Miami (15-17, 6-14 ACC)
Last season couldn’t have ended quickly enough for Miami. The Hurricanes — who were coming off a Final Four trip in 2023 — started 11-2 and were ranked as high as No. 8 in the AP Top 25 early last season.
Then came a thud. The Hurricanes lost 15 of their final 19 games to end the season, going 0-10 to close that miserable stretch.
The roster, as happens now in college basketball, has been totally overhauled. Nijel Pack, Matthew Cleveland and Paul Djobet are the only returning players, though Pack — a serious 3-point threat — and the versatile Cleveland played big roles last season.
Players to watch
Nijel Pack (graduate student, SG, 6-0, 13.3 ppg). Pack has thought about going to the NBA in each of the last two years, and certainly has a skill that will make teams at that level take notice: the ability to shoot from deep. When he’s healthy, he can be lethal.
Matthew Cleveland (senior, F, 6-7, 13.7 ppg). He’s a jack-of-all-trades guy for the Hurricanes who can shoot, pass and defend, plus has the versality to play a number of positions in a number of ways.
Lynn Kidd (graduate student, C, 6-10, 13.2 ppg at Virginia Tech). Kidd’s tour of the ACC continues — he started college at Clemson, then went to Virginia Tech, had a breakout year last season in Year 4 of college and now looks to finish this chapter at Miami.
Departures and arrivals
Kidd is the big get; Hurricanes fans might remember him going 8 for 8 against Miami last year at the start of the season-ending freefall. Fellow transfer Jalen Blackmon is a guard from Stetson with more than 1,000 points in his college career, and guard Jalil Bethea was a five-star recruit and a big part of one of the nation’s top recruiting classes.
Top games
Miami opens at home Nov. 4 against Fairleigh Dickinson, gets a big test on Dec. 3 against John Calipari and Arkansas in the SEC-ACC Challenge and plays Tennessee in New York a week after that. Miami faces Duke twice and goes to North Carolina in league play plus has a West Coast trip at new ACC rivals Stanford and California in January.
Facts and figures
Coach Jim Larrañaga is 10 wins shy of 750 for his career. … The telltale sign about what was different from the Final Four team and last year’s team? The Final Four team went 9-6 against NCAA Tournament teams; last year’s team went 1-8. … Expect this team to try to get to the line more. Miami was tied for 324th nationally in free throws made and 342nd in free throws attempted last season.
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