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.
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.
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.
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.
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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