Season Preview

Jim Larranaga

8. Miami


2010-2011 record: 21-15 (6-10 ACC)


Games against NCAA Tournament teams: 9
Best non-conference game: 12/6 vs. Memphis






Projected Starting Five:


C - Kenny Kadji (Sophomore)
F - DeQuan Jones (Senior)
G - Garrius Adams (Junior)
G - Durand Scott (Junior)
G - Malcolm Grant (Senior)




Having gone to a lot of George Mason games over the years, I am very familiar with Jim Larranaga.  And I would have never predicted that his next coaching job would be at Miami, a school that hasn't exactly been a model for great behavior.  So it will be very interesting to see what kind of fit Larranaga is in this program.  Frank Haith started out as a very solid coach at Miami, but over the last few years his teams consistently underachieved.  So I think the fan base let out a sigh of relief when he decided to bolt for Missouri.


What Coach Larranaga inherits is a bit of a team in flux.  The pieces are there to be an NCAA Tournament caliber team.  He has two very solid guards in Durand Scott and Malcolm Grant, who were the two leading scorers last year.  Beyond that there are some question marks.  Reggie Johnson has a lot of potential, but he will be on the bench at the start of the season with an injury.  Julian Gamble is out for the season with an injury.  And DeQuan Jones is in the middle of a battle with an NCAA, who may rule him ineligible.  Take those guys away and there are a lot of questions in the frontcourt.  The good news is the Hurricanes picked up Kenny Kadji, a transfer from Florida who didn't play much for the Gators but could pick up the slack down low.


I give Miami credit - a lot of years they play a very soft early season schedule, but they have put together a challenging slate.  The Canes will play Memphis, Purdue, West Virginia and Ole Miss in the first month of the season.  Look for them to have more of a defensive identity than they did under Coach Haith.  A lot of times near the end of games Miami would go into streetball mode, trying to play one-on-one and throwing up wild shots.  Larranaga will bring more discipline.


This team was pretty close to being good last year.  They had a stretch of four straight ACC games that they lost by four points or less.  The only two conference games they lost by double digits were both to Duke.  I think it will take a little while for Larranaga to get acclimated to his new team, especially with the injuries.  So Miami will struggle more than the experts predict (ACC media picked them 5th).  But they have a good coach who should do good things in the long run.