program over the past few years, late game execution is low on the list.
 
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My observations from the game.

1. I think Rodney Miller saves himself by not playing defense so he can be effective on the offensive end since Miami only has 7 players. Just a theory with no actual proof. Losing weight was a major step for this season, the next major steps he needs to take are skill development along with strength and conditioning improvement.

2. Sam scores 5 points and grabs 5 rebounds with 2 assist in 34 minutes on the court. I don't need analytics to tell me he is playing too many minutes. I don't blame Sam but I am not sure why Coach L feels Sam gives the team the best chance to win. The sad part is Anthony Walker only plays 6 minutes and grabs 2 minutes as he missed his only shot attempt. I thought Anthony had "earned" more playing time with his performance against Virginia Tech. I guess Coach L sees things differently.

3. With the injuries to Lykes and McGusty, Wong and Beverly are getting some valuable experience that they would not have gotten if Lykes and McGusty are healthy. If Lykes and Beverly can continue to adjust to the speed of the game, make better decisons and gain about 15 lbs of muscle in the Summer then they will be big contributors to the team next season.

4. This will sound crazy but at least the team is starting to feed the ball into the post players. Wong made a three after getting the ball back from Rodney Miller, who was double teamed in the low post.

5. DJ is dribbling to create more shots for himself. That is a good sign even though he had a few turnovers trying to dribble through traffic.

6. Late games execution is improving although Miami did not get a win. My preference is that you drive to the basket for the two then foul your opponent instead of taking a 40 foot three point shot.

7. Growing pains are part of improvement. The biggest point is that everyone learn from the mistakes and get better. Everyone means coaches, players and fans.
 
IncaneInTheBrain said:
Outside of intentionally turning the ball over, I'm not sure how the design of that last possession could have possibly been worse.
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The play got blown up when Beverly took too long bringing the ball up. Vasil took a panic shot because he's more of a catch and shoot player and there wasn't enough time to pass it and get the ball back for a better shot. Clearly, the play was designed for Vasil and he wasn't going to give the ball up with only a few seconds left.
 
Number1CanesFan said:
The play got blown up when Beverly took too long bringing the ball up. Vasil took a panic shot because he's more of a catch and shoot player and there wasn't enough time to pass it and get the ball back for a better shot. Clearly, the play was designed for Vasil and he wasn't going to give the ball up with only a few seconds left.
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I agree with that point. There should have been more acceleration by Harlond to get the ball into the frontcourt. I am sure he will learn from that mistake. Also, with 1:14 on the clock and Miami down by 1, Harlond had the ball in his hand with about 7 seconds left on the shot clock. I would have preferred if he would have taken the ball to the basket instead of taking that deep 3. Miami was only down by 1 point but better spacing would have helped.

With 15.5 seconds left in the game and Miami down by 3 points, there should have been no rush to take the 3 point shot. A quick two is still very much an option. Pittsburgh was in the bonus and not the double bonus. That is where coaching and coaching philosophy comes into play.

At 6.7 seconds is when DJ got the ball and launched the 40 foot three point shot with two guys on him. The play was not executed but I feel it was unnecessary.
 
miami.rivals.com

CanesCounty - Larranaga on Monday: I don’t know when we’ll get Lykes, McGusty back

Chris Lykes and Kam McGusty remain out, and today Jim Larranaga updated the latest.
miami.rivals.com miami.rivals.com

I don't have access to the article but I am not surprised. Even if Lykes comes back, groin injuries take a whole off-season to properly heal so I don't think he will be that effective if he plays. To make things worse, Coach L would probably start him and play him 30 plus minutes so who would benefit if he returns. Kam is more likely to return but that probably means one of the freshman would come off the bench and have a reduced role and minutes. I don't think Coach L would make DJ come off the bench, even though he should consider it.
 
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