Season Recap: Miami

2009-2010
Miami: 20-13 (4-12 ACC)

It was certainly an up and down year for the Miami Hurricanes. No one knew quite what to make of them early in the year. They came out looking very strong in the non-conference. The Canes started the season 15-1, with the only loss being a one point road defeat at BC. In that stretch, they managed wins against South Carolina and Minnesota. But from that point forward through the end of the regular season, they went 3-11. It started with blowout losses at Virginia Tech and UVA, and snowballed from there.

I knew Miami would be down after losing Jack McClinton. And I think one of the biggest factors in their disappointing season was the ineffectiveness of Dwayne Collins. He was primed to have a big year on the inside, but never really got it going, and ended up the season injured. The Canes were also very young and inexperienced, and I think that weighed on them as the losses piled up. Their performance on the road was certainly a factor. The Canes went 0-8 in conference on the road.

They did finish the season strong, though. Miami had a very good showing in the ACC Tournament as a 12 seed, beating Wake by 21 points and Virginia Tech by 5 before losing a close game to Duke.

Best Win: 83-62 over Wake Forest (3/11)

Miami came into this first round ACC Tournament game having lost 5 of 6. They were facing a team headed to the NCAA Tournament. But they didn't show any signs of intimidation, taking it to Wake from the opening tip. Miami held a pretty substantial lead at halftime and never looked back, sparking a nice ACC Tournament run.

Worst Loss: 79-75 to Boston College (1/19)

The Canes were coming off those two blowout losses to the Virginia schools, and were finally getting something going. They were up by 17 points at home in the second half, and somehow blew that lead to a not very good Boston College team. This had to be extremely demoralizing, and was a definite sign that this Miami team was not as good as its 15-1 start indicated.

Postseason Play:

As noted before, Miami had a nice run in the ACC Tournament. They played their best basketball of the year against three good teams, and certainly surprised a lot of people. The main theme of this year's ACC Tournament was parity, and Miami was the foremost example of the strength from top to bottom in the conference. The Canes must have been disappointed after posting a 20-13 record to not get any sort of invitation for a postseason tournament. I thought the NIT would have taken Miami.

What's Ahead:

The performance at the end of the year certainly leaves a lot of optimism in Coral Gables about next year. Miami definitely has talented players, but they were very young this past year. So it's not unreasonable to expect a fairly big improvement. They do lose some key players, including Collins, James Dews, Adrian Thomas and Cyrus McGowan. That represents the top two scorers from this year, as well as the number five scorer. But the rest of the team is freshmen and sophomores. I expect Durand Scott and Malcolm Grant to really have an impact next year. The question will be getting inside production. Miami needs guys like Reggie Johnson and Julian Gamble to step up and fill the void Collins is leaving. If they can, Miami has a chance to make it back to the NCAA Tournament.